From the producers of Death Note, one of my fave Japanese movies in some time comes the title Gantz, an odd tale about death and those whole deal it out. Gantz is an enigma, not the movie but the black sphere that pulls people from near death experiences and kits them out to kill on its behalf. 

I must admit that in the first twenty or so minutes of this title I was ready to consign it to hell on this review and if I had just lost interest and started typing it would have received a five or six out of ten based on that viewing. Having said that, Gantz pulls you in despite the hokey first encounter fight scenes that nearly lost me. 

Set up like a bizarre video game, Gantz sends its “contestants” into a real world arena, equipped with super suits and hi tech weaponry to fight and kill aliens that it displays to the people that it captures. They then have to get the job done within a specific timeframe and get points for doing so. Once you get 100 points, you can be free, or revive someone who has been killed in the game. Between rounds you are returned to your normal life, albeit equipped with the suits from the game. 

It’s hard to fully explain the complexities of Gantz without spilling all the major plot points, and as the reviewer I actually have concerns about how well I am communicating this to you, something of a first for me. A lot of the content of the movie doesn’t make a great deal of sense by simply alluding to it here, seeing is believing as they say in the classics. Gantz needs to be viewed to be understood, however I can sum it up I guess the most thoroughly in this nutshell: 

“Gantz is a mysterious black sphere that grabs people from death or near death experiences and makes them hunt and kill aliens. Just like a video game, contestants are given points for a kill. 100 points lets you leave the game or send someone else back to life. You can die forever playing. This is the story of some people Gantz took.” 

Whilst on blu-ray, the quality of the title does have a fair bit of grain, not that it took anything away from the movie. Effects are pretty basic in my opinion, however suit the narrative and are not too hokey to take away from the story. Audio is well presented and language options are Japanese with English subtitles. Gantz has a unique subtitle structure that I was pleased to see carried over into English that really showed the alien nature of the sphere. 

There are a number of special features on this disc:

Making of Gantz

Interview

Trailers

TV Spots 

Gantz starts slowly and builds up mystery and momentum. Not for the squeamish, there is a lot of extremely fake blood and violence thrown around from the very beginning of the title and this does not ease up for the duration of the film. I enjoyed what Gantz had to offer and in terms of storyline, this movie certainly doesn’t let you down. I fully recommend it to fans of Eastern cinema and I do agree with the quote on the back of the cover that “it’s only a matter of time until Hollywood remakes it.”