versus 2

A CASE FOR BETTER ACTION MOVIES – Character Study: Prisoner KSC2-303 From VERSUS

The following is a version of a segment to a compilation article to which I contributed with other writers over at The Action Elite prior to its publication on February 9, 2015. CLICK HERE to read the article in its entirety. My college experience wasn’t a lot of fun, though I did have some good memories. I was a member of a cult genre club that followed sci-fi, games and anime, and it was through my membership there about fifteen years ago that one of ours bought a VHS tape of a little-known Japanese flick called Versus, directed by Kitamura Ryuhei. I saw a snippet of it in passing but it never quite caught onto me until I came upon a point in my life where I needed an outlet to deal with personal hardship and heartbreak. So, cult Asian movies on DVD became my thing and so did my […]

Kitamura: VERSUS Star's Retirement Was "Bullshit", And Other Goodies About The Upcoming Sequel

Lee B. Golden III

The emotional fanboy rollercoaster of the last few months regarding the “retirement” of beloved Japanese action star Tak Sakaguchi signaled what many people thought would be the end of an era that saw the rise of Napalm Films, and the emergence of Nippon cinema glory with the highly acclaimed cult jiadaigeki-style blood-splatter zombie action classic, Versus, directed by Ryuhei Kitamura, who is promoting his latest action horror release, No One Lives, starring Luke Evans. In an April article cited at Nippon Cinema, Kitamura managed to close the book on those reports stating that he would bring Sakaguchi out of retirement saying, “The lead actor [Tak Sakaguchi] is retired, but I’ll get him to make a comeback. He’ll do it if I do it.”. Thankfully, a recent interview on Monday was shared by writer Diva Velez (a.k.a. The Lady Miz Diva) over at Twitchfilm, where director Ryuhei Kitamura clarified the ordeal and […]

Ryuhei Kitamura Confirms VERSUS 2

Lee B. Golden III

According to several reports forwarded from Nippon Cinema everyone’s action filmmaking fan favorite, Ryuhei Kitamura is going to start on Versus 2, the third installment to the Down To Hell franchise that led to the blockbuster success low-budget Japanese cult fan favorite, Versus, which starred Tak Sakaguchi, Hideo Sakaki, Chieko Misaka, Kenji Matsuda, Yuichiro Arai, Minoru Matsumoto, Kazuhito Ohba, Takehiro Katayama, Ayumi Yoshihara,Shōichirō Masumoto, Toshiro Kamiaka, Yukihito Tanikado, Hoshimi Asai, Ryosuke Watabe and Motonari Komiya. At a recent premiere for his new action horror film, No One Lives starring Luke Evans, Kitamura tells us “The lead actor [Tak Sakaguchi] is retired, but I’ll get him to make a comeback. He’ll do it if I do it.”. This is by far, the best news I have caught in YEARS. Ryuhei Kitamura is what drew me into a wider range of Asian cinema back when I was in college. I fell in […]