Versus

[gerardwilkie]

Saw an absolutely amazing film last night . It is a Japanese film about two prisoners who escape from jail , and end up in the Forest of Resurrection . There they encounter a band of Yakuza , then countless zombies and a fair few vampires . Lots of martial arts action , gore and a couple of babetastic young ladies make it an incredible watch.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0275773/

The main actor , Tak Sakaguchi , ranks up there with the greats of martial arts cinema (in my opinion anyway).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tak_Sakaguchi

 

[Anonymous]

I enjoyed the trailer...gonna have to see it. Good find

 

[Heckler]

The director Ryuhei Kitamura appeared on an episode of Jonathan Ross's Asian Invasion and mentioned his involvement with Godzilla Final War, which looks great in an old school Gojira fashion.

Also he is involved in making a sequel which is called Versus II oddly enough.

 

[Heckler]

Oh I meant to mention, the film is rather good.....

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

I love this film (as long as you stop it before the epilogue) - what amuses me most is inspiration for the film. Some fancy and obscure Japanese movie? Nope Commando.

I've tried with Kitamura's other films but they are all over long. Azumi is good (as is its sequel) but I watched Sky High recently and it was piss poor. I am waiting for Aragami to be released on the Dual Project double disc (it was part of a challenge to make a film in one room over a short period of time and some say it helped keep the bloating under control).

Tak is great and guaranteed to be a massive star - I'm looking forward to Death Trance (ahhhh its out now!! I'm ordering asap) in which he stars and seems to do at least as well if not better:

www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=22214

However, I would quibble with:

The main actor , Tak Sakaguchi , ranks up there with the greats of martial arts cinema (in my opinion anyway).

He is a street fighter with some kick boxing training. How he looks in that film is largely down to the action director who really pulled out all the stops.

Yûji Shimomura
www.imdb.com/name/nm1647538/

Who has moved on to directing Death Trance where its said he has done really well. Although Kitamura should obviously take a lot of credit for the film both the action director and the writer have helped make it shine. The writer is:

www.imdb.com/name/nm0945369/

The writer has directed Battlefield Baseball and if you want to see Tak at work check that out as it is mental - I was so eager I bought the Japanese version. Of course some people will hate it but it so mad it makes your head hurt, He has also directe Meatball Machine which I'm also looking forward to:

www.forteantimes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24988

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Well I watched Death Trance last week and if you enjoyed Versus then you really have to watch this. Its tighter, action packed, lots of Tak fighting (with his trademark rapidfire punching) and plenty of weirdness that just keeps gettng stranger. I did fear that it had lost the plot at the end but it managed to pull it together and leave the door open for a sequel.