Text © Richard
Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2021
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the Internet
Versus (aka Down to Hell 2)
Directed by Ryûhei
Kitamura
Arrow Video;
WEVCO Produce Company; napalm FILMS; KSS; Suplex; MVD Entertainment
120 minutes, 2000
version
131 minutes,
2004 Ultimate edition
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To be clear, there are actually three editions of this film on these discs, rather than two. The first is the original 2000 cut at 120 minutes, then the Ultimate Versus, which is the 130 minutes director’s cut from 2004, and last is Versus FF, which is a 20 minute version, which I am assuming is for film festivals, given the “FF” appendage. It does not, however, contain the 45-minute Down to Hell (1997) which can be interpreted as the demo version of this film before the real thing, though it is available on YouTube HERE. Still, this is gonna take a while to get through this sumptuous package.
I am not gonna lie; I watched the Ultimate cut from Disc 2 first, then for the shorter 2-hour one, while I did see it, I paid more attention to the commentaries.
As the opening scrawl tells us, there are 666 (of course) portals between our world and the “other side,” and the 444th one is the “Forest of Resurrection” (shades of Pet Sematary) in Japan, where the film takes place. I’m not sure what it is about Japan and wooded areas, but there are at least two other stories about the mysterious arboreal surroundings there, including The Sea of Trees and The Forest (both released in 2016). This story is similar to Down to Hell, but it is quite expanded and bloodier. The plot(s) also has a lot more depth to it.
Two escaped prisoners, the star, Prisoner KSC2-303 (Tak Sakaguchi, who resembles a young Johnny Depp) and the – er – non-star (Motonari Komiya) meet up with a car full of five yakuza hitmen and a cute, kidnapped woman (Chieko Misaka) whose presence, naturally, is more than it seems; her white dress never gets dirty, no matter how much blood is sprayed or how often she is on the forest floor. No names for the characters are given. Through a couple of double crossings and some killings, KSC2-303 (for lack of a better name) and the woman escape into the spooky woods where the hit men have buried dozens of their victims. Problem is, they are now zombies out for revenge. Heck, they even have guns (though are terrible shots; the undead need some practice).
The hit men are quite colorful and give a nice flavor to the story rather than the typical Vincent and Jules types, or any of a dozen hulking masses from mafia films. Here, they range a bit on the hysterical side or are extremely stoic, giving a nice balance. Their leader (Kenji Matsuda) is nuts and seems to act mostly with his eyes and mouth, but he is so much fun to watch, strutting and subtly dressing like the Joker in a green shirt and red tie; whether done on purpose or not, it works. The one I liked the best is the most impassive (Kazuhito Ohba). Then there is the scared and mentally unstable one (Minoru Matsumoto) and the bare-armed fighter (Yuichiro Arai). Lest I forget, there is the one who is too quick on the draw (Ryosuke Watabe).
Joining the mix are
two coppers from whom the prisoner escaped, the leader (Yukihito Tanikado,
doing his best “Twin Peaks” Dale Cooper) and the other with one hand (Shôichirô
Masumoto), thanks to the result of being handcuffed to KSC2-303. One of my
favorite lines is said by the cop leader who proudly brags that “I grew up at
Yellowstone National Park in Canada.” I am assuming this was an unintentional mistranslation
in the captions, but it amused me to no end.
There is a lot – and I mean a lot – of action here, including fisticuffs, guns a-blazing and samurai swords a-swishing. As much as the zombies are there for payback to the hitmen, they will attack anyone. As a result of the fighting and violence, the make-up special effects by Susumu Nakatani look great, in a Dead Alive (1992) cartoony-way; it is easy to tell that this Peter Jackson’s film was an influence as we get to look through holes in people, total dismemberments, and there is blood sprayed everywhere (except, of course, on white-clad Misaka). That the director studied film in Australia indicates that, as well.
Through it all, three more assassins are added to the action (redhaired Takehiro Katayama, Hoshimi Asai, and attractive gun-totin’ Ayumi Yoshihara), and to include at least two more competent women to the cast. And this is all before the halfway point when the film goes into a completely different and unexpected direction that is both a WTF moment and a Hell yeah!” one, as we meet “the boss” of all the hitmen (Hideo Sakaki), who you know from the start will lead to a final showdown with the prisoner.
The film is insane – in a good way – on so many different levels. While I would not dub this a comedy, there are a lot of funny moments, often in a twisted way. Also, there is a traditional fighting cinematic style that is occasionally used, but director Kitamura also uses some wild editing, especially near the end, that plays with the viewers’ expectations on the fights. With all the wild angles, zooms, close-ups and zombies left and right, the action is practically non-stop, and even at this length, went by pretty quickly. Even if you don’t like captions, as this is obviously in Japanese, it won’t matter: the actions speak louder than the words.
As always, Arrow Video aims to please, so this Blu-ray is abounding with bonus materials. These appear across the two discs.
