Ryuhei Kitamura's Versus is a movie released in the year 2000. It is an insane, over-the-top romp of violence involving zombies, Yakuza, 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... and worse, they'd buried their victims with their guns to hide evidence.
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'.
A sequel and an American remake were in the pipeline at one point, but there hasn't been any movement on either in years.
Not to be confused with the Let's Play series by AttackingTucans and (sometimes) JoshJepson.
This movie contain examples of:
- Accidental Murder: Crazy yakuza with amulet accidentally shoots and kills short-haired female yakuza when she is in the middle of a fight.
- An Arm and a Leg: In the case of the one-handed cop, a right hand.
- And Show It to You: The Man does this to The Yakuza with Glasses.
- Anti-Hero: Prisoner KSC2-303 is an escaped criminal responsible for unknown crimes whom he doesn't even remember and while not evil like "The Man" or the rest of the gangsters is certainly rude and prone to violence.
- Arch-Enemy: Prisoner KSC2-303 has "The Man," a necromancer he's destined to battle each time he reincarnates.
- Ax-Crazy: Kenji Matsuda's character.
- Back from the Dead: Prisoner KSC2-303, twice at least due to the Vicious Cycle.
- Badass Longcoat:
- Prisoner KSC2-303, after changing out of his prison outfit. It even includes it's own screaming guitar riff that plays when it's put on!
- One female gangster (the long haired one) wears one.
- Bare-Handed Blade Block: Prisoner KSC2-303 pulls this off to signify his Heroic Second Wind in the final battle.
- 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 remains pristine the entire time.
- Big Bad: The necromancer seeking the Forest of Resurrection.
- Blade Lock: This happens a lot in the final battle.
- Blood from the Mouth: Take a sip every time blood dribbles from someone's mouth. Chug if it's sprayed and/or vomited.
- Boom, Headshot!: Prisoner KSC2-303 kills the one-handed cop this way.
- Butt-Monkey: Both Crazy yakuza with amulet and the one handed cop seem to have no luck in the movie and are constantly humiliated or come off as complete fools. This is lampshaded when the two try to fight around the same time the fighter detective and short-haired female yakuza are also fighting.
- Card-Carrying Villain: The Man. When one of his men asks him what he's up to he answers "Something bad."
- Cool Shades: Subverted. With its own guitar riff (that fades out after The Girl shakes her head)! 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. One of them even has a Laser Sight!
- Chunky Salsa Rule: Until someone gets a hole blown through them or decapitated, they always have the chance to come back regardless of how much punishment they take.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The Man is attacked by the Yakuza Leader with butterfly knife and his crew. He easily defeats them all once he goes on the offense.
- Prisoner KSC2-303 when he takes on the resurrected Yakzua minions of The Man, makes short work of all of them.
- Dark Action Girl: The two female assassins who are shown to be quite tough and strong.
- Disc-One Final Boss: Yakuza Leader with butterfly knife for the first thirty minutes or so is primarily treated with the focus as the main villain. However once The Man shows up, he quickly takes over as the role of the main villain.
- Dodge the Bullet: "The Fighter" tries. The Man, however, succeeds.
- Dual Wielding: Matsuda dual wields fighting knives briefly. Prisoner wields both Cool Swords briefly.
- Excuse Plot: The only thing the plot exists for is to get characters from one fight scene to another. And sometimes fight scenes just happen for no real discernible reason.
- Eye Scream: The Man tears off one of the assassins' face and pulls out his eyes from its sockets. Even he was disgusted by it!
- Face–Heel Turn: The End suggests that Prisoner KSC2-303 has turn evil while The Man has pulled a Heel–Face Turn.
- Facial Dialogue: the flashback scene where The Girl convinces KSC2-303's previous incarnation to kill her is entirely wordless.
- Faux Affably Evil: The Man always presents himself as a very calm and even polite individual. This only serve to hide the power hungry madman he is in reality.
- 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? When the Yakuza Runt expresses shock at the fact that two people he has seen get killed returned from the dead, the Yakuza with Glasses replies with a casual "So?"
