This movie was quite the find, and at a Blockbuster, no less! I rarely see any good Asian cinema in there at all, and all the good anime gets taken by the stoned teenagers on Friday nights....
This Japanese movie had a little bit of everything in it. Zombies, big guns, revenge, and a good dose of sword fighting!
It dealt with a place called the "forest of resurrection", where (big surprise here) people keep coming back to life, though in zombified form. One guy freaked out because his crime partners buried a whole bunch of their victims in the forest, and on cue, they started coming up out of the ground for revenge.
The two main characters had some awesome sword fights, but since one of them had lost the use of one eye, I had trouble suspending my disbelief - doesn't that wreck your depth perception? Oh well, I'll go with it.
My only complaint about VERSUS was that it dragged on a bit too long. It was 2 hours, and a lot of the "revelations" kept getting rehashed for each character that figured something out.
But all in all, it was pretty entertaining.
Post Edited (11-24-03 20:53)
Rented this a copule of months ago from my local Blockbuster as well. Unfortunatly it was the rated R version. I recently obtained the unrated version, which has quite a bit more gore in it.
I really loved the film. It had great style and some of the best bad guys that I've seen in a long time. One of the main yakuza, the guy in the green shirt, was fantastic. He just oozed coolnes.
I do agree about the film running a bit long. It seemed like the fight between the two main characters just kept dragging. I also didn't care much for the whole side story with the FBI.
Also, I'm just curious, did you watch the film with the subtitles or without?
Whenever I watch a Japanese or Hong Kong film, I will watch with original dialogue and subtitles. I have found that translations usually fall short when they get butchered into English. (and I do mean butchered....)
That was the exact reason I was asking. When I first viewed it, my wife insisted that it be with English dubbing. She absolutely hates subtitles...don't know why.
Second time around, I viewed it with subtitles. The dialog changed completely.
Most Asian films are like that. Hard Boiled was pretty bizarre, but Crouching Tiger had completely different translated dialogue. At least it increases replay value, it's almost like getting 2 movies for the price of one!