Episode 255: Versus

I am still waiting for FORGIVE US ALL, Z MOM and QUEENS OF THE DEAD but in this episode, a spin of the wheel, a roll of the dice, a shake of the magic 8 ball brought me here to Rotten Tomatoes list of the top 100 zombies movies… which is…

… so we haven’t covered…

Reanimator at #4

Autopsy of Jane doe at 16

Corpse bride at 18 

We are zombies at 27

Friend of the world at 31

Dead dream at 44

Last man at earth at 45

Planet terror at 48

And this at 49

VERSUS

2002 Japanese

A relentless one of a kind sensory assault chock full of hyper kinetic fight scenes, gangster shootouts sword slashing violence and gory zombies… or  a nameless prisoner, a nameless female and her Yakuza abductors fend off zombies in a forest that resurrects the dead while the Yakuza's mysterious leader attempts to open a supernatural gate hidden within the forest and seize its dark power.

It gets a respectable 6.3/10 on IMDB

Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes has a 73% approval based on 15 reviews with an average score of 6.5/10.[11] The Rolling Stone called the film "A Japanese zombies-vs.-gangsters action-horror comedy that plays like Quentin Tarantino remaking THE EVIL DEAD while on a speed binge". Sight & Sound praised the film by commenting "With Kurosawa-style swordplay, martial arts and elaborately choreographed gun battles". Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News commented on the film "I've never seen anything like it, it's a new kind of movie." 

And it is directed by Ryuhei_Kitamura who would go on to make several well received US movies including Midnight Meat Train, The Doorman, Downrange and No One Lives. I like that last one.

In this movie we have an evil priest trying to open a portal to Hell and fighting his own brother over the centuries, as a samurai, as a future punk and, for much of the movie, an escaped prisoner. We have an army of undead gangsters, and a motley crew of living gangsters. It is very OTT, with a lot stolen from the Matrix including the exact Bullet Time movie, and it goes on for 30 mins too long. I can see why people like it. But it wasn't for me. 

Still gets a respectable 5.5/10 though