- Gangsta Style: The yakuza hold their guns this way, except the runt.
- George Lucas Altered Version: In a way, The Ultimate Versus is this. It adds not only new scenes or musics, but also refined special effects.
- Guns Akimbo: And how!
- Gun Twirling: The long haired female yakuza briefly twirls her revolvers.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: Several characters meet their end by being sliced in half or in multiple pieces.
- 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 Can Still Fight!: In the flashbacks, Tak's character is in fact MISSING AN ARM.
- IKEA Weaponry: Parodied. The Man assembles a three-piece scabbard from a suitcase, then draws an intact katana from it.
- I'm a Humanitarian: The main villain takes a bite out of a character's heart at one point.
- I Shall Taunt You: The Man spends several minutes giggling at The Girl, at one point. He also seems quite fond of doing this to other people he encounters through out the film.
- Kill the Ones You Love: Suggested during one of the flashbacks.
- Lecherous Licking: The Man goes to town on one of the female yakuza. Lampshaded every which way in the commentary.
- 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 the last one, and it backfires.
- 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: The central female character doesn't do all that much in the story other than follow KSC2-303 around at first. She becomes slightly more active after The Man shows up.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: The film combines zombies, yakuza, kung-fu, gunplay, wizardry and more.
- 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.
- Nonchalant Dodge: The Man pulls this off simply by leaning his head to one side. A shot aimed at his head promptly blows up a tree stump behind him.
- Oh, Crap!: Matsuda, Ohba, and Matsumoto when the zombies first pull out guns.
- Offhand Backhand: Several characters shoot zombies without even turn their heads towards them.
- Off with His Head!: How the Girl met her end back in the 10 century battle.
- Prisoner KSC2-303 kills The Man this way in the final battle they have in the present.
- One-Word Title: Versus.
- Our Zombies Are Different: They can actually shoot guns for one thing. For another, they can withstand headshots, though getting pumped full of enough lead will cause them to drop. They also seem more interested in killing than biting.
- 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 Psycho Knife Nut who believes that Murder Is the Best Solution.
- Really 700 Years Old: The main villain.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: The main villain. Also, at the end, the protagonist.
- Rule of Cool: The movie makes damned close to no sense, but it's still awesome.
- Running Gag: The scrawny yakuza losing his pistol and then immediately pulling a new pistol out of his Trouser Space.
- 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.
- Slasher Smile: KSC2-303 has a rather scary one.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Possibly the case with The Fighter detective (or as he is credited as Cop with Barrett) who constantly talks about himself as a dangerous skilled man who is capable at all sorts of things. When he finally gets in a fight with the short-haired female yakuza, she noticeably has the upper hand in the fight-granted it does get cut short before there is a conclusive winner. Then when Prisoner KSC2-303 aims the Barrett at him, The fighter claims he has "five hundred times faster reflexes than Mike Tyson" and tries to Dodge the Bullet only to fail miserably and get blown to pieces.
- 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.
- Trouser Space: The scrawny Yakuza pulls a new gun out of his waistband every time someone disarms him. One gun even has the price tag still attached.
- Unfriendly Fire: the short-haired female yakuza.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: Prisoner and The Girl seem like to have some sort of attraction one for another but we never know if they will become romantically involved or else. It's also implied that in the 10th century the Girl was the love interest of Prisoner's past self.
- 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: Prisoner, The Man, The Girl and the Yakuza are parties to a never-ending battle raging on through untold centuries. The main three players (The Man, Prisoner, The Girl) don't change in essence, but may change sides (the Hero may be the Villain next time and vice-versa); in all cases, the duel repeats endlessly.
- Villainous Crush: Not crush, but more sexual attraction in The Man's case who appears to have one towards the long-haired female yakuza.
- Villainous Valour: Both in the last phase of the climactic duel and, depending on
your take, perhaps the whole movie! - Would Hit a Girl: The Girl gets slapped around a lot.
- Yakuza: All over the place.
- Zombie Gait: Some of the earlier zombies that had been buried (and were presumably decomposed).
- Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: KSC2-303 at least tries this.
