Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering a Japanese fantasy film from 2005. That movie is "Death Trance".
Now, for those of you who have never heard of this movie, "Death Trance" was made by a film studio known as Fever Productions. And I've mentioned them before a couple of times early on in this series. On the off chance that you're new to this series, and you're hearing about them for the first time from me, I'm gonna give you a brief synopsis of the films that I've seen that they have made. Essentially, they are known for making a lot of over the top style films that usually results in bloodbaths. I'm talking about films such as "Tokyo Gore Police", "The Machine Girl", and "Robogeisha", just to name the only movies that I've seen from this studio. And minus "Robogeisha", I've really enjoyed most of their films. Mainly because, they don't take themselves too seriously. OK sure, there's tons of blood in them, but they usually play themselves up for laughs, and I'm the kind of person who enjoys this sort of nasty shit.
With that being said, tonight's movie looks like it's taking a completely different approach. Because while the other 3 movies I've just mentioned take place in some sort of Japanese setting, this movie looks like it's setting itself up as a fantasy film. And the plot, from what little I've read on the back of the DVD case, involves some guy taking a coffin from some temple. And apparently, this coffin has some sort of mysterious power. So much so that this guy has to fight off the people that are after him, before they can get this coffin for themselves and get whatever mysterious power that's inside. I don't know anything else beyond that, but I will say that it does sound kinda interesting. And I'm curious to see if this movie's gonna pull off something good here with it's premise.
Honestly, I'm hoping for the best out of this thing. However, as I've just mentioned earlier, I wasn't a huge fan of "Robogeisha". So this movie could easily dive into the mediocre quality that movie had. But, like I said, I'm hoping for this movie to be really good. And the only way I'm gonna find out if this thing is any good at all, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Death Trance".
11 minutes later
So this guy just asked, what I'm going to assume is suppose to be our main character, for the coffin. Moments later, he's now ordering his rogues to kill him. What sense is this guy making? If he's not dragging the coffin around, then he obviously doesn't have it. Oh, and now this guy just shows up and is kicking a bunch of ass. My point being, why even bother trying to kill our main character? Because if he somehow does kill our main character, then he's never going to find the coffin that they're after. Kinda shows you this idiot's logic, you know?
2 minutes later
O...K. I wasn't expecting this guy to build a fucking rocket launcher out of the necessary equipment from these, now, dead rogues. Not only that, but apparently, it's also an auto-targeting rocket launcher. That was sorta cool. Kinda unnecessary, but, at least, it gets the job done.
5 minutes later
Are those tonfa guns?! Holy shit, they are! That is one of the coolest fucking things I've ever seen. Now I'm kinda curious as to how they work though. Do you just, like, spin them around and shoot at them with a button as you hold onto them? I'm really curious now. And the more I think about it, I'm kinda wanting a pair of those myself. That would just be awesome to fucking have.
14 minutes later
You know, guys, I've found a problem with this movie. It keeps cutting back and forth between scenes with our 4 main characters, and I can't find a reason to care about any of them because this movie's not giving them the time to develop their characters. We're already in another fight scene, and as interesting as this is, I just don't really care about it. I'm kinda hoping that this movie will give me a reason to care about them soon. Otherwise, I'm probably in for another hour of boredom.
16 minutes later
The fuck am I looking at here...?! So...I guess these are suppose to be really ugly-looking stop motion dolls. I don't know what purpose this is suppose to serve, but it's really doing nothing right now. Oh...so I guess he was just either dreaming or hallucinating. Either way, that scene served no purpose at all.
18 minutes later
Guys, I have completely given up on this movie actually giving us a story that is halfway interesting. I have given up on this movie actually giving us characters that are worth caring about. I don't even care that there's a sword gun being used right now. Because this movie is fucking boring as shit, that I have just lost the will to care about anything about what's been going on in this movie. Do you know what I want right now? I want the names of these fucking characters. Can I at least get ONE character that's worth name dropping? Am I going to get at least that by the time this movie's over?! I'm hoping so.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "Death Trance"...that ending made no god damn sense. Let me just shut this garbage off...oh my god. I haven't been this disappointed in a movie in a long time. But this movie found a way to be incredibly disappointing. And it's rather depressing when you think about it. Especially considering that this was made by Fever Productions. And somehow, this ended up being worse than "Robogeisha". I didn't even think that was possible, but this movie found a way to suck hard.
