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Versus (Director's Cut) Director: Ryuhei Kitamura Number of Items: 1 Format: Color Audience Rating: Unrated Studio: Media Blasters, Inc Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2003-07-29 Buy from Amazon |
From Description Deep within the mysterious Forest of Resurrection, 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 |
"As I walk through the valley of death I fear no...." wait a minute.... THEY'RE ALIVE!! OH MY GOD!!! The forest of resurection is the place where this story unfolds. This movie is about getting this question answered:What does a prisioner who's a bad-@$$ feminiest(Tak Sakaguchi) a girl(Chieko Misaka) and a phsycotic yakuza gang leader with a kill everyone attitude(Kenji Matsuda) have in common? Well the man who they're dealing with(Hideo Sakaki) will have the answers. And this solo dealer ain't nothing to mess with. YOu cross him, piss him off, or well just do anything wrong in his eyes, he'll shove his hand through you, and to add insult to injury, he'll make you his zombie gaurd. Not somebody I'd get aquainted with. The movie does some excellent action sceenes. I don't care if it moves fakley fast at times; I'm personally tired of seeing good martial-arts moves used in pulse slowing slow-mo.(Matrix, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, ect.) And the blood is something Japan very good at. This movie is a nice gore-fest. Not as gory as Ichi the killer, but a lot more bodies. The acting is ok, at times it's pretty bad, like when the girl was crying over the prisioner after he got shot. And somewhere you gotta have a poor moron who does stupid stuff, like the little midget who tried to use that huge gun. This movie was small bugeted, but big hearted, and an action flick, all Japanese movie lovers and action lovers should check out. If you love gorefest, this is your ticket; If you want some fast-paced action, this might suit your tastes, as long as you don't like it being fake. Oh yea, and uh, don't watch this in it's crappy dubbed version.(My friend hated subs so he wanted to watch it in dubbed, and it sucks major bottie-crack. Don't you find it wierd that no one has a name? peace "Paint the Forest" "Versus" is cheap. It's low-budget. It's trashy. It's funky. It's mind-blastingly stupid in places. And you know something? "Versus" is gigantic trailer-loads of bloody, gory, brutal, uber-stylish and often beautifully filmed good times. Let's review: Japanese Zombies? Check! Splatter, gore, intestines, brains, severed heads, arms, legs, and virtually anything else that can be dismembered and used as a club, truncheon, weapon, or engine of destruction? Check! Cool leather trenchcoats? Check. Katanas and wakizashis and a fully locked-loaded-and-primed paramilitary arsenal that would make the 5th Armored Division blush? Check, check, check! "Verus" is Japanese director Ryuhei Kitamura's red-in-tooth-and-claw salute to flesh-eating zombie flicks like the immortal Peter Jackson's "Dead/Alive"---and what a salute! "Versus" is just hardcore when it comes to hip: the too-cool-for-school Yakuza in their stylish shades, their tight-fitting leather trenchcoats, sleeveless leather battle dress, hip guns, hip nihilistic attitudes, hip giggles of bloodthirsty insouciance. It's all hip in "Versus", even when hip is slathered in blood and brains and gore. The Yakuza are bright plumed birds, so garish, so insultingly stylish, that you know they're marked for bloody death. Not to worry. Death's no Game-Over in the Forest of the Resurrection. Let's boil this thing down: you watch "Versus"---no, wait, you BUY the unrated 2-DVD disc "Versus" for two reasons: 1) Gorgeously shot (on a shoestring budget) High Style and 2) Yakuza on Yakuza action! Plot? We don't need no steenkin' plot! But since you asked: Mysterious Prisoner KSC2-303 (played right down to the wire and the Miso-soup T by Tak Sakaguchi, who swings that katana like a champ and wears that leather trenchcoat with an aplomb that would have made Marlon Brando proud) escapes from a maximum security prison into the mysterious, fog-shrouded Forest of the Resurrection with a prison buddy. A prison buddy, ummm, handcuffed to a severed hand. What's the Forest of the Resurrection? It's a dark, spooky forest. It's a dark spooky forest where the local Yakuza gang buries its victims (with their guns, mind you). It might possibly be an ancient aperture to Hell, one of 666 that exist in our innocent world. A mob pickup turns sour, chiefly because Prisoner KSC2-303 decides he's a "feminist" (I'm not making this up---he says it) and tries to save the damsel in distress. And really, that's what "Versus" is all about. Sakaguchi, girl in tow, runs into the Forest. Yakuza follow. The battling prisoners and mobsters discover that the brutalized dead have a habit of coming back. Zombies claw their way up from the grave, strapped up with their best-loved gats. Blood flows like meth at a rave. The truth is, "Versus" was shot for maybe 5 bucks (that's 500 Yen!). And the corollary truth is, "Versus" looks like it was shot for a lot more: it has style in spades, rolling spinning camera sequences that would make most professional Hollywood studio directors blush with shame, and---this is the most important thing of all---it's flesh-ripping good fun! Be warned, though: this isn't a horror movie. It's not remotely scary. But frankly, it's cool. It's engaging. At moments, it's nearly brilliant. And the tracking shots---my God, the tracking shots are intense. The timing is perfect. This is all about honor, all about vengeance, all about the Death Wish stated, announced, consecrated and celebrated between the once-and-future hero (and long dead Samurai warrior) played by Sakaguchi, and his immortal villainous and way-chic sorcerer nemesis (played to the uber-wicked hilt by Hideo Sakaki). "Versus" is epic and hysterical. The movie is beautifully shot. The martial arts-work is tight and well done and very slick. The zombie do their thing and can even shoot---poorly. Blood flows. Fools get torn in half. Slaughter abounds. The Forest of the Resurrection is a Mecca for wanton carnage. This isn't a cheap flick: far from it, and I'm sorry if I have implied it is. It has depth. It has ambition. For its miniscule budget, it is insanely technical in its shots and sweep. He who becomes a monster gets rid of the pain of being a Man. Literally. JSG "The best, most badass movie of all time" This movie is amazing. The storyline is a bit hard to follow due to the relentless violence and gore, but thats what this movie is all about. The gore is some of the best I've ever seen, and the characters all act as if they were straight out of cartoons. It is a fast paced, awesome, and badass movie from start to finish. The very end doesn't make much sense, and they should have just left that part out, but i guess it leaves room for a sequel. Overall, this movie is the best movie ever, people can stop making movies now because they cannot top this amazing, heart-wrenching (literally), fun, kickass, badass movie. "MASTERPIECE" I have VERSUS 2 Disc Set Special Edition 5.1 AC3,A MUST SEE :) "What a mess" I'm confused as to how anyone could possibly mistake this mass of garbage as being a decent film. Poor acting, lousy score, cheesy dialogue, weak special effects... I could go on. The "coolest" thing about this movie is the cover of the DVD case. If you're interested in foreign sci-fi try The Returner, Casshern or Steamboy. This waste of celluloid isn't even worth a rental let alone a purchase. |