Versus (Japan, 2000)
Directed by: Ryuhei Kitamura

Starring: Tak Sakaguchi, Hideo Sakakai, Chieko Misaka, Minoru Matsumoto



“Question: In your opinion, can you use a horror film to describe a political situation? 
 
Director Ryuhei Kitamura: No, I don¹t think so.”

- interview from Inside Horror Magazine


No meaning, no sense, no redeeming features whatsoever, VERSUS is best described by its director as:
 NON-STOP, FREEFALL, ULTRAVIOLENCE ACTION ENTERTAINMENT!
 Five Yakuza thugs, two escaped convicts, one evil wizard, and a forest full of gun-toting zombies. Mix with gasoline and serve. High on style, low on budget, delivering non-stop, blood-spurting fun, it¹s Sam Raimi¹s Evil Dead for a new millennium. 


Prisoner KSG-301 escapes from the slammer with one bracelet of a handcuff clamped around his right wrist, the other end clamped around some poor sap¹s severed arm. A fashion-forward yakuza gang is supposed to get him to safety, but they insist on hanging out and waiting for the boss, passing the time by tormenting a random female hostage. They¹re getting on KSG-301¹s nerves, he tells them to stop, they won¹t, there¹s a short sharp eruption of violence and the yakuza guys wind up in the dirt with sucking chest wounds.

 Movie over? Not quite. See, this is a magic forest, and the recently deceased yakuza come back to life, and KSG-301 and the hostage make a run for it, with a growing army of kung fu kicking zombies on their tails. Proving just how far a determined director with a simple goal, a shameless cast, and some cool ideas for new ways to kill zombies can go, VERSUS has nothing on its mind but pure cinematic anarchy.

Irredeemable, inexcusable, indefensible…but fun.