Versus Special Edition

Loved this movie since the first time I saw it on dvd. Great combination of martial arts action and zombie gore mayhem. Been waiting for a blu-ray release and had to pick this up. I don't have any major complaints like other people about the color in this release. When I re watched it, I didn't notice anything major. My only minor complaint about this movie is the run time is a bit long, about 20 minutes could have been trimmed so there are definitely pacing issues. Overall it still holds up great all this time and I love introducing this movie to my friends and love martial arts and horror movies.

I debated for a bit how many stars to rate this. I decided on four because this Special Edition of Versus comes with some nice extra features, and makes it much more worth buying that the R-rated version. It's certainly more a "guy" movie than it is for girls, but women who are into extreme Asian movies will like this.The synposis on the back of the box is a pretty good summary of the movie as a whole: Prisoner KSC2-303 finds himself encountering yakuza and their kidnapped victim, a girl with a powerful sixth sense. In the Forest of Ressurrection, the dead come back to life and ruthlessly prey on the living. KSC2-303 will soon come face-to-face with events of the past that have everything to do with the ultimate face-off at the end of the movie.This movie is rather hard to spoil, as there isn't much of a detailed plot to spoil. Most of the two hours of the film are consecutive battles of every kind: gunfights, sword fights, zombie fights, human-zombie fights, etc. The movie is incredibly gory, but because everything is over-stylized, the action choreographed for various effects, it's not necessarily bothersome (at least, for me it wasn't.) I rather enjoyed all the action, especially as my main reason for seeing this movie was just to see more of lead actor Tak Sakaguchi. Tak's martial arts and top notch, but his acting may need a little work. Versus was also Tak's first big movie, so he's improved since then. His character is the typical anti-hero hero, or as he called it in the interviews, the "dark hero." He kill without reason if he seems to feel like, but still makes an effort to protect the girl.Other interesting characters are the yakuza leader, played by Kenji Masuda. Just borderlining on being psycho, the character is animated and really doesn't hold back. There is also a rather cowardly and frantic yakuza member played by Minoru Matsumoto, who carries a traditional Japanese charm that he clings to throughout the movie. The intial yakuza members that you meet have a little more depth to them then characters that arrive later.There various suspensions of reality throughout, and logic isn't anywhere to be found. Despite shooting their guns enough times to drain a storehouse of ammo dry, you only ever really see them reload once. (One yakuza member has a six-shooter revolver that definately had more than six shots in it.) Various long-dead zombies suddenly animate only when the yakuza suddenly remember they had buried victims there in prior visits.However, the main point of this movie is not plot, script, or deep themes. This movie was made to be heavy on action and fight scenes. Director Ryuhei Kitamura says he was influences by early 80s actions movies; he frequently mentions Mad Max 2 and Commando, among others. So if you're a fan of that kind of action, you'll enjoy Versus. There is a little humor dotted throughout, so it's not just a straight-faced gun-blood-sword free for all. There is a plot-twist at the very end that should be an interesting starter to the upcoming Versus 2. (Yes, there is going to be a sequel, due out in 2007)Overall, it's a good film for some serious action and fight scenes. The extra features make the Special Edition a little more worth the money. (An R-rated cut version is available through Wal-Mart, but apart from the movie itself, don't look for anything extra on that.) There are some detailed interviews with Kitamura, and an interesting behind-the-scenes views, including interviews with Tak Sakaguchi and the other actors. There are some on the-set bits, including interesting facts that include Tak breaking a tooth and 3 ribs. (Poor guy) There's also a short mini-movie focusing on the two cops who are chasing Prisoner KSC2-303, but otherwise, they don't make any significant contribution to the story, but are good for some gruesome comic relief.

Great movie. Martial arts, Yakusa, The undead with a bit of dark humor and lots of blood. No ridiculous CGI ruining it. Just Fun!

As many can already tell you this movie's razor thin plot and overzealous characters really probably belong in a mindless Saturday morning cartoon time slot. But what many fail to see is that the movie is so grandiose in its scale and intent to be ridiculous that you just can't help but love the camp, gore and action of this highly stylized movie.The excuse to exercise this movie is loosely based on the premise that 500 years ago two brothers battled, good and evil, to gain the ultimate power contained within the mystical Forest of Resurrection. In order to preserve the power the good brother, Tak Sakaguchi, kills the woman whose blood can unlock the powers contained by the forest. Now 500 years to our present the brother and woman have been resurrected without memory of their former lives and being pursued by evil and a destiny they cannot escape. That is as much as I will give away but if you enjoyed the likes of the Evil Dead then this movie will appeal in many ways.The movie never takes itself seriously and the actors, some more than other, take to the absurdity of the situation and their characters with such gusto you cannot help feel the campy charm ooze out of the seams. The actions scenes are well done for the most part. There is more blood, slice/dice and head shots that a Schwarzenegger movie except without the bad one-liners. Though there are several annoyances I have with some of the action sequences. You can tell contact is not being made during several of the fights and it makes it hard to suspend your sense of reality even further than you have already and this movie already asks for a mile wide suspension. The two cop characters felt totally out of place and meaningless in what is an already meandering plot. However the "Suit" cop does have some ridiculous gem lines that will definitely elicit a few chuckles.The movie never really explains itself more deeply than the superficial back story in the very beginning but what is does do is take you on a trippy roller coaster ride that would not be unlike if Alice fell down a hole and found herself in Wonderland's demented twin brothers drug coma. All in all a rather enjoyable movie with an excellent twist in the end. The trick is to go in not expecting much more than action blood and some laughs and you will have an excellent way to kill a couple hours.

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Does it make sense? No!Does it have a (reasonable) plot? No!Does it fail to entertain? No!Let's be honest, Versus is dumb thrilling entertainment. You don't need a valid reason for why the bad guy is bad, you don't need a valid reason for everything that is happening to happen and you certainly don't need a valid reason to have zombies. That's just it. It's entertaining stuff with guns, katanas, zombies and more guns.Now this version is the special Director's Cut version which has to added and renewed scenes. But what ever you do, do not believe the run time stated here! I don't know which part of this Ultimate DVD is 157 mins (2 hrs 37 mins) because the feature film is just a little over 2 hours. The added scene are a little obvious to the (un)trained eye but, hey, it's not a perfect film so we can forgive director Ryuhei Kitamura for that. Entertaining and well worth a little of you time to watch.

From the very start this movie is a headlong dash to gore. I have previously owned this video on VHS so was very pleased to get a DVD copy. Sadly the "extras" are not very extensive, I know there is an extended "deluxe" version of this available but I believe that it is only offered in Japanese (no sub-titles)The quality of reproduction is excellent to you can really see the horror, lovely!

What can I say?......If you like asian cinema, or even manga you will probably like this.Its a very bizarre tale about 3 people..cant say any more...It's a kind of zombie,triad comedy gore film.Very tongue in cheek, very manga-esque.I loved every second of its surrealism

right then first off if you do not like violent films stop reading, if you like films stuffed to the brim with ultra violence from start to finnish then keep on reading. this film must have one the highest fake blood quotas in my recent memory and it is fantastic fun. no messing about, the very loose plot is there seemingly to link together a series of ever increasingly complex and flashy action sequences. which suits me fine as the pace starts at a million miles an hour and doesnt seem to even know where the brake pedal is let alone how to use it. brilliant brilliant stuff. the world needs more films like this.