646f9e108c A serial-murderer is removing his victims hearts and taking them with him. Kanzaki is a detective on the case. The day he is due to be married his fiancé, Mina, is killed displaying the same MO as the other victims. He discovers geneticist, Kudo, and Rei, his evil "secretary" to be the killers. When they have six hearts they will be able to summon demons from beyond the 'Gate of Rage' to grant any wish, but darkness will fall upon the earth. Mina becomes Guardian of the Gate of Rage, and must fight Kudo when he is killed. Kanzaki enters the world of the dead to protect her. A homicide detective hunts a killer who is literally taking girls hearts. When his own fiancée falls victim to the killer, the detective discovers the otherworldly intentions of the killer and is helped from beyond the grave by his fiancée. I had been looking forward to watching this film for a long time. I read that it wasn't the director's (Ryuhei Kitamura) best film and having seen 'Versus', 'Azumi' and 'Godzilla: final wars'. I think that this is true. The story is quite good, the acting is OK, much of the directing is good, sometimes very good, but surprisingly many of the fight scenes appear little more than opportunities for the antagonists to pose about like power rangers with swords, which had me thinking 'get on with it'. I expect a little bit of this type of thing in Japanese movies (which I am a big fan of), but it was beginning to verge on the annoying , thankfully it didn't spoil things completely. I don't expect none-stop action in Ryuhei Kitamura's movies, but the action scenes don't come close to those in 'Azumi' or 'Versus'.<br/><br/>Very often I'll watch a film thinking this could of been a great film, but sadly we ended up with only a good film. 'Sky High' could of been great, but settles for good. One of the things I have come expect from the director is originality, sadly this film had little, borrowing heavily from other films. It was more like a mixture of 'Versus' and 'Ghost' with some other old ideas thrown in. I have seen lots of reviews praising this film (better than Azumi, no, better than Azumi 2, yes) but I believe anyone thinking of watching this film, having already seen any of the director's previous films should lower their expectations, otherwise they may be disappointed. Having said that I'm glad I watched it and I wouldn't want to put anyone off watching this film as the 122 min pass by quickly enough and they may find it well worth watching after all. I believe Kitamura is a genius,but most people in this forum do not understand what he was trying to accomplish.The story lines in(Sky high,Versus) are basically about death and the many beliefs that are out there, about the subject.In Versus(the resurrection is mentioned)in Sky High(reincarnation, and your belief determines how you will end up in the after life).Kitamura's ability to take the right music with the right scene is staggering.The man is a true talent.Some of the comments I have read in this forum is just amazing.One person says the sword play was really weak.Once again you have someone that cannot follow a story.Ordinary people who were just about to marry and has her heart ripped out by a rich man who thought money could buy everything until his wife meet with some unfortunate accident.The point is if you have never picked up a sword how well do you think your sword play would be?Sky High is truly a great movie! Both versions can be found on the Japanese special edition. The Director's Cut by Kitamura was made to strengthen the characters background because 95% of the cuts are dialogue cuts, the rest only for optical character improvements. The Director's Cut does not have any English subtitles.