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Stars:
Tak Sakaguchi, Hideo Sakaki, Chieko Misaka, and Kenji Matsuda
Writers:
Ryuhei Kitamura and Yudai Yamaguchi
Director:
Ryuhei Kitamura
Feature
length: 120 minutes
Extras:
Feature Length Audio Commentaries, Behind “Versus” Featurette, Making Of
Versus Documentary, “Nervous” Side Story Mini-Movie, Interview With The
Editor, and Theatrical Trailers
Languages:
Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Japanese and English Dubbed Stereo
Sound
Subtitles:
English Language Subtitles
Packaging:
Amaray Keep Case
Chapter
Stops: 17
Sound:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Stereo Sound
Year
of Theatrical Release: 2000/DVD Release: 2003
Theatrical
Distributor: Napalm Films
Home
Video Distributor: Media Blasters
MPAA
Rating: Not Rated
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
“Versus”
is about the never ending fight between the forces of good and evil throughout
time to destroy the balance that exists in nature. Five hundred years ago a
great fight occurred between these forces in the mystical forest of
Resurrection. The prize was a beautiful woman who holds the key to eternal life
or the key to damnation over all others depending which side wins. While evil
did not gain the prize, it was not destroyed and so it has waited for centuries
to pass for when the players are reincarnated and once again face off in a
battle over the destiny of the world and now the times has come to fight again
as an escaped prisoner accompanied by the reincarnated beautiful woman are
chased into the forest of Resurrection by gangsters and law enforcement alike.
The forest contains several vortexes that defy the rules of all known western
science. Evil can summon the bodies of the dead and buried as well as kill and
reanimate any human being into his own dark troopers because both the forest as
well as the blood the girl, who is the key to which side shall destroy the
balance and dominate the world, is responsible for the magical power that defies
mortality. Now if our antihero can figure out his place in this grand design he
just might be able to save the world as we know it or maybe not.
“Versus”
is an entertaining mix of martial arts action, dark comedy, and zombie horror
with lots of over-the-top gore, excellent choreographed fights that do not rely
upon CGI and are quite effective, and some genuine dark humor. Co-writer and
Director Ryuhei Kitamura gets a lot of mileage from his cast with handsome young
Tak Sakaguchi playing the angst ridden antihero of the film with a sense of
style. Hideo Sakaki, Chieko Misaka, and Kenji Matsuda all serve the film by
adding a lot of visual presence to make their characters come to life. Director
Ryuhei Kitamura also uses film language to tell the story without resorting to
unnecessary exposition. The film contains visual references and nods to the work
of James Cameron, John Carpenter, Sam Raimi, George A. Romero, and Paul
Verhoeven.
Media
Blasters is releasing “Versus” in three different versions. One contains the
R-rated theatrical cut, the other contains the unrated cut of the film, and the
third one is a special edition that contains the unrated version disc plus a
bonus DVD with over 90 minutes of special features related to the film. The
R-rated and unrated versions were released in July, but the “Special
Edition” is being released on Tuesday, August 19, 2003 and I think this is the
version fans should purchase. “Versus” is presented in an anamorphic
widescreen (1.85:1) aspect ratio. The picture quality looks a bit muted and some
of the background detail looks soft. The Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
Soundtrack is quite lively. A Japanese and an English Language Dubbed Stereo
Soundtrack are encoded as well along with optional English Language Subtitles. I
watched the film with the English Dubbed Stereo Soundtrack to compare and while
I am glad the option is present if only because there are people who will not
give a film a chance if it only features subtitles, I think the subtitled
translation with the Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack is
definitely the best choice for non Japanese speaking Region One consumers
overall.
Director
Ryuhei Kitamura participates in two feature length audio commentary tracks. The
first track feature select cast members and is in Japanese with optional English
Subtitles. One can choose to listen to the other commentary track or one of the
film’s soundtrack options and simply read the English Subtitles of the
Director and cast simultaneously. The second commentary features Ryuhei Kitamura
and Producer Keishiro Shin. Of the two tracks I preferred the soundtrack with
the cast because even though I cannot understand what they are saying without
reading the subtitles, I can appreciate the high level of energy communicated
through their enthusiasm and laughs. The Director and Producer commentary is in
English and is more serious in nature with some screen specific comments on how
certain shots were achieved despite the low budget. Bonus trailers for other
titles in Media Blaster’s “Tokyo Shock” DVD collection include “Samurai
Fiction” (1:31), “Nunoichi” (1:53), “Pistol Opera “ (1:44), and
“Pyrokenesis” (1:06) wrap up the extra features on the first disc.
The
second DVD begins with a montage of behind-the-scenes footage entitled
“Evolution Of Versus” (8:10) and another montage of scenes from the Cannes
promotion (8:09). There is also a behind-the-scenes featurette (26:38) in
Japanese with English Language Subtitles that features various cast and crew
interviews. This is followed by an interview with the film’s Editor (12:36)
also in Japanese with English Language Subtitles.
The
“Making Of Versus” documentary (24:41) features a lengthy interview with
Co-Writer and Director Ryuhei Kitamura in English where he describes the origin
of the project, which was originally envisioned as a sequel to his “Straight
To Hell” feature film, but soon took on an identity of it’s own. Kitamura
describes the challenge he was faced with when making a film that he felt would
pay homage to all of the American genre films he loved in the 1980s in a
Japanese film industry that he feels has become too apathetic in the shadow of
big budget Hollywood productions. So he set out to prove that you don’t need a
lot of money to make an action horror picture as good as any out of Hollywood if
not better. He denies the influence of video games or anime in his film
“Versus” because he feels anime and video games owe their influences to
cinema already. He also goes into length regarding telling a simple story
visually without too much exposition and sights the early Arnold Schwarzenegger
action film “Commando” as one of his personal favorites.
Next
is a videotaped short film that serves as a side story to “Versus” entitled
“Nervous” (6:29), which features two of the supporting character actors from
the film. There are two more featurettes with one showing some behind-the-scenes
training at the production office entitled “Team Versus” (1:04) and another
montage of preview footage (4:31). The promotional trailer (1:42), theatrical
teaser (: 20), and theatrical trailer (1:52) for “Versus” concludes the
extra features directly related to “Versus” on disc two. Hidden as an Easter
egg on disc two is a trailer (1:48) as well as some behind-the-scenes footage
(8:31) for an original feature length film being produced by Media Blasters for
a tentative release this Halloween entitled “Flesh For The Beast.” Just
highlight the black image on the right hand corner of the main menu on disc two
to access these materials.
While
the packaging on the artwork is clearly labeled as being for the two-disc
special edition, the second DVD is enclosed in disc holder envelope within the
keep case. While there was no technical problems with either DVD in the set, I
hope that in the future Media Blasters will package their two disc special
editions using the single size keep case that features an appendage within so
that both discs are better protected and rest securely within the keep case.
I
really enjoyed “Versus” and think Region One fans of the film should
definitely hold out for the two-disc special edition which can be purchased
directly online from Media Blasters at www.rareflix.com
or at other commercial retailers on and offline when “Versus: Special
Edition” debuts on Tuesday, August 19, 2003.
©
Copyright 2003 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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