Versus was sort of a big deal in the early 2000’s when the domestic DVD first came out, and it began to make waves in the realm of cult horror. The film was touted as a mix of the Matrix and Tarantino-esque gangster violence with Sam Raimi/Peter Jackson splatter and Lone Wolf and Cub arterial spray action. If you were the type of person who kept their ear to the ground looking for the latest, coolest, horror, just the description of Versus had you in anticipation to see it.
As soon as I could lay my hands on the DVD I did, and oddly I found myself bored. Every single time. I tried again and again to watch the film, and every time I could not connect to it. I’d fall asleep somewhere in the mid-section, and wake up toward the end.
It has been about 15 years since I’ve last watched Versus, and Arrow video has a new Blu-ray sourced from a new 4k master approved by Ryuhei Kitamura (full disclosure the color grading that was once one of the over the top elements of the film’s style has been removed by the director). I was excited to revisit the film, because honestly looking at the synopsis, and well the elements that make up the film HOW COULD I BE BORED BY THAT? So I popped both cuts on and prepared to watch.
The film has a simple plot which allows the director to hang all his awesome visuals on. A pair of prisoners escape from a nearby prison into a forest, they are POCH-182 (Notonari Komiya) and KSC2-303 (Tak Sakaguchi). They are met by a group of gangsters who have been told to meet the pair, alongside an “innocent” girl they have been told to kidnap.
The presence of the girl upsets 303, and he kills one of the gangsters. This sets off a fight between the group, until the dead gangster resurrects, because apparently the group is in the “Forest of Resurrection” and all that die here become zombies. The girl and 303 run off, leaving the gangsters to wait for their boss, and fend for themselves all the while having to fend off the zombies of the deceased they have left in this forest over the recent years.
Versus is indeed a wild ride. I will say it does get a bit much in the middle section, but overall this film is a BLAST to watch front to back. If you are a an aficionado of wild cult cinema, it has everything you could imagine, and everything done well. You want Lone Wolf And Cub/Shogun Assassin levels of samurai violence? Check. Evil Dead-esque zombie action check. Asian Action/Bullet Ballet ? Check? The Ultimate Versus cut on disc 2 I suspected would improve the flow of the film for years, but rather it alters the opening and just gives the viewer MORE of the action. This is not a bad thing at all.
Arrow Video presents Versus on Blu-ray in it’s original OAR in a scan from a 35mm intermediate element (it was shot 16mm). This is a very nice film like transfer, it’s obviously low budget, and so it looks quite rough, but overall detail is good, color is stable, and I have no real complaints. There is 4 audio tracks on each disc 2 5.1 and 6.1 (Ultimate has 6.1) Japanese and English dub and LPCM 2.o English and Japanese. The first disc has 2 commentary tracks. The first with Kitamura and Keishiro Shin, and the second with Kitamura, Tak Sakaguchi, Hideo Sakaki, and Shoichiro Masumoto. There is then a barrage of documentaries, featurettes, deleted scenes and so much more. Ultimate Versus has a THIRD commentary track with Kitamura. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.