Versus (Movie)

Versus is a Japanese film that was released in the year 2000. It was directed by Ryuhei Kitamura and was highly anticipated when the trailers started appearing in the theaters. It is listed officially as an action and horror film, but it has gained more of a cult following than anything. It may also be listed as “The Forest Of Resurrection”. It is a fast-paced, slightly comedic, slightly sci-fi movie that never leaves the viewer wanting for action.

Synopsis

The movie begins as two convicts manage to get away from their police escorts. They head into a forest in order to meet up with some Yakuzas. Yakuzas are similar to members of organized crime syndicates. Prisoner KSC2-303, who is the lead character, does not trust the Yakuzas from the start. He gets even more suspicious when he realizes that the Yakuzas have brought a kidnapped girl with them. Prisioner KSC2-303 ends up trading insults with the Yakuzas and that’s when things get ugly. Guns get pulled out and eventually a Yakuza and the second convict are killed. A few minutes later they come back to life as zombies!

The entire forest is actually littered with Zombies, and it is up to Prisoner KSC2-303 to get himself, and the girl, out of the forest. There is one problem, however. He head Yakuza is not a human, but is actually a five hundred year old creature (part demon, part vampire, part sorcerer) that wants top open the gates of hell. The forest is one of 666 portals to hell, which is why the dead come back to life in it. It is actually named portal number 444. The only problem is that the demon needs the girls’ blood in order to open the portal so that he can gain his powers.

The movie takes off with huge action sequences, including guns, swords, fists, knifes and hand to hand combat, as well as loads of blood and gore. It has been argued that this is why the movie has become a cult classic. It has been noted by some that the plot line was merely an excuse to get tons of men battling in the forest, but others do not agree. There is a huge amount of twists and turns that the movie takes, leading the viewer to wonder exactly what is going on.

Trivia

There are no names for any of the characters. This is unheard of in a movie, but it seems to work for this one. Tak Sakaguchi plays the main character, Prisoner KSC2-303, and actually hurt himself quite a bit during the filming of the movie. He managed to break one of his teeth and had it super glued back on so that filming could continue. This meant that later he had to have the tooth removed and an artificial placed in. The tooth break is actually visible on the DVD version of the movie in the documentary that is named “Dark Hero”. He also broke quite a few ribs during filming.