Versus
Versus
| 23 October 2000 (USA)
Versus Trailers

A group of ruthless gangsters, an unknown woman and an escaped convict have met, 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.

Reviews
Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever
NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!
Tacticalin An absolute waste of money
StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
Phil Hubbs 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 clichéd 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 clichéd 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.5/10
lewiskendell 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.
Scarecrow-88 Delirius, no-holds-barred, full-throttle fantasy action, from director Ryûhei Kitamura(Midnight Meat Train)has a prisoner(Tak Sakaguchi, whose crime is never revealed)caught in the cross-hairs of a crime gang, within a supernatural wilderness(Wilderness of Resurrection)which is a limbo-of-sorts to "the other side", a darkness which can be unlocked by two keys, as undead zombies(..the buried targets of this criminal Yakuza-type of group)rise from their graves(..some with guns still on their person!). The Prisoner(..known in number as KSC2-303)doesn't know where he had just came from and this woman(Chieko Misaka)seems to have answers. The woman was sent to the wilderness by a mysterious boss(Hideo Sakaki)who hasn't arrived, with the Prisoner(..along with a partner who also escaped;a decapitated hand along with him!)squaring off with the Yakuza members in a gun battle. KSC2-303's partner is killed after he murdered one of the Yakuza. Retreating into the wilderness, KSC2-303 and the woman must contend with not only the Yakuza, with heavy artillery, but zombies as well. Meanwhile, the boss arrives, and his motivations soon become known..he is the reincarnation of a great warrior who wishes to achieve his mission of using the mixed blood of KSC2-303 and the woman, hoping to gain access to the other side.The ridiculous plot, which is essentially a live action manga comic, doesn't really matter because director Ryûhei Kitamura is more concerned with entertaining the audience with non stop action, whether it be Matrix-like combats, sword-fighting or shootouts. It's all rather exhilarating and high-octane, with a pace that moves breakneck as the characters, colorful and cartoonish, strike hip poses and engage in mano-a-mano contests, with plenty of body blows, legs and arms moving at impossible speeds, blood shed(..as expected, the blood looks like kool-aid), and grisly aftermaths of graphic violence. Hideo Sakaki is so powerful he punches a hole through a victim's skull with such force he pulls away eyeballs. A heavy gun actually blows two victims to smithereens. Swords lop off heads. Zombie carnage aplenty as bullets rip them to shreds as they continue moving towards live humans who keep shooting rounds. The showdown between Sakaguchi and Sakaki delivers a sword-fighting ballet, carefully executed, exciting and riveting. The film's tone is rather light-hearted and even goofy at times, and the violence remains almost entirely tongue-in-cheek, and the characters display incredible skill as Sakaguchi always faces challenges from opposing forces. The wilderness setting is ideal for such a thrill-ride, and gorehounds will bask in the heaping helping of grue on display for our viewing pleasure. Not for those looking for a cohesive plot that makes any sense, but for undemanding fans of dizzying action, animated characterizations, and flashy camera work(..Ryûhei Kitamura is in love with the "spiral camera shot"), with expert editing, this will be sure to please. Kitamura pulls out all the stops, bound and determined to provide as much exhausting action as possible. If there's a way to kill a person, Kitamura shows it.
Namfoodle ¨Many people seem to think that this is a good film if you don't expect a good plot or anything else but brainless action. I didn't, it still sucked.First of all even in an action film, you need even somewhat interesting characters. The only slightly interesting guy here was the weird dude in the green shirt and that's only because he was silly. Pretty much nothing is told about the characters, so who cares about any of them. That's the worst thing about this movie, it doesn't get interesting at any point.There was way too little violence, considering that some of the main keywords for this in IMDb are "extreme violence" and "extreme gore". The blood looked like cranberry juice in most of the shots and it doesn't help that this was meant to be campy.Well at least the action was pretty good, but that's not enough to keep your attention for the whole 2 hours. 90 minutes would already have been a bit too much, but 2 hours c'mon! Action was very anime stylish and has the same problems too; there is too much filler. Shooting zombies in a one scene gets boring after five minutes when there's nothing else to it, so just move on please. Don't bother with this, it's a really boring movie. And I didn't even mind about the ridiculous non-existent plot.