‘Versus’ (2000): New Millennium Japanese Insanity

Directed by: Ryuhei Kitamura || Produced by: Keishiro Shin

Screenplay by: Ryuhei Kitamura, Yudai Yamaguchi || Starring: Tak Sakaguchi, Hideo Sakaki, Chieko Misaka, Kenji Matsuda

Music by: Nobuhiko Morino || Cinematography: Takumi Furuya || Edited by: Shuichi Kakesu || Country: Japan || Language: Japanese

Running Time: 120 minutes

What do you get when you mix the tone of Blade (1998), the visual style and fashion sense of The Matrix (1999), the nutty, over-the-top cinematography and gore of The Evil Dead (1981, 1987, 1992) trilogy, the grungy, Ozploitation-esque backdrop of Mad Max (the 1979 original, only), and then toss in a strong dash of Japanese yakuza crime drama? My guess is the result would be something like Ryuhei Kitamura’s Versus, a chump-budget (~$10,000 at the time) zombie action-comedy that, at first glance, resembles one of those many shot-on-video titles from Red Letter Media‘s Best of the Worst series that take place entirely within a local state park. In many ways, Versus feels like a passion-project for its rookie director, who makes no effort to hide his cinephile inspirations, as well as a sort of demo reel for his action cinematography skills given the sheer number of creative fight sequences using everything from fisticuffs to katanas to handguns to .50 caliber Barrett anti-material rifles. The addition of undead horror and reincarnation fantasy elements only further confuses the brew, though it all might’ve been recommendable given its auteur charm if the film had any sort of coherent narrative.

Despite how much the movie feels like a student short film stretched to feature-length at times, the sheer diversity of camera techniques used for both the action and dramatic scenes is a sight to behold. Combine the inventive cinematography of Versus with its identifiable yet eclectic audiovisual style and no one could ever fault the film’s directorial ambition. Cinephiles will recognize everything from the frantic, chaotic tracking shots of Sam Raimi to the striking single shots of characters speaking directly to camera without breaking the 4th wall a la Yasujiro Ozu, to the wirework of Hong Kong action cinema and its many descendants, to the black trench coats, oval sunglasses, and pulsating techno music that percolated throughout new millennium culture. The extravagant gore FX and practical blood squibs are the cherry on top of this stylized personality, a far cry from the digital plugin FX and vapid computer generated mayhem of most 2010s-2020s blockbusters.

Top: A small portion of the movie’s gigantic ensemble discover the narrative setting’s tendency to resurrect recently diseased castmembers as zombies. Bottom: Admire the late 1990s/early 2000s fashion.

As fun as the film can be, though, Versus has no discernable story beyond its amusing introductory sequence and lasts for way, way too long (about two hours instead of the 80-90 minutes its backdrop warrants). Its cast try their best with the melodramatic dialogue but only a few castmembers (e.g. secondary antagonist Kenji Matsuda) chew the scenery effectively. Despite the simple premise of a prison escapee (lead Tak Sakaguchi) fighting off secondary yakuza captors with the help of a fellow hostage (female lead Chieko Misaka) and the added twist of, you know, zombies(!), co-writer-director Kitamura’s uninteresting fantasy-backstory to the film’s “Forest of Resurrection” setting (the fancy name for the park where they shot the film) is incoherent and the film’s overall pacing, anemic. The overwhelming number of fight sequences actually slows the movie’s pace, while the film’s long, drawn out dialogue and unnecessarily large ensemble cast clutter the movie that much further. What could’ve been a simple yet gnarly genre-hybrid of yakuza vs. the undead turns into an overextended riff on all the aforementioned popular Western movies, where few of the action sequences and character choices lead organically from one act to the next. If it wasn’t for the camerawork’s distinctive style, Versus would be as much of an awkward slog as Xtreme (2021).

Versus‘ summary on Vudu reads as follows: A relentless one-of-a-kind sensory assault chock-full of hyper-kinetic fight scenes, gangster shootouts, sword-slashing violence and gory zombie horror, Versus was a key title amongst the barrage of innovative horror and action movies that appeared as if from nowhere from Japan at the turn of the millennium, leading to a new wave of appreciation for Asian extreme cinema. Compared to the likes of similar Japanese films from around the same period, such as Audition (1999), Battle Royale (2000), Suicide Circle (2001), et al., Ryuhei Kitamura’s directorial debut strikes the same early 2000s tone but lacks the cohesive narrative structure of its contemporaries. It’s hard to fault Versus for its audiovisual ambition, in other words, but as far as its effectiveness as a work of narrative cinema goes, its appeal is highly limited.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

SUMMARY & RECOMMENDATION: Too long, unfocused, and talky, Versus doesn’t live up to its funky premise or concise title and instead resigns its story to a more athletic version of countless straight-to-VHS titles from the 1980s-1990s. Ryuhei Kitamura has since gone on to have a successful career both in his native Japan as well as Stateside, but my guess is that’s thanks to his improved grasp of cinematic storytelling rather than just cinematic tone.

— However… Versus previews great action filmmaking chops from its burgeoning auteur, as well as a plethora of respectable cinematic inspirations to which Kitamura pays homage instead of just ripping off.

—> Versus works as a 2000s era action showreel, which may have been its de facto function for Kitamura decades ago, but as a standalone movie, I CANNOT RECOMMEND it.

? What the hell was the point of that epilogue?