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Versus (2000)

post #1 of 24
2/14/10 at 11:54pm
Thread Starter 
What a fascinating little mess of a film this is. Part classic chambara film, part romero-meets-raimi zombie gore fest, with sprinklings of Carpenter and even Miller thrown in, this film is one I'm still getting my head around. What little plot there is seems to centre around reincarnation, a struggle between brothers over many rebirths to open a gate to hell for some unknowable reason with the blood of a fair young maiden seemingly holding the key to it all.

That said, the plot is almost ancilliary to the moments of samurai sword wielding, gun-toting blood soaked gore that follows our characters running around a supposed haunted forest that contains one of the gates to hell (the 444th out of 666 in the world - of course) as an evil villain surrounded by his yakuza minions that he ressurects as supernatural warriors to battle our hero who looks like an underwear model who's watched the matrix too many times who's also trying to protect the girl that the villain needs to open the portal. Oh and we have flashbacks to it all happening before in the past and flash forwards to it happening again in the future.

Lots of extreme over-acting, buckets of fake blood and even zombies that can shoot guns left me sort of scratching my head overall. Director Ryuhei Kitamura can't be faulted for his obvious passion and grungey practical aesthetic, shunning cg in favor of real makeup, prosthetics and corn syrup squibs, but the film itself never gels into anything other than a mildly compelling mashup of styles and influences. There are certainly moments and shots that suggest some real talent on Kitamuras behalf, but overall this is more a mildly fun distraction than anything that I could class as 'great'. Had I been 13 years old it may have knocked my socks off, but 20 years later it didn't do a huge amount for me other than offer the odd moment of fun.
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post #2 of 24
2/14/10 at 11:58pm
Can't agree much more with you on this movie.

I wanted to like this more than I actually did. The ending put a smile on my face, though.
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post #3 of 24
2/15/10 at 12:27am
Azumi is essentially the pinnacle of Ryuhei Kitamura's directorial sensibilities. It mixes the slap dash, kitchen sink, elements of Versus with a more polished look and broader scope without completely getting lost in stylisation. His films after that have so far been interesting but soulless (Midnight Meat Train has some moments of greatness and a fantastic asthetic, but it feels kind of flat overall).

I appreciate Versus for what it is, Kitamura roping some friends into making a film in the local woods over the course of a few years, and there's enough inventiveness and slapstick to make it memorable but like a lot of Japanese films it's simply too long.

A movie like this in no way deserves a running time approaching two hours and after a while you do start to get a little bored, especially because a lot of the really fun stuff happens towards the start. The prisoner teaming up with the Yakuza to take on the zombies is probably my favourite moment in the film (and the knife fight, with real knives, which caps it off is great) but then there's nothing to really match it until right at the end when we have the super sword fight.

Once again Azumi, whilst also being overlong, handles it's pacing better with progressively more interesting fights leading up to the HOLY SHIT SHE JUST MURDERED A COUPLE OF HUNDRED GUYS IN FEUDAL ERA MAD MAX TOWN ending.
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post #4 of 24
2/15/10 at 12:46am
God, I do love that ending in Azumi. I haven't seen Versus in such a long time. I remember being impressed with it when I was younger.
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post #5 of 24
2/15/10 at 10:45am
Verus was all about style. Azumi slapped fun with it. I'm with Spike on this: liked Versus, loved Azumi.

I'd like to see The Ultimate Versus, where msot of the movie was redone, with reshoot and all.
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post #6 of 24
2/15/10 at 10:56am
While it's by no means perfect, Versus is one of those films where the passion of the filmmaker really shines through. I had a smile on my face from beginning to end. I haven't seen Azumi yet - didn't even know it was directed by Kitamura - but it's just jumped to the top of my list.
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post #7 of 24
2/15/10 at 11:02am
I am relly enjoyed...Ryuhei Kitamura's Azumi, Godzilla Final Wars, and Ultimate Versus. He clearly has the proper love for the over the top, ultraviolence seen in many a...Robert Rodriguez film. Marvel should hire him...Stat, for Iron Fist, or for anything really.