The first extra I watched on the second disc (there are only two here, most of the rest on the first disc) was the audio commentary by Kitamura, and members of the cast and crew. This is different that the one on the first disc, but I must say, watch it at your own willingness to spend the time. There is about 20 minutes worth of interesting info disbursed throughout, but most of it is utter nonsense about their kids, kidding insults to each other, and is just plain blather. I watched it in double time and read it faster that way (it is in Japanese, with captions). For most of it I have no idea who said what as there was a large group and they are not identified in the captions. The most interesting stuff is comments on the new material. Speaking of which, the second 18-minute featurette, “Sakigate! Otoko versus Juku,” about the new material shot four years later than the original, with all the same actors regrouping. It’s a fun Making Of, though it does not follow any narrative lines, but rather jumps around quite a bit, which is fine. The action between Sakaguchi (who was the fight coordinator for the reshoot) and Sakaki, which takes a large portion, is the most interesting.
Back to the first disc, I started with an audio commentary by Kitamura and producer Keishiro Shinei, which is happily in English. While there is still a bit of whatever in the conversation, this is focused on the film production, and is a lot more interesting. In the yet-another commentary, this third one is the director, the lead actor, and four of the crew (including, again, Shinei). Unlike for the Ultimate, this one, which is in Japanese with captions, is quite a bit more informative and my assumption is that they said most of what they needed to say, so by the time the Ultimate one came around 4 years later, they had said their piece. This one is also worth the listen, though it does get disjointed at times; it’s like a film of the one for Versus Ultimate in that it is about 80 percent decent and 20 percent fluff.
With “Body Slamming, Body Horror: Jasper Sharp on Ryûhei Kitamura” (16 min), the British expert of Japanese films frames the director in historical context at the beginning of a new wave of Asian Extreme Cinema, such as those by Takashi Miike. It’s a nice overview of Kitamura’s career. “First Contact: Versus Evolution” (10 min), a featurette exploring the film’s origins, is a bombastic telling with no dialogue but Japanese title cards (and English subtitles) that just flashes images in MTV editing style with no piece being more than 5 seconds over thunderous music and language heavy in adjectives like “unprecedented.” Personally, I found it a bit annoying. “Tak Sakaguchi’s One-Man Journey” (14 min), a mostly self-shot featurette on the actor’s visit to the 2001 Japan Film Festival in Hamburg. The first 10 minutes is just him leaving for the flight, his hotel room, meeting his interpreter, food, and expressions of lonely feelings. When he finally arrives at the fest, he signs autographs, looks cool in his Neo leather jacket from the film, and destroys a screen. It was an okay watch, but I don’t feel a need to see again.
“Team Versus” (1 min) is a humorous look inside the napalm FILMS basement office; short and sweet. “Deep in the Woods” (25 min) is a thoughtful featurette of interviews with Kitamura, cast and crew, including Sakaguchi, Matsumoto, and Sakaki. “The Encounter” (13 min) is an interview with well-respected editor Shûichi Kakesu by Versus producer Keishiro Shinei. While he discusses this film, he also talks about different ways to approach editing, and the differences between action and animation (he did 1995’s Ghost in the Shell).
Next up is a fun Deleted Scenes (21 min) with audio commentary by Kitamura, cast and crew obviously done when the main one was completed as it is the same group. As discussed above, there is the Versus FF Version, a condensed, 20-minute recut of the film. While the narrative is obviously in disarray, it’s pretty much a collection of action scenes, mostly with Sakaguchi., and very little dialogue.
“Behind Versus,” a two-part behind-the-scenes documentary exploring the film’s production, the first being “Birth of a Dark Hero” (27 min) and the second “Versus the Legend” (46 min). Both are very well made, one featuring a mix of interesting interviews, especially Sakaguchi again, and filming some of the action; the other is more about the non-fighting parts, like rehearsals, make-up, set-ups, steadi-cams, and the like, but remains fascinating. These are well put-together Making Ofs.
There are two clips from film festival screenings, one being the XXI Fantafestival in Genoa (2 min) and the second is from various other fests where the film won awards (3 min). Again, there is no dialogue, and each edit is less than 5 seconds, over blaring music. This is more ego stroking than anything else, but considering the rightful fanfare it got, who would be surprised. For “side stories,” which are mini-movies featuring characters from Versus, there are “Nervous” (6.5 min) and “Nervous 2” (16 min), along with a featurette on the making of “Nervous 2” (1 min). The first one deals with the two police detectives and their dislike of being called “officer” (is this a Japanese thing?). It’s confusing because one detective has both hands while the other has the cuts on his face from Versus. Either way, the image is a bit over-exposed, but I am assuming that’s on purpose. For the second, directed by Yudai Yamaguchi, four of the characters are in an asylum post-Versus, and can’t remember what happened before, until… It’s quite humorous. The Making Of is a waste, don’t bother.
There are five trailers, each one quite different. I love coming attractions, but want to warn anyone with epilepsy to avoid due to the flashing lights. Seriously. Also included are 5 different image galleries, including stills (both publicity and screen shots) and posters. On the tactile side, there is a reversible sleeve for the box featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Chris Malbon, and a glossy, beautifully illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film and a reprinted interview with Kitamura by Tom Mes, with notes on the making of the film by Kitamura (this appears only in the first pressing of the Blu-ray).
Note that it took me three days to get through all the films and features. That's a nice package.
Kitamura would go on to make 2004’s Godzilla: Final Wars, and most notably what has become an underground classic, The Midnight Meat Train in 2008.
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