Year: 2000
Director: Ryuhei Kitamura
Written by: Ryuhei Kitamura, Yudai Yamaguchi
Main cast: Tak Sakaguchi, Hideo Sakaki, Chieko Misaka, Kenji Matsuda, Minoru Matsumoto, Yuichiro Arai, Kazuhito Ohba, Takehiro Katayama, Ayumi Yoshihara
Genre: Gore, Comic, Grotesque, Action, Yakuza, Zombie, Samurai, Horror, Fantasy
Runtime: 119 min.
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Subtitles: Japanese, english
Awards: Fantafestival 2001-1 win to Ryuhei Kitamura for Best Direction
Buy DVD: CDJapan.com
Deep within the mysterious Forest of Resurrection, which is the 444th Portal to the Other World, a spectacular battle between good and evil has gone on since the dawn of time. When Prisoner KSC2-303 escapes from a maximum security facility, he enters the forest, believing it will lead him to safe haven. Instead, he finds himself a pawn in an endless struggle played out across multiple temporal planes of existence. His opponent: a mysterious man who seemingly cannot be killed. The battle to be waged: Good versus Evil in the pursuit of a beautiful woman who holds the key to eternal life. What Prisoner KSC2-303 cannot remember is whether or not he is the personification of good or the very essence of darkness.
This is no doubt Kitamura's best movie ever! A real cult, totally awesome. Low-budget, but beautifully directed and with nice special effects, mix together a lot of genres: action, gore, horror, comic, yakuza, zombie, samurai, and so on. Swordplay, gunplay and hand to hand fighting scenes are truly amazing. The plot is full with dark humour and very simple, but has relative importance: what really matters is the coolness and style of the film. I could say that Versus has no sense at all, a part from being incredibly stylish, funny, violent and gruesome! All actors (in particular Tak, Hideo Sakaki, Kenji Matsuda and Yuichiro Arai) are perfect for their roles and well skilled in action scenes. Tak greatly plays the main character, the super-cool hard-as-rock anti-hero Prisoner KSC2-303. He's really handsome wearing a long leather coat (or in wounded samurai version), even when his face is covered with blood. So Versus is a must seen for all his fans.
Rating: 10/10