Anyway, let's just get into the writing. So earlier, I asked if this movie was actually going to give me any names for our characters. Did I end up getting any names? No. But what's funny about this is that on the back of the DVD case for this movie, they advertise one character's name. That name is Grave. And it says that he's the one who steals the coffin at the beginning of the movie. But you wouldn't know that it was his name, unless you read the back of the DVD case. Because throughout this entire movie, he NEVER gets called by that name. Instead, he gets referred to as "The Coffin Man". Which sounds incredibly stupid. So not only he does never get called Grave in this movie, NOBODY in this movie actually gets name dropped at anytime. You're just suppose to roll with our nameless characters as they try to find "The Coffin Man" and kill him before he opens the coffin. But I refuse to accept that, because you need characters with some kind of established names. And I may as well just say this before I go any further on it. This movie is, pretty much, a 100% plotless action movie. And you guys know my stance on those movies. I don't care about them. I care a little more about substance in my action movies. Now, I am not saying that you need to give mountains of depth for these characters. But, at the very least, give me one good fucking reason why I should care about these nameless characters. Better yet, give me names. And "The Coffin Man" does not count, because that's more of a nickname than anything else. And it's not even a good one at that. Shit, guys, even other plotless action movies at least can name their fucking characters. And as much hate as I gave "Assault Girls" for it's plotless writing and shallow as shit characters, at least there they were able to name their fucking characters. So I don't know what this movie's excuse was, but it failed to do even the basic shit that most movies would be able to do. Which was to name any of their fucking characters. Actually, I can't even classify them as characters, because nobody has a reason for being here! The only semblance of reason that the movie tries to give us is that they want the coffin for themselves, so that once it's opened, it can grant them any wish that they so desire. A little bit of a spoiler on that, that's not what this coffin is for. If you seriously have to know, you can watch this stupid thing for yourself. I don't know why you would want to, but there might be those who will still want to go and check it out, so you can knock yourself out if you're dumb enough to watch this thing.
As for the story itself, well, as I just stated, there is no story here whatsoever. The basic outline for this plot is that there's a coffin that holds some kind of ultimate power. And Grave-oh my bad, "The Coffin Man" takes the coffin for himself and has to fight off the people that are after him. And if I actually gave half a rats ass about The Coffin Man or any of our main characters, I would. But the movie didn't want to do that, because nobody has any real depth or personality to them. I can pick off some character traits such as The Coffin Man's stomach growls quite a bit in this movie, because he's hungry while dragging the coffin with him. Speaking of which, there's this little girl that always has to follow where this coffin goes. There's actually kind of a reason for that, but it's still rather half-assed. Now since this movie couldn't be asked to give out names for these characters, I had to look them up myself. One of them goes by the name of Ryuen. He's the one who first discovers that the coffin is stolen and that he's tasked to go get it back. The other character that joins him goes by the name of Sid. Sid, much like every other character in this film, has no personality or depth to him. The movie tries to dump us with sympathy as he dies. And the reason why is because he wishes for his dead daughter to be brought back to life, should Ryuen get to the coffin first. Which...apparently, is a fucking thing, because there was no hint before his death that we knew anything about him or his dead daughter. It's just dumped on here at the very last moment as he dies. And then there's our only female swordsman, who, big spoiler, is after the coffin to destroy it before it's power can be unleashed. I think she goes by the name of Yuri, but again, this movie couldn't be asked to name any of it's characters. Not only do we have characters with no personality or depth to them, we also have a ton of padding in this movie. For, like, the first half of the movie. It keeps cutting back and forth between Ryuen and Sid as they have mostly pointless dialogue between their interactions, and then Grave and the little girl, along with the coffin that Grave drags around. And like I mentioned earlier, Grave (and no, I'm not calling him The Coffin Man anymore) mostly has a hungry stomach. These scenes, as the movie was switching back and forth between them, lasts about 2 to 3 minutes tops. Even less than that, sometimes, because the movie refuses to try and develop our characters. And I know I'm probably beating this same horse again and again. But, guys, interesting characters can either make or break your movie. Again, they don't necessarily need a ton of character depth, especially for an action movie, but you NEED a reason to care about them. And if you can't do that, then your movie is set up for failure. And this movie, unfortunately, drops the ball on that, and it drops it hard.
