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Film Details:
Directed by Ryuhei Kitamura Written by Ryuhei Kitamura and Yudai Yamaguchi Starring Review: by Melissa (e-mail your faithful reviewer) I'm a big fan of genre mixing. It's a difficult thing to do, but when it works, it's great. I love things like Moulin Rouge or Mr. Vampire (an underappreciated horror/comedy/kung-fu flick from Hong Kong). I even had some fun with Brotherhood of the Wolf, even though it had many, many flaws. However, when genre mixing fails, it sucks. I can't quite decide whether Versus sucks or not. To be fair, I watched this movie under perhaps the worst conditions for doing so, short of trying to watch while being distracted by axe murders or nuclear bombs. I started watching the film around midnight, while tired, and with only one other person in a cozy room. I was almost nodding off at several points. I kept thinking that this was the movie that NEVER ENDED. I really didn't enjoy much of it. However, if I was in a room full of rambunctious horror fans, fuelled by beer, pizza, and popcorn, I probably would have loved this movie. This would be a fantastic party movie. I think I need to see it again, but here are my views as they stand. Versus' plot, if you could call it that, involves the Yakuza, a couple of prisoners, a chick in white, and samurai kung-fu gun-wielding zombies. How could you not like samurai kung-fu gun-wielding zombies? I loved them! I just wish the rest of the film was as fun as the samurai kung-fu gun-wielding zombies. You see, in between the scenes with zombies, kung-fu, gunplay, and blood blood blood, there are loooooooong slooooooow periods of Not Much Going On. Not Much Going On with subtitles. The pacing sucks. The plot, aside from the action-y stuff, is either incomprehensible or nonexistent (I can't quite decide which), and the director has no clue how to build characters, so the long, slow bits nearly unbearable. The film has other flaws as well. The makeup effects are lousy and uninventive. The dialogue sucks. One music cue was completely inappropriate, then was cut suddenly, as if a sound engineer hit a button by accident. (02222003 Addendum: A Cthulhu Coffee reader has confirmed that this music cue error is unique to only the bootleg copies of the DVD.) The handheld cinematography was interesting, if nor entirely successful. On one hand, it allowed for great sweeping camera movements and some astounding shots. I kept thinking we should get this cinematographer in touch with Kevin Smith. On the other hand, they obviously didn't have a steadycam, which was maddening. What is worse, the cinematographer kept cutting across the plane of action, which often made scenes very visually confusing -- especially the action sequences. Somebody didn't tell this guy about the 180 degree rule. Akira Kurosawa can break the 180 degree rule. Nobody else can. All other things aside, though, where Versus both fails and succeeds is its constant need to be Cool. This is a movie that a bunch of teenage boys might make. It's all about looking Cool and posing Cool and holding guns in Cool ways and throwing anything that might be Cool. These guys must have watched The Matrix before embarking on this movie. This constant need to be Cool does indeed make for a lot of fun. The Anti-hero gets to steal shiny black duster, shoot stuff with big guns, wield a katana, don sunglasses, and run around with a sassy haircut and blood on only half his face. One of the villains gets to wear a saucy green shirt while grinning like a fool and shooting zombies. However, neediness to be Cool is most definitely Uncool, and this results in a lot of "Cool" things being Uncool, or even Lame. Needless swooshing of shiny black duster? Uncool. Too many pouty Japanese men? Uncool. Yet another dolt who holds his gun sideways? Uncool -- only Harvey Keitel can get away with that. A katana with laser sights? LAME. Of course, couple all that goofy stuff with a bunch of people expecting to see chewy, campy, violent fun, and this movie would be a frickin' blast. I do hope that these filmmakers move on to make more films. You can't help but appreciate the unbridled enthusiasm these guys have, and considering that Versus had no budget and is a first film for almost everyone involved, it's actually a bit impressive. DVD Details: The DVD that I got to see was probably an import and not an official DVD release of any sort. The transfer was fine for a low-budget film such as this, but the DVD had NOTHING ELSE. The film was on a single track. The DVD didn't even have a menu screen. 02222003 Editor's Note: One of our fine readers confirmed that the copy I saw was a bootleg, and that the official DVD release (available from Japan) actually includes some nifty goodies and is complete devoid of the "inappropriate music cue" that I mentioned in the review above. If you're bored: Further Information: |
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