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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

Customer Reviews: Total numer of reviews: 93 Average rating: 3.5 "Camp Chinese Classic!!!" It's hard to describe VERSUS in a matter of Hollywood (or American) terms: think of it as Sam Peckingpah directing THE EVIL DEAD meets CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON starring a virile Bruce Lee -- in place of the legendary Bruce Campbell -- but re-envisioning the story with mythologic, Biblical, punk, and gangster overtones. Once the viewer figures out what's going on, the film plays out its light wonderful, high spirited, blood-filled camp: three souls, all quasi-immortal, continue to meet reincarnated versions of themselves for combat-bloody-combat within the Forest of Resurrection, only one of 666 Portals on the Temporal Plane located on the planet Earth. Inside the Forrest, no one can die without facing re-invigoration as a gun-toting, sword-swinging zombie ... except for our three nameless principles who can't seem to avoid running into one another. (For all its foibles, "zombiehood" never looked so aerobic.) VERSUS is filled with dazzling camerawork, and Director Ryuhei Kitamura achieves great mileage out of quick shots of incredibly energetic gun and swordplay. The make-up work is exemplary; when comical, it's comical, and when serious, it's serious. The actors are all very much at ease in what seems consistently to be moments of utter absurdity ... but, rest assured, it all makes sense in its own sort of violent, cosmic way. Ultimately, the story is far more about the pursuit of inevitability than it is anything else. To search for greater meaning in a film filled with comic moments so bloody that you cringe is pure folly. Regardless, Kitamura does an admirable job keeping the action at a frenetic pace once all Hell breaks loose, and it doesn't let up until the epic conclusion ... followed by one epic epilogue that still keeps the viewer guessing. Possibly dismissing as little more than just kung-fu fighting immortals of death, VERSUS presents a complex woven series of events that seemingly -- for all intents and purposes -- must play out again every 99 years (or so) within the Forrest of Resurrection in order for humankind -- or, at least, the lives of these nameless characters -- to maintain a meaningful balance. VERSUS is great flick for budding film students, Asian film buffs, or midnight matinees. THE VIDEO QUALITY: It's the reason for the four stars and not five. It's not completely distasteful, but it appears as it a fifth-generation video copy. At times early in the film, the images are extraordinarily grainy (ala THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT), and, while they do improve at times during the final third of the film, ultimately they never rise to the level of a respectable digital transfer. "Totally Disappointed" Words cannot describe what I saw in this movie. It reminded me of Dracula. I was so disappointed because I purchased the movie based on the amazon.com reviews. I see a few more reviews have appeared since I last viewed this area. "Please, please note that this is an Edited version" Don't get me wrong; I loved Versus when I saw it some time ago. This was before any DVD version had been released in the U.S., and I was stoked when I rented this DVD to show some friends. I am SO glad I didn't buy this version. This is an R-rated version and scenes have been cut. I don't know why anyone that is into movies like this to have anything to do with an edited version. (Ever see the R-rated version of Peter Jackson's Dead Alive (a.k.a. Braindead)? Same problem.) Beware. "Great movie, poor DVD" Versus is a very entertaining movie, but the quality of the DVD is lacking. The vidoe quality is very poor, and the audio is just ok. There was supposed to be a DTS track included, but there is not. They were nice enough to leave the original stereo track as an option though. There is a lot of extras that are available on the Special Edtion version, but most of them aren't very special. Buy the DVD for the movie, and not for the presentation. "Horrible" Quite possibly one of the most insipid, derivative and just plain ugly films I've seen in decades. Judging by the other reviews here, I will add "incredibly over-rated".