Now, I may have a theory as to why this movie's writing is so lackluster, especially for our nameless characters. You see, I watched the English dub, and I don't know how much they changed this movie's writing when dubbing it for Western audiences. I don't know if the original Japanese version had names for these characters, or if they really didn't name them at all for whatever retarded reasoning. So, as much I would like to dump this movie's writing even further, I can't. Because I don't know how the original Japanese version was written. So I can't really comment so much on this movie's writing without sounding like a broken record. What I can talk about, however, is the acting for this English dub. And...the acting for this dub is really not that good. Just about everybody here phones it in, and didn't even try to make their characters sound believable. Which makes sense, because everybody's character was just so bland and lifeless. There was one voice actor I recognized by his voice alone, which would be Johnny Yong Bosch, who voiced Ryuen for this movie. Normally, guys, Bosch is one of those voice actors who usually gives it his all for whatever character he's playing. Granted, his voice doesn't really have much of a vocal range, but I know the guy can act. Hell, I remember him playing as the character of Adam from season 2 of "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" and beyond. So, whenever he's tasked to act, be it for almost anything live-action or anime, he's usually really good. But when I hear him give this kind of performance in this movie, it just doesn't fucking work. I can tell by his voice that he was desperately trying to make his dialogue work for his lifeless character, but there's nothing for him to work with here. So, he ends up phoning it in, and that goes for every other voice actor. They all phoned in a bullshit showing just for a fucking paycheck, and that was it. There was nothing more that they could do, which again, is attributed to this god awful writing for this dub. So, this dub is shit. And that's really all I can say about this dub.
So, let's talk about the fight choreography. And this is one thing I will definitely give this movie. The fight choreography in this thing is pretty fun to watch. And if anything else, this might be a different reason for you to go and watch this movie. Because most of the fight scenes are really good, save for the final fight which has a bit of shoddy editing. But that's just a minor thing, really. What I really liked about the fight scenes in this movie is the weapons they introduce. And my mind is instantly going back to the tonfa guns I mentioned earlier. I'm gonna tell you, guys, the idea of tonfa guns sounds fucking cheesy, yet hilariously awesome at the same time. And this movie delivered on that. I could also mention the sword gun I briefly mentioned earlier, but by that time, I was so bored by the movie that I just stopped caring about it entirely. Plus also, and this just might be me, but I've seen the concept of sword guns before, and it's not as interesting as tonfa guns. But again, that's just me commenting about trivial bullshit. So overall, I can say that the fight choreography is what definitely saves this movie a bit.
Special effects are kind of a mixed bag. I still remember those ugly-looking dolls from earlier on that served no purpose in this movie, and they, at least, were animated decently. There is also some CG blood during the final fight, and most of that looked rather shitty. Practical blood, what little there is, is actually pretty good. In fact, this might be one of the least bloodiest movies I've seen from Fever Productions, because I mentioned earlier that the movies that I've seen them put out usually involves a shit ton of blood. Here though, it's not as excessive. Which is perfectly find by me, because it wasn't trying to be a splatter movie, unlike the ones I mentioned earlier. Costuming here is also decent, as is makeup effects. So, special effects, overall, are kind of a mixed bag for me.
Camerawork here is fine, save for a bit of shoddy editing during the final fight of the movie. It's not so bad, but it's definitely noticeable. Lighting here is OK. Sound-mix is mixed perfectly. The soundtrack and the score are nothing memorable. There is a lot of Japanese rock music in this movie, and, while it's not something that I was expecting for this kind of movie, I can at least say that it's not terrible. So, it is something that you're either going to get use to really quickly, or find it to be complete shit. For me, personally, it's fine. It's just there, really, So I was able to get use to it.
Overall, guys, when all is said and done, can I recommend "Death Trance"? No. The only way I could recommend this thing is if you are fan of plotless action movies. And if that is your thing, then you are going to absolutely adore this movie. However, if you're someone who wants a little more substance and plot in your action movies. Then you are not going to want to watch this. The writing is absolutely terrible. At least, it's terrible by the standards of this English dub. If you seriously have to watch this thing, watch it with the original Japanese version. Again, I don't know how much this English dub changed it's original story, but at the very least, it had to have their characters named in that version. And if that is the case, then this English dub borders on being unwatchable. So yeah, again, if you want to watch this movie, watch the Japanese version. Otherwise, avoid this movie. This movie is a massive disappointment. And again, it's so bad that it's actually worse than "Robogeisha". Which is really saying something, because "Robogeisha" was complete shit. But at least it had character names and a story that could've been good, if it stuck to one genre. This thing, however, has no plot. And it certainly doesn't have characters to back it up. And I've had this movie for about a year and half sitting on my DVD shelf, but I never got around to watching it because it was mostly due to laziness. And when I started doing this series, I was finally able to put this thing on the schedule. And well...it probably wasn't worth the long wait, because the movie was just terribly boring, and thank god I don't have to watch it ever again. And now...I think I'm gonna go watch something better. Um...well, seeing as how I briefly mentioned Power Rangers earlier, I do have the entire season of "Power Rangers: Time Force" on DVD that I still have yet to watch. I'm gonna go marathon a few episodes of that, just so I can get the memory of this movie out of my mind.
Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all in the near future. Peace.
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