[KFCC] Versus - Ultimate Versus Review

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Versus - Ultimate Versus

		Country :	Japan
		Year:	2001/ 2004
		Genre:	Action / Horror
		Format:	DVD
		Running Time:	1H59 / 2H10
		Distributor:	KSS Films / Media Blaster
		Date reviewed:	08/25/01 - 04/08/07

		Producer:	Keishiro Shin
		Director:	Ryuhei Kitamura
		Cast: Tak Sakaguchi, Hideo Sakaki, Chieko Misaka, Kenji Matsuda, Yuichiro Arai, Kazuhito Ohba, Takehiro Katayama, Minoru Matsumoto, Ayumi Yoshihara, Yukihito Tanikado, Shoichiro Masumoto, Hoshimi Asai

Story: Prisoner KSG-301 along with his cell mate escape while being transferred which has been set up by a Yakuza influence. They meet up with their so called saviors only to receive orders which include keeping a girl hostage for the boss. KSG-301 does not agree with them and tells them to let the girl go. After a brief gun fight everyone realizes something is terribly wrong and the dead are coming back to life.

Review: Versus is an action movie filled with style and unrealistic animesque action sequences, in addition it merge two very different genres Zombie movie with a Yakuza context. This combination might sound too good to be true but the creators succeed in pulling it off and making one excellent movie. The story is well thought out but it is really in the background only, the most important factor in this movie is the action, which represent approximately 70% of the movie. The story may seem confusing at first but the answers will generally come to you and it the end will seem pretty simple.

This is yet another Japanese movie with some extremely colorful characters. You have a small cast but every character sticks out with their own style and personality. The hero is cool and all of the bad guys he must face in this movie. Then there are the funny and stupid characters that are just hilarious. Even if none of these actors will win an award for their performance, each of the characters were unique and great: from the wussy stupid yakuza to the unbelievable poser cop! The characters are a very important part of the movie, if they were not all interesting and unique this movie would have probably been less interesting.

The main focus of this movie is action, they kept the story simple and focused on the coolness factor of the action sequences. You have a wide variety of scenes, from gun fights, to martial arts on to swordsplay, each with beautiful choreography. These scenes are all very diverse and you will have interesting surprises during the entire movie. Another thing to detail is the coolness factor, they managed to put in a lot of scenes that were just too cool to see, very unrealistic of course but incredible on screen. It is also apparent that the inspiration is taken from outside sources, a good description would be to take a few ideas from Tsui Hark, some tricks from Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson. Mix these with some John Woo styled camera shots and add a small dose of Takeshi Miike shock affects and maybe you would have something like Versus. The inspiration made seem apparent but their use of it is very creative. The overall look on the movie is a stylish and visually appealing display of violence. There is also an undertone of serious humor, either from the action or the characters themselves, its serious manga style of humor. The only negative thing was that some of the camera work during the beginning of the last sword fight was a little weak.

Versus is not a deep movie or anything but it is something that is extremely entertaining to watch. They managed to do all the cool things that you always would of wanted to see in a movie not to mention there are quite a few allusions, spoofs and homage's to other classic movies such as : Terminator2, Matrix, Wild Zero, Predator, Zombies… Each time we've seen the movie we spotted out a few extra obvious allusions.

Versus is simply a must see for any action movie fan, for people who don't like action movies you will probably not like this one. Just remember one thing, as good as this movie may sound to not let yourself be hyped. We watched it with no expectations and were blown away, expect nothing and a surprise is guaranteed because if you expect too much you might be dissapointed.

Media Blaster DVD Ultimate 3 DVD set[ NTSC, Region 1 ] :

Basically this movie version is the same movie as the previous one, meaning that if you hated Versus you will still hate this longer cut, but if you are a fan of the original then there's more for you to love here. This new version incorporates around 10 minutes of new stuff such as a few new scenes, new music, extra CGI intro and color correction...but also, more blood and more action! The new introduced scenes are detailed in an insert included with the 3 DVD, but they are easy to spot while viewing the movie as those scenes appear visually much clearer than the rest of the original film. It makes you realize that the technology used at the time of the original was low budget and not up to the standards of the recently filmed stuff.

The first DVD includes the 130 min version of the film. The transfer is an improvement over the original Japanese R2 DVD. I could not compare to the older Media Blaster DVD but after reading members' posts in the forum I can deduct that this new version has better image quality. The transfer is anamorphic, and generally very pleasant. However, the new stuff is unfortunately much more clearer than the older scenes.The sound is in original DD 2.0 and DTS 6.0, in Japanese and English dub. As an extra you also have 2 audio commentary. The original DVD commentary, which was on the first Media Blaster release featuring directors, producers and actors. And also an all new Audio commentary by directors, producers and actors, explaining each new scene.

Disc 2 includes an Image gallery, Behind the Scenes and 2 making of features. Discs 3 has Deleted Scenes, editor interview, Taks Journey to a festival (literally destroying a theater screen with a Katana), more Versus featurettes, Versus trailers, Film festival clips and other Tokyo Shock trailers (including Zebraman).

This amazing 3 DVD set comes in a very cool tin metal case holding the 3 DVD and the insert.

To those wondering about the image quality, heres 2 screenshots, comparing the new improved Ultimate Versus and the Japanese Region 2 DVD: Pic 01 Pic02

DVD [ NTSC, Region 2 ] :

Finally, the official release of Versus is now available. The movie comes with a decent anamorphic widescreen transfers that in my opinion could have been a lot better if I compare to other recent Japanese DVD releases , and for the sound only a Japanese DD2.0 is available, which is suprisingly good. The English subtitles are also of excellent quality. The extra are: a commentary audio by the director (in Japanese no English sub), a 26min. behind the scene making of called Behind Versus Part-1, again with no English sub, but still very interesting to watch… Now where's part 2 of the documentary?? Another extra is a short movie (7min.) called Versus Side Story, which is related to the two cops in the movie. Again this short doesn't have any English sub. The final extra are 3 trailers. This is a very good DVD release, if we can forget that the sound is only DD2.0. As for the extra they are mostly pointless since they don't have any sub. But still, if you can't wait for the R1 release, buy this DVD now!

Reviewed by Janick Neveu

Story Cast Entertainment Subtitles Overall

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