Versus

Critics Consensus

No consensus yet.

71%

TOMATOMETER

Total Count: 14

77%

Audience Score

User Ratings: 19,116

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Movie Info

Evil Dead 2 meets Street Fighter by way of The Matrix in this wild and woolly zombie/yakuza/samurai/kung fu/splatter flick directed by Ryuhei Kitamura. Throughout the world there are 666 portals to the other side; the 444th is Japan and is called the Forest of Resurrection, where good has battled evil for time immemorial. The film opens with prisoner KSC2-303 (Tak Sakaguchi) and his fellow cellmate escaping a maximum-security prison and ending up in the forest where they are supposedly to be picked up by a band of gangsters in a shiny Mercedes and taken to a safer place. Instead, the gangsters try to use them and a female hostage (Chieko Misaka) as pawns in a larger power struggle. A gunfight ensues killing KSC2-303's colleague and the mob boss, but just as the standoff is about to yield more violence, an odd thing happens -- the dead get up and attack the living. In the chaos, KSC2-303 and girl disappear into the forest with a band of slickly coifed yakuza in hot pursuit. High-kicks, machine guns, and rampant disembowelments ensue. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival.

Cast

Tak Sakaguchi
as Prisoner KSC2-303
Kenji Matsuda
as Yakuza Leader
Chieko Misaki
Yuichiro Arai
as Motorcycle-Riding Yakuza
Chieko Misaka
as The Girl
Hideo Sakaki
as The Man
Minoru Matsumoto
as Crazy Yakuza
Kazuhito Ohba
as Yakuza with Glasses
Takehiro Katayama
as Red-Haired Assassin
Ayumi Yoshihara
as Long-Haired Female Assassin
Shôichirô Masumoto
as One-Handed Cop
Toshiro Kamiaka
as Samurai Warrior
Yukihito Tanikado
as Cop with Barrett
Hoshimi Asai
as Short-Haired Female Assassin
Ryosuke Watabe
as Yakuza Zombie in Alligator-Skin Coat
Motonari Komiya
as Other Prisoner
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Critic Reviews for Versus

All Critics (14) | Top Critics (3)

View All Critic Reviews (14)

Audience Reviews for Versus

  • Feb 26, 2012
    Rather bizarre film which I didn't really understand until the gone the midway point to be honest. The plot is odd and not entirely explained as you are spoon fed bits of it very slowly. Its a blend of horror, comedy, sci-fi and fantasy really, almost has an 'Evil Dead' quality to it really, that kind of dark humour with over the top extreme characters. Mix that with a kind of 'Mortal Kombat' style plot about opening portals to other worlds which lie within the "Forest of Resurrection" but only with the blood of a certain woman etc...a bit cliched but fun. The whole thing is highly stylised like all Japanese action films...its slicker than a frogs bathing suit. The main hero has dark longish hair and a full length black leather trench coat with black leather pants, dare I say looking a bit 'Crow-esque' there. There's plenty of martial arts, sword play, clever editing along with unique camera angles. Personally I think there has been an element of 'The Matrix' borrowed for this film, well that and quite a few other films, originality is not high on the agenda. Its well known as a cult but I wasn't overly stunned by it, its cool but nothing special really, a bit too cliched for me. This type of thing popped up a lot after that Keanu Reeves film came out, everybody suddenly realised long black trench coats were uber cool, gets a bit tiresome watching it.
    Phil H Super Reviewer
  • Oct 12, 2010
    I remember starting to watch this and gave up as it became abundantly clear the director had no interest whatsoever in substance. I'm for some empty-headed action but against brain-dead attempts.
    Doctor S Super Reviewer
  • Aug 10, 2010
    One hour fifty nine minutes of gunfight and stabbing as lots of zombies and gangsters kill each other in a forest. With a bit of history thrown in.
    Lesley N Super Reviewer
  • Jul 17, 2010
    Versus aims to be a stylish, cool action flick with a healthy mixture of gore, gun-play, and martial arts. Unfortunately, a lot of those attempts at being stylish and cool, end up coming off as cheesy. All the silly posing and failed attempts at humor don't do a lot to help Versus, and neither does the fact that the characters are almost universally annoying and uninteresting. The story is something about zombies and resurrection forests and portals to hell. The word "convoluted" comes to mind. The frequent action scenes could have been the movie's saving grace, but they were uniformly uninspired and routine. The gore wasn't funny or copious enough to warrant any attention. The acting is bad. Not "campy bad" or "hilariously bad", just bad. The kind that's difficult to watch. If you couldn't tell, I thoroughly disliked Versus. I've seen a lot of great Japanese action flicks. This wasn't one of them.
    Lewis C Super Reviewer
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