Azumi is I think Kitamura's best film. Final Wars is the...only Godzilla film I enjoy, not directed by...Ishiro Honda. Ultimate Versus also comes in a...Steel Book, which is as cool as the film. I would love to see Kitamura direct the long rumored...Ninja Scroll adaption.
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post #8 of 24
2/15/10 at 2:31pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Spike Marshall View Post
The prisoner teaming up with the Yakuza to take on the zombies is probably my favourite moment in the film (and the knife fight, with real knives, which caps it off is great) but then there's nothing to really match it until right at the end when we have the super sword fight.
My thoughts exactly. The first third or so is very fun stuff, leading me to believe that its going to fun places, but it really, REALLY deflates after that knife fight. Though I did like the main baddie pulling the heart out of that one dude and eating it. Also him catching all the shotgun pellets was pretty bad ass.

I saw it at a strange time in my life, and it cheered me up, so I always look at it in rose colored glasses.
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post #9 of 24
2/15/10 at 8:04pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin Savage View Post
I'd like to see The Ultimate Versus, where msot of the movie was redone, with reshoot and all.
Don't. It looks terrible, lots of blue filters, and goes on for about a day.
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post #10 of 24
2/17/10 at 7:21pm
Yeah, ridiculously fun for many scenes, but surprisingly boring for long stretches. Still love the shot through the two halves of a body falling apart. Ditto the shot through the ventilated head.
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post #11 of 24
2/18/10 at 2:31pm
This was one of the first movies that I imported back when I started collecting foreign films along with Battle Royale. Since then I've bought every release Tokyo Shock has put out and will probably pick up the Blu-Ray as well even though I know the improvements will be slight. It's just a really fun movie that despite its low budget has a lot of style and energy. The characters just ooze attitude.

I even have the movie poster on my wall in my home theater room along with the Azumi and Casshern posters.
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post #12 of 24
2/19/10 at 12:00am
The wide-eyed gangster with the brownish hair deserves a Brian Blessed award for his work in this film.
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post #13 of 24
2/19/10 at 6:32pm
Personally, Versus works for me in a way that Azumi simply doesn't; Versus has so much gusto and charm inherent in how scrappy and low-tech it is. It looks great-- not perfect, but pretty damn good, especially considering budget and time restraints. Azumi doesn't have that verve. It's not a bad film-- it's pretty well made, though it does lose itself in stylization at times-- but I started rooting for Kitamura because of what he was able to do in Versus with the resources he had.

Maybe I should just give Azumi another chance. Meanwhile, I'll always dig Versus.
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post #14 of 24
2/19/10 at 6:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by PMR View Post
The wide-eyed gangster with the brownish hair deserves a Brian Blessed award for his work in this film.


Yeah, this movie ends for me the moment Kenji Matsuda dies. Still prefer it over Azumi for reasons agracru touched on, but I'd consider Midnight Meat Train his best work so far, though as Spike mentioned it doesn't play into his slap dash Raimi-style as much as Versus or Azumi.

On a side note, anyone seen Kitamura's Alive? I had it imported once but it had nothing in the way of subtitles and I found it too much of a slog without understanding literally a single line of dialogue.
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post #15 of 24
2/19/10 at 7:04pm
Alive is a slog with subtitles. Kitamura is a lot like Miike in terms of the fact his film catalogue is 50/50. For every film which is a joy to watch and really tons of fun there's a film which is just utterly boring.

Azumi, Versus and Midnight Meat Train are great

Sky High and Godzilla: Final Wars are both batshit insane and a lot of fun but kind of inconsistent and overly long

Alive, Aragami and LoveDeath are all horrible slogs.
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post #16 of 24
2/19/10 at 7:07pm
Agreeing with most of the sentiment. I'm here to back up the facts that Ultimate Versus is too long, and that Azumi is a genuinely great film, beyond the fast food fun of the rest of Kitamura's career.

But no love for Godzilla Final War? That's some of the best fast food cinema I've ever seen.

