I read the recent review posted on dvdtalk of Azumi, and it looked really interesting. The director of Azumi, Ryuhei Kitamura, also directed Versus. Would you consider either of these to be good blind buys? If so, why? Thanks for your time and I welcome your input.

I liked Versus, but it was nothing like what I expected going in blind. It was a lot more low budget, and horror oriented. I expected a martial arts base with plenty of gun play, but what I got was a zombie genre film.

Worth a look.

I'm interested in hearing opinions on Sky High, by the same director as these films.

I never recommend blind-buys (unseen movies is what Netflix is for... and then a purchase if warranted). That said, I really liked "Versus". Not exactly a masterpiece, even of the genre variety, but a great deal of fun. "Azumi", on the other hand, is crap.

I can't speak for Azumi, but Versus is a terrible blind buy. It's just plain awful, IMO.

It has been a few years now, but coming off of Versus & Azumi, I remember being really disappointed with Sky High. Its a complete mess and with the exception of some very attractive japanese woman it really doesn't have much going for it.

Versus is like Evil Dead...low budget, over-the-top action, shallow plot, with a very high cult-like status. I've seen it at a time when it was so hyped up that I felt so disappointed due to the excess of camera movements & overacting.

Azumi tames director Kitamura's visuals a bit with a better story line. What bothered me was Ueto Aya...incredibly cute but obviously not trained in holding a katana.

Both are very popular within the Asian film geek community (of which I admittedly am a part of) since Kitamura seems to bring a more contemporary Western version of Japanese action. I personally liked Azumi a bit with a much better plot.

If you are into the so-called "Asian extreme" (though not as extreme as some Korean & Japanese filmmakers), then I think you'll have a good time.

RE: Sky High, here's the review I posted over at City On Fire.

>>ALEXANDER'S REVIEW: At 122 minutes, Sky High is about 120 minutes too long. Think I'm exagerrating? Consider what I found myself doing while Sky High was spinning in the DVD player: I ate some crackers. Drank a Diet Coke. Watered my plants. Watched my iPod charge. Wrote the owner of this website an email. (Hi, MPM!) Called the Eddie Bauer outlet store to see if they took catalog returns. Regretted having blown $3.99 on this rental. Wondered how Eihi Shiina, Audition's gorgeous psycho, got relegated to a bit part in this shit. Swore to myself that I would NEVER again be seduced by a 1" by 1" photo of a cute Japanese babe with a sword on the back of a DVD case.

And don't even begin to tell me that I couldn't possibly be able to write a review of a film that I didn't completely watch all the way through. Let me tell you something: I saw enough, okay? I watched enough of Sky High to recognize that it is stupidly named, stupidly acted, stupidly directed, stupidly choreographed and is just plain stupidly stupid.

Ryuhei Kitamura's (Versus) Sky High is about a detective's attempts to capture the serial killer that ripped his fiance's heart from her chest. His fiance, Mina, "awakens" to find herself at the Gates of Rage, the place where all victims of violent crimes end up to decide one of three things: avenge her death and spend an eternity in hell; become a ghost; or accept her fate and await reincarnation. Sound interesting? Yeah, I thought so to. But trust me, it ain't nearly as fascinating as the DVD case suggests, primarily because the acting is horrid (Yumiko Shaku [Princess Blade] is AWFUL as the protagonist); the dialogue is of the "you have to die in order to live" variety; and the "action" accounts for barely ten of the film's 122 minutes and amounts to little more than hot Japanese babes striking poses with swords.

Early in Sky High there is a scene that perfectly illustrates how dumb this movie is. Two sleuths on the trail of the serial killer plot the locations of the victim's deaths on a map of the city. They connect the dots to establish some sort of pattern. They are literally one line away from drawing what's obviously a pentagram when one turns to the other and says, "It's a figure of some sort." Yeah, it's a pentagram, you fucking idiot! And it didn't get much better from there.

In Sky High, the killer murders his victims by reaching into their chests and ripping out their still-beating hearts. That SOUNDS pretty gruesome, but these scenes are laughably bad. Remember the hand-plunging-into-the-chest scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom? Now THAT'S a heart-ripped-from-a-torso done well.

Anyway, Sky High is stupid. It's over-produced with shockingly bad performances and very little action, very little suspense and it's far too long to sustain its B-movie premise.

ALEXANDER'S RATING: 2/10 (It's stupid!)

Oh no you didn't!
Don't ever compare that piece of shit with the awesomeness that is Evil Dead!

Azumi was entertaining

Versus is a fucking blast. Granted, there are Japanese zombie action horror films out there that are done a hell of a lot better (Wild Zero being the ultimate winner in that category), but it's still a pretty wicked trip to take. The only problem I have with the film is that it runs too long for it's own good and the film begins to stall up during the second act.

However, Media Blasters is releasing a three-disc edition of the film at the end of March which will include the 130 minute extended cut of the film (with footage shot after the film became a hit), a sequel to the short film included on the initial two-disc special edition, a sequel to the film's documentary, additional deleted scenes, and a lot more.