Versus (2000)

There are 666 portals that connect this world to the other side. These are concealed from all human beings. Somewhere in Japan exists the 444th portal.... The forest of resurrection.

Director:

Ryûhei Kitamura

Writers:

Ryûhei Kitamura (screenplay), Yudai Yamaguchi (screenplay)

Stars:

Tak Sakaguchi, Hideo Sakaki, Chieko Misaka

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview:
Tak Sakaguchi	...	Prisoner KSC2-303
Hideo Sakaki	...	The Man
Chieko Misaka	...	The Girl
Kenji Matsuda	...	Yakuza Leader with butterfly knife
Yuichiro Arai	...	Motorcycle-riding yakuza with revolver
Minoru Matsumoto	...	Crazy yakuza with amulet
Kazuhito Ohba	...	Yakuza with glasses
Takehiro Katayama	...	Red-haired assassin
Ayumi Yoshihara	...	Long-haired female assassin
Shôichirô Masumoto	...	One-handed cop
Toshiro Kamiaka	...	Samurai warrior
Yukihito Tanikado	...	Cop with Barrett
Hoshimi Asai	...	Short-haired female assassin
Ryosuke Watabe	...	Yakuza zombie in alligator-skin coat
Motonari Komiya	...	Other prisoner

Storyline

Set in the present where a group of ruthless gangsters, an unknown woman and an escaped convict have met, unwittingly, in The Forest of Resurrection, the 444th portal to the other side. Their troubles start when those once killed and buried in the forest come back from the dead, with the assistance of the evil Sprit that has also come back, come back from ages past, to claim his prize. The final standoff between Light and Dark has never been so cunning, so brutal and so deadly. This is where old Japanese Samurai mysticism meets the new world of the gangster and the gun. Gruesome, bloody and positively bold.

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Plot Keywords:

forest | portal | resurrection | zombie | sword | 

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Taglines:

A Forest to Hell comes Alive with Death.

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Genres:

Action | Comedy | Drama | Fantasy | Horror | Romance | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong pervasive violence and gore, and language

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

English Japanese

Release Date:

20 February 2002 (France)

Also Known As:

Down to Hell 2

Box Office

Budget:

$400,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

WEVCO Produce Company,napalm FiLMS,KSS

Technical Specs

Runtime:

119 min 130 min (Ultimate Cut)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

First considered and even advertised as a sequel to Ryûhei Kitamura's movie Down to Hell (1997) with the title 'Down 2 Hell'. But because of the many fights in front and behind the camera Kitamura changed the title to 'Versus'.

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Goofs

(at around 1h 16 mins) After Prisoner KSC2-303 gets shot in the face, he falls down a hill. "The Girl" then finds him lying dead on the ground. Although he is "dead", you can see him breathing.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Title Card: There are 666 portals that connect this world to the other side. These are concealed from all human beings... But there are some who notice their existence. And some are willing to open the door and try to gain the power of darkness... Somewhere in Japan exists the 444th portal, known as The Forest of Resurrection. It was a long time ago when the evil soul uncovered its existence...

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Alternate Versions

German rental version is cut for violence/gore to secure a "Not under 18" rating. The Retail Special Edition DVD will be uncut.

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Connections

Referenced in Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes (2004)

User Reviews

Extremely entertaining post-modern pastiche

From the get-go, you'll know that this is a film that relies almost solely on its style and its visual slickness. Low budget in the good sense, Versus resembles early Sam Raimi or Peter Jackson works (Bad Taste springs primarily to mind). It combines good-humored gore with Luc Besson-ish wide lens shots and quirkiness (the characters here reminded me of The Boondock Saints in their flamboyance), along with some very creative martial arts sequences. At some point, in fact, it gets so over-the-top it starts to play out more like a Stephen Chow movie. It then jumps from Night of the Living Dead to Mortal Kombat to Highlander, making a stop or two at X-Men along the way. This eastern/western mix works surprisingly well and the result is highly entertaining, if you enjoy this kind of thing. Just don't go looking for any depth, causality, plot logic, or plot altogether, really. The few dialogue scenes are a mess (excluding the one that takes place when everything turns an orange shade, about an hour into the film), and often serve only as a backdrop for canted steadicam close-ups and multi-character Mexican standoffs. This is not high brow cinema, it's high octane. And it was perfectly fine by me. It is when the film discards some of its humor that it begins to lose its charm, but even then, the spectacularly choreographed martial arts kept me entertained. I would be interested in seeing "The Ultimate Versus" – a director's cut that's ten minutes longer and has CGI special effects, according to IMDb.

P.S. There are few things I hate more than a dubbed movie, but in this case (like in Shaolin Soccer), I found that at certain scenes (particularly ones involving "the runt" – the wacky short guy), the English dubbing actually adds to the absurdity of the film. Anyway, the DVD offers both the American and the original Japanese dialogue tracks.