Review of Versus (2000) by Samuel D — 25 Apr 2008

A totally deranged mixture of oriental mysticism, Yakuza gangsters, guplay, martial arts, black comedy and zombies (and when is that ever NOT a good ingredient to a movie), Versus is a highly entertaining and rather bloody movie by Ryuhei Kitamura; who later went on to direct the absolutely marvellous Azumi. The premise of the film is that there exists a forest in Japan where the 444th portal (out of 666 apparantly) to the other side will open if the proper ritual is carried out. Within that forest the dead come back to life as zombies to avenge themselves on the living. And they use guns and swords to do do too...

A prisoner and his female companion are chased by a group of Yakuza - one of whom is a knife-wielding, scene-stealing and absolutely certifiable loon. The undead appear to cause trouble, and then the Yakuza boss arrives, and turns out to be some kind of demon or somesuch and who wants the girl for his nefarious schemes. What we get are gloriously over-the-top battle sequences, slapstick humour (one particular moment that lampoons Neo's bullet-dodging in The Matrix made me chuckle rather a lot), insane characters spurting deranged dialogue and what I can honestly say is the best sword fight I have ever seen.

This is the kind of film that just wouldn't work if it were attempted by a Western director. It's one for action movie junkies, zombie fans and lovers of weird black comedy. A lot of fun.