It is hard to pin down what "Versus" is. A modern samurai flick, a wire-fu film a year removed from "The Matrix", another foreign zombie flick, etc. Japanese director Ryuhei Kitamura (whose best known American film is "Clive Barker's The Midnight Meat Train") throws so much into his films that you are bound to like something from each of them and appreciate his directorial style, but being able to wade through this stew maybe difficult.
Two prisoners have escaped and made it to the rendezvous point in the Forest of Resurrection. The gangsters they meet up with are a wild bunch who were instructed to pick these guys up after they kidnapped a woman. Prisoner KSC2-303 is a feminist and being unable to tolerate the arrangement, he uses his martial skills to dispatch one of this crew. His efforts soon turn out to be futile because that guy does not stay dead.
During the confusion over this undead compatriot, KSC2-303 makes a break for it with the woman. Now the gangsters must catch these two (whom their employer has special plans for) in the forest where they buried most of their victims. If you thought the Fire Swamp was tough, this place has more than ROUS to deal with.
"Versus" is a fast and furiously paced film until story becomes involved. It is fun and has a sense of humor, but it is because there is zero exposition until the latter half of act two.
For 80 minutes of being an homage to all the great Hong Kong genres, it slams the brakes to put some nationalism into the story. The story does pick up again to set up the finale, but the return to a samurai film makes it a bit anticlimactic. It is a clash of styles that only worked in "Kill Bill".
Mixing so many styles may require an expert filmmaker. This was Kitamura's first full-length feature. It is not as mature as "Meat Train", but his mastery of lighting is present and his mis en scene is dead on. He later abuses these traits in his Clive Barker adaptation, but his skill cannot be denied. He just was not ready for such complex projects.
"Versus" is an example of Ryuhei Kitamura's ability to make fun movies. He did not know at this point how to make a great film, but he definitely has the skill set. Kitamura is like Michael Bay except he can direct. If you think about a watching a Bay flick, immediately turn to his Asian equivalent.
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