Edit: Too slow is me. Aragami is even worse when you see 2LDK.
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post #17 of 24
2/19/10 at 7:12pm
Aragami does have one great thing going for it, though, and that's the in-the-dark fight scene between the two characters. If Kitamura ever feels like biting his own stuff, and if he ever has a good reason to do so, I would encourage him to use this idea in a much, much better and more polished film, because it worked (at least, for me) very, very well.
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post #18 of 24
2/19/10 at 7:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gabe Powers View Post
Agreeing with most of the sentiment. I'm here to back up the facts that Ultimate Versus is too long, and that Azumi is a genuinely great film, beyond the fast food fun of the rest of Kitamura's career.

But no love for Godzilla Final War? That's some of the best fast food cinema I've ever seen.

Edit: Too slow is me. Aragami is even worse when you see 2LDK.
Is 2LDK the epic fight between the two actresses? Because I remember watching the Dual project and not being able to comprehend how those two fighting was more kinetic and fun than a duel between samurai gods.

DUAL is worth a look, it's like a weird Japanese grindhouse.
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post #19 of 24
2/19/10 at 7:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gabe Powers View Post
But no love for Godzilla Final War? That's some of the best fast food cinema I've ever seen.
I love the fact that Don Frye has a major role in that movie; Kitamura puts quite a few MMA heavies in his films, Fry and Gary Goodridge in Godzilla, Quentin "BA" Jackson in Midnight Meat Train, etc. It's the only modern, non-American Godzilla film I've seen but I couldn't hope wishing it would dial back on the human action and focus more on all the awesome Kaiju running rampant. Still a blast, though.

Thanks for the rundown, Spike. Guess I haven't been missing much all these years with Alive - though I rented Sky High twice and never found myself in the mood to sit down with it. Would you say it's worth bothering again?
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post #20 of 24
2/19/10 at 7:35pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Spike Marshall View Post
Is 2LDK the epic fight between the two actresses? Because I remember watching the Dual project and not being able to comprehend how those two fighting was more kinetic and fun than a duel between samurai gods.

DUAL is worth a look, it's like a weird Japanese grindhouse.
It's hilarious, really, that two kind of scrawny chicks in a small apartment just wipe the floor with Kitumara's stuff.
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post #21 of 24
2/19/10 at 11:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by agracru View Post
Personally, Versus works for me in a way that Azumi simply doesn't; Versus has so much gusto and charm inherent in how scrappy and low-tech it is. It looks great-- not perfect, but pretty damn good, especially considering budget and time restraints. Azumi doesn't have that verve. It's not a bad film-- it's pretty well made, though it does lose itself in stylization at times-- but I started rooting for Kitamura because of what he was able to do in Versus with the resources he had.

Maybe I should just give Azumi another chance. Meanwhile, I'll always dig Versus.
Totally agree. Couldn't have said it better myself.

I actually liked Aragami.
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post #22 of 24
2/19/10 at 11:46pm
I'm actually very grateful for Versus, as it was the first film that made me realise that just because it's Japanese, doesn't mean it's instantly awesome. A few years back, I went through a phase of buying every Japanese movie anybody mentioned to me, and had a clean score sheet for a good few movies (Ringu, Audition, Battle Royale etc) that convinced me that HOLY SHIT THESE GUYS CAN'T MAKE A BAD FILM. Versus seemed like the perfect movie pitch, with zombies, swordplay and just general coolness, so when i paid a stupid amount of money to buy the Japanese import, I had a very rude awakening. it was like the moment in life you realise Santa's not real. And then, jeesus, the same guy brought us Godzilla Final Wars, and I realised ,there's hacks over there as well.

Even so, I'm still a sucker for Japanese nonsense - just bought Onechanbara recently. By god, I put up with some terrible films just because they're subtitled. It's an illness.
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post #23 of 24
2/19/10 at 11:56pm
I still say there's half...no, wait, 1/3rd of a good movie here. As soon as that knife fight ends, the movie just kind of sinks. It's a bad movie, and 50% of the time people I show it to say "you've just wasted my time", but the other half people just go with it and revel in how ridiculous it is.
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post #24 of 24
2/20/10 at 12:10am
I absolutely love this film and watched it repeatedly for years. However, even I think they should cut about 40 minutes from it and make an 80 minute edit from the existing footage.
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