Versus (2000)
A recent prison escapee and a girl he rescues from a gang of yazukas must do battle first with yazukas and then the reanimated corpses of the yazukas. It is revealed that both the prisoner and the girl are reincarnations of past lives. The girl is to be sacrificed to gain entry to The Forest of Resurrection, where the Powers of Darkness lie. In an attempt to save the world from said powers, the prisoner kills the girl, but a dream state reveals that there will be future reincarnations of the girl and that the future is anything but safe from the powers of the darkness.
"The inspiration for Versus came from the films of the 1980s, Sam Raimi movies, John Carpenter movies, George Miller movies. Everything I like: zombies, gun fighting, kung fu fighting, sword fighting. I wanted to do car action too, because I love Mad Max so much, but I didn't have enough money for it (laughs). So aside from the car action, everything is in there." - Ryuhei Kitamura, Midnight Eye interview
Kitamura later went on to make his American film debut with Midnight Meat Train (2008) adapted from a story by Clive Barker. The film follows a photography who tries to track down the notorious subway killer.
Director: Ryuhei Kitamura
Writer: Hideo Nishimura
Cast: Tak Sakaguchi, Hideo Sakaki
Running time: 120 minutes
Year: 2000
Studio: Tokyo Shock
"The inspiration for Versus came from the films of the 1980s, Sam Raimi movies, John Carpenter movies, George Miller movies. Everything I like: zombies, gun fighting, kung fu fighting, sword fighting. I wanted to do car action too, because I love Mad Max so much, but I didn't have enough money for it (laughs). So aside from the car action, everything is in there." - Ryuhei Kitamura, Midnight Eye interview
Kitamura later went on to make his American film debut with Midnight Meat Train (2008) adapted from a story by Clive Barker. The film follows a photography who tries to track down the notorious subway killer.
Director: Ryuhei Kitamura
Writer: Hideo Nishimura
Cast: Tak Sakaguchi, Hideo Sakaki
Running time: 120 minutes
Year: 2000
Studio: Tokyo Shock