Directed by Ryuhei Kitamura, 2000, 119 mins. Starring Tak Sakaguchi, Hideo Sakaki, Kenji Matsuda, Takehiro Katayama, Chieko Misaka and Yukihito Tanikado.
As far as "extreme" goes, here is a film that won't disappoint. I just got right into that, huh? Well, clearly, you can approach this film with the desire to see Japanese cinema at its most extreme, nothing more, nothing less. After all, with a paper-thin plot line, cartoonish characterizations, and a visual style cross-breeding both John Woo and the Wachowski brothers, what else could you expect? At the heart of this mayhem is a zombie movie, with layer upon layer of every post-MTV generation film-making gimmick you can think of lathered on top. This is an exercise in creating a movie that's so fast, with so many blink-and-you'll-miss frames of violence and gore as well as nifty camera work, that it's almost designed to hide its many imperfections. And imperfections it does have... I don't think the whole point of the film is to astound you on some intellectual or arcane level, it's just there to entertain you. Much like Kill Bill is an exercise in violence on film, so is this. But while Kill Bill plays each scene on a semi-serious level, Versus never, ever, wants you to take it seriously. In fact, it is actually quite difficult to. It's designed to make you go "Whoa!" here and "Eww!!" there and "Oh, my God!" everywhere else inbetween. But in the grander scheme of cinema, it's not meant to be remembered. It just wants to be thought of as cool.
Cool, it indeed is. With well-choreographed fight scenes, sword fights and gun showdowns, it does border on cool. But with a running time of just under two hours, the concept does get rather weary as time drags on. All the blood and guts become a moot point after the first hour, and you're just left waiting for the plot to move along - not, it has to be said, that there's much of a plot to move along in the first place. Whittle away the fight scenes and the whole story ccould be told in 10 minutes. But I suppose it's not really the story that makes this film stand out; it's the fact that it's Japanese. That might sound a bit judgemental, but admit it - if this film were American, it would be greeted with such seething hate from Asian film aficionados that it would be condemned right off the bat. Yet we forgive it for its shortcomings precisely because it is Japanese. It's almost like it has a right to be this way, and there's nothing we can do about it. I suppose it's a cultural thing – the Japanese make the best Samurai movies 'cos, heck, it came from them. But what if you were to take a sacred historical element and bring it into the new millennium, giving it new life and all the nifty fight scenes that come with it? The result could be either impressive or laughable. With this film, you've got to give it credit for having the gall to try something new.
Synopsis: Two criminals are on the run, escaped from prison. They rendezvous with a bunch of thugs for God-knows-what (at first) in a creepy forest. Egos clash, especially when a pretty girl comes into the picture. Gunfire ensues, someone dies, then rises a few seconds later as a zombie. The others freak and start shooting at it - it dies, then to see if the same thing will happen again, one of the goons shoots one of the escaped prisoners. Sure enough, he rises from the dead, and then gets killed again. Amidst all this, the other escaped prisoner flees, pretty girl in tow, and hides in the forest. Creepy things start happening, including more zombies rising – zombies with guns, I may add (you can guess their aim is as bad as their walk), more gunfire, more fights... Somewhere along the line the non-zombie escaped convict squares-off with the bad guys again, then gets separated AGAIN... A mysterious stranger is introduced, and we later find out he is some ancient entity with extreme power. He turns all the bad guys into his army of zombies and proceeds to look for the living escaped convict and the girl he's with – two major elements in opening some sort of door to another realm that would grant him even more power. Suffice to say, they do meet up, and fight, and fly, and swords are drawn... someone eventually wins, but not before a hefty flashback sequence, a battle of super zombies, and an epilogue that takes place 500 years later. No kidding. That's it…
Versus stands out mainly because it's something we haven't seen before – in one movie. Clearly there are many elements borrowed from several western films – The Matrix being the most obvious one – yet it still manages to maintain a sense of originality. Many elements of the movie are just scoff-able... The performances, for example, are either over- or under-acted. The villains take great care to look like villains, even to the point of cliché. They're either crazy - laughing or screaming unexpectedly (Kenji Matsuda,as the doolally yazuka boss, is particularly guilty of this), or stoic and blasé in an attempt to look cool. The 'hero', Prisoner KSC2-303 (Tak Sakaguchi), suffers from this as well. Barely registering emotion on his face, he spews each of his lines unconvincingly as if they're today's lunch menu. The costumes are typical of the "I'm cool and I dress it" look. You know, black leather, double-breasted suits, raincoats. Appropriate, if you're not stuck in some forest under the harsh light of day. Oh well, that's just me nitpicking. There is a saving grace to this film. The lead villain (played by Hideo Sakaki) is perfect. Sexy and sly, yet displaying a sort of controlled menace, he effectively conveys an admirable and fearsome authority. He never goes overboard, yet it doesn't look underplayed. Unobtrusive yet attention grabbing, he is a walking masterclass in screen presence. Versus succeeds in grabbing your attention, for a while at least. It's not meant to be taken seriously, although it's entirely possible that it was made with the desire to be – misplaced intentions, I guess. Still, it's cutting-edge and impressive. It took the filmmakers a lot of time to assemble, and one can't help but admire this. It does deserve to be seen, even worshipped by some. It's just not the kind of film that displays some sort of originality, and that's where it fails, in my opinion.
Snowblood Apple Rating for this
film: Versus Wallpaper http://www.kss-movie.com/versus/-
official Versus website [Japanese only] |
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