Death Trance Review

How on earth did it take so long? The release of Versus six years ago made an instant cult star of Tak Sakaguchi and left fans clamoring for more from the charismatic anti-hero but more has been slow in coming. Despite a string of supporting roles and behind the scenes jobs with Versus director Ryuhei Kitamura in the intervening years Sakaguchi has appeared in only one lead role since - Battlefield Baseball, from Versus producer Yudai Yamaguchi - a situation that has finally changed with the wildly anachronistic fight film Death Trance.

Sakaguchi plays a nameless man, a wandering fighter, who assaults an ancient monastery to steal the legendary coffin that lays within. According to legend if you can open this coffin in the far away forbidden forest it will grant your deepest wishes. The legend, however, is incorrect. The coffin contains a banished goddess, a goddess of destruction and the opening of the coffin can lead only to the destruction of the world and it is up to the only surviving monk - a young, untrained acolyte - to stop the coffin from being opened with only a mystical sword that he is unable to use for assistance.