Versus

Ryuhei Kitamura's Versus is a movie released in the year 2000. It is an insane, over-the-top romp of violence involving zombies, Yazuka, assassins, two very strange policemen, an immortal villain and Prisoner KSC2-303, played by Tak Sakaguchi.

Newly escaped from prison, Prisoner KSC2-303 and his friend meet up with the group of Yakuza who arranged their escape. However, things go horribly wrong when a fight breaks out and one of the Yakuza is shot. Moments later, he rises from the dead and tries to kill them, only to be shot down again by the others. While the Yakuza are occupied with testing this new development by murdering the second of the escapees, Prisoner KSC2-303 takes the opportunity to escape along with girl the Yakuza had kidnapped. In their chase, the Yakuza team realise that the forest was the place they buried their victims and the zombie-victims are far from happy.

Soon enough, the man behind the zombies arrives. He is a psychotic immortal who plans to use human sacrifice and the power of the forest to open a portal to the 'other side'.

An American remake has been announced.


 * Ax Crazy: Kenji Matsuda's character.
 * Back from the Dead: Prisoner KSC2-303,
 * Badass Longcoat: Prisoner KSC2-303, after changing out of his prison outfit.
 * Barehanded Blade Block
 * BFG: "The Fighter" pulls out a damn anti-tank rifle from his crashed police car when they have to go on foot.
 * Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Played straight for most of the movie. While the bad guys' faces are literally coated with blood, KSC2-303 only gets dirty near the end, and The Girl remain pristine the entire time.
 * Blade Lock
 * Blood From the Mouth: Take a sip every time blood dribbles from someone's mouth. Chug if it's sprayed and/or vomited.
 * Bullet Sparks
 * Cool Shades: Subverted. With its own guitar riff! According to the Director's Commentary, that bit didn't go ever very well in Japan. Once it got to America, however...
 * Cool Sword: KSC2-303 and The Man each have, or acquire, one.
 * Crosses the Line Twice: A cop missing his right hand? Gruesome. Ordering the guy who cut it off to give it back? Moderately funny. Complaining when the hand he gets turns out to be a left hand? Hilarious.
 * Chunky Salsa Rule
 * Dodge the Bullet: "The Fighter" tries. The Man, however, succeeds.
 * Dual-Wielding: Matsuda dual wields fighting knives briefly.
 * Four Is Death: The Forest of Resurrection is the 444th Portal out of 666.
 * Four Eyes, Zero Soul: The Yakuza with Glasses is a mixture of this and Stoic Spectacles. Evidence?
 * Fan Nickname: Matsuda's character is called "Balisong" by some fans, due to his wild antics with his Butterfly knife.
 * Gangsta Style
 * Guns Akimbo: And how!
 * Gun Twirling: The long haired female yakuza briefly twirls her revolvers.
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: The english dub will have A LOT of recognizable voices to anime fans. Including Crispin Freeman.
 * Hideo Kojima: He was an extra. Kitamura would later be chosen to direct the sword-fighting scenes in the Metal Gear Solid remake Twin Snakes.
 * Ho Yay: After shooting one of the other yakuza, the yakuza with the glasses (played by Kazuhito Ohba) gets a very suggestive hug from Kenji Matsuda's character. While Ohba's character was visibly disturbed over the shooting, Matsuda's was a notably uncaring character, mocking, shooting and slicing up their other companions for kicks. The tender way he speaks to Ohba at that point comes as quite a surprise to the viewer, who by then is more used to his sarcastically cold way of speaking.
 * Holding Hands / Take My Hand: KSC2-303 to The Girl, at the end, paralleling an earlier scene where he offered her his hand, and then dropped it when she pauses too long.
 * Hyperspace Arsenal: Every time the weasely yakuza loses his gun, he immediately pulls an even bigger gun from the waistband of his tight leather pants. How many guns does he have stuck in there?
 * I'm a Humanitarian: The main villain takes a bite out of a character's heart at one point.
 * I Can Still Fight: In the flashbacks, Tak's character is in fact MISSING AN ARM.
 * I Shall Taunt You: The Man spends several minutes giggling at The Girl, at one point.
 * Knife Nut: Matsuda.
 * Kill the Ones You Love: suggested during one of the flashbacks.
 * Licking the Blade: The main villain. Multiple times.
 * Mexican Standoff: And HOW. The movie loves this trope.
 * Miles Gloriosus: The "Fighter Cop" mentions how he has the ability to smell trails like a bloodhound, has mastered every form of martial art known to man, and how his reflexes are "a hundred times faster than Mike Tyson's!" We never see any of these abilities at work except
 * Murder Is the Best Solution: Kenji Matsuda's character. Somebody ticks you off? Try to murder him. A guy comes back from the dead? Shoot the guy next to you to see whether he comes back too. Someone lets the guy you want to kill escape? Slice him up, giggling madly, then have him shot. You no longer want to work for the guy who employed you? Hire some assassins!
 * Neutral Female: Sort of?
 * No Name Given: Everybody. The Ultimate Versus DVD guide refers to everyone by the last name of the actor portraying them, with the exception of KSC 2-303 and The Man.
 * Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: The film combines zombies, yazuka, kung-fu, gunplay, wizardry and more.
 * Oh Crap: Matsuda, Ohba, and Matsumoto when the zombies first pull out guns.
 * Offhand Backhand
 * Pants-Positive Safety: Two yakuza appear to have holsters for their guns. The rest do not.
 * Psycho for Hire: The yakuza in the suit, played by Kenji Matsuda. He's an Ax Crazy Knife Nut who believes that Murder Is the Best Solution.
 * Really Seven Hundred Years Old: The main villain.
 * Red Eyes, Take Warning: The main villain.
 * She Fu: The short-haired female yakuza is one of the better fighters.
 * Shoot the Bullet: KSC2-303 and The Man use this on each other during their final Sword Fight.
 * So Bad It's Awesome: Take any single element of this film besides the action scenes by itself, and you'd say it was of poor quality. Combine them all, though...
 * Stab the Sky: briefly
 * Sword and Gun: And it's a really big gun, too...
 * Sword Sparks: During the final duel.
 * Sword Plant: Just about every time there's a need to strike a pose during a sword fight.
 * Tap on the Head: KSC2-303 uses the karate chop to the neck version on The Girl to keep her from interfering with his fights. He does it twice. The third time, she ducks, makes a face at him, and moves out of the way.
 * Use Your Head: KSC2-303 headbutts Matsuda at one point. Matsuda keels over, and is seen lying on the ground rubbing his forehead in the next few shots.
 * Versus Title: Taken to its logical conclusion.
 * Vicious Cycle:
 * Villainous Valour: Both  and, depending on your take,
 * Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: KSC2-303 at least tries this.
 * Widget Movie: The movie makes damned close to no sense, but it's still awesome.
 * Zombie Gait: Some of the earlier zombies that had been buried (and were presumably decomposed).