BATTLE ROYALE

[Pemu]

Watched the movie few days after the new year. Definitely one of the most disappointing movies I've ever seen! so ZZZ and I felt numb. Nothing new, the same repeat from the original, BR 1�, perhaps? Brainless shooting!!!
Riki Takeuchi in a rubgy outfit scene, hehe! Too much overacting from him.
The love declaration before headin to the battle was fun.

And Aki Maeda's cameo apperance definitely saved the show! The movie could have been better if she fully featured.

Btw at least Tatsuya Fujiwara was whinin less this time, hehe.

[Kuraiyo]

Riki Takeuchi did exagerate a little. Kind of fun though to watch him scare the kids with his Yakuza-attitude.

[hydea]

i love battleroyale..
the story... the actressses... the acting..

they are all good..
sad that the movie wasnt allowed here..

hope to get to watch battleroyale 2..
even though people said that it is not as great as br 1..

there was a movie that showed here its called..
suicide club...

the story is about a group of female students(about 50++) commited suicide by
jump into a railway
...

dont really know the rest of the movie...
dont know if it good or not...

[marecore]

I've had this on my HD for awhile, but didn't watch it since I was busy with other things. Now I have to watch it.

As for the sequel...is there a subbed version?

[ParaParaJMo]

You can get it at suprnova.org. But as far as I know, you get the subtitles seperatley.

[windrider]

*maybe slight spoilers*


Just finished watching br2, and i totally loved it.

It is a rather deep, thoughtful movies with alternative point of views on various stuff. It gives "terrorists" benefit of a doubt, while most of the world are condemning terrorists, and when goes in detail on nakamura shuuya's emotions and conflicts, that made me think "hey, who knows, real life terrorists may be undergoing the same things too". Of course this may not be true, and i do not in anyway support terrorism or anything like that... But i just like movies with this kind of alternative views that portrays things in a different light. I also liked the idea of how they came up with sending students to kill shuuya using the original BR system. Kinda fits with the theme of what "adults" would do

This movie is quite diff from its predecessor though. The first one was nice mostly because of the suspense, and (for some, not me though) the gory action. BR2 also has alot of gory scenes, but (to me) thats not the main point of the show. It shines because of its plot and concept. For anyone who like their movies thought provoking, I would whole heartedly recommend this show.

[Milkchan]

I don't think it's deep at all. I hate how this is used to as an excuse to hide how poor it is. The film is bad and if it's anything it's a film that's pro-terrorism. It takes war to make the world better is basically what it's saying. This is just il conceived from the start and gives no message to young people out there. It might have been more thought provoking if it was less about people's heads blowing up. Let's face it, it's a bland action film covering itself with a not very clever message that's been spread around for years to people. Battle Royale 2 does or says nothing new.
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[nakiko]

Just a mini plug here for my website: I run the 1st (and only) Battle Royale fanworks site so please visit and leave me comments in the guestbook etc ^_^

http://www.angelfire.com/film/battle_royale0/

[zchendevlemh]

Milkchan wrote:

I don't think it's deep at all. I hate how this is used to as an excuse to hide how poor it is. The film is bad and if it's anything it's a film that's pro-terrorism. It takes war to make the world better is basically what it's saying. This is just il conceived from the start and gives no message to young people out there. It might have been more thought provoking if it was less about people's heads blowing up. Let's face it, it's a bland action film covering itself with a not very clever message that's been spread around for years to people. Battle Royale 2 does or says nothing new.

oh yeah agree with you.

i really hate the message in br 2

shuya encourages all to rebel against adults.

like bin laden who encourage all moslems to rebel against U.S.

and i don't like the ending. how come shuya and taku (i think) survived during the assault. happy ending is only good if it's reasonably possible.

[sangmin]

i know it has come out butwere can you get i have looked ecvery wheer

[Milkchan]

You can order the dvd now. 2 disc special edition from Hong Kong, with English subs:

http://global.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.aspx/pid-1003145714/pname-Battle-Royale-II/code-j/section-videos/did-160/
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[Kuraiyo]

Holy crap!!
This is to good to be true! Even Special Edition is out now?!

[bandkanon]

ok ok...here's what I don't understand about the Battle Royale series...well at least BRII...anyway..

So in BR1 we are told that Japanese society is going straight to hell and the adults all need someone to blame...they look at the younger generation and feel that they aren't up to some arbitrary standard of survival in the real world so they formulate the Millenium Battle Royale Act. Classes of ninth graders are picked at random nine times a year (btw the nine times came from the original book but wasn't mentioned in the movie, since the BR act was meant as a deterrent like how the death penalty is supposed to act like a deterrent you need to then get people to know about the consequences of goofing off) and made to kill each other all for the sake of telling the younger generation that life isn't all fun and games and that your friends are really competitors, a warped version of social darwinism taken to its extreme. So far so good. I like it. I love it. Its original and brilliant.

Then the director starts BRII knowing that he doesn't have much more time to live due to cancer yet he starts on his quest with courage. He dies during the casting and his son takes over.

*spoilers*








Now BRII has Shouya fighting the Japanese government and indirectly the United States. Like the little boys in the Lords of the Flies fighting amongst themselves and representing a microcosm of real politiking in the real world, Japan is itself fighting in a Battle Royale. The government and the instructor, I forgot his name but his acting is horrible (remember the pills?), is telling the new kiddies that the USA has bombed lots of countries in the last decade because the USA is strong and since its stronger than everyone else it gets to do whatever it wants. Then the Prime Minister tells the audience that "that" country is going to bomb Japan. "That" country being the USA. So the reason for the BRII Act is to make the people of Japan strong by making the kiddies of Japan strong. And the government is forced to take this drastic and extreme action because of the predations of "that" country. What was a critique of the conservativeness of Japanese governence and society in BR1 has now become fingerpointing at the USA as the source of all evil. Without the USA breathing down everyone's backs there wouldn't be any need to make Japan strong and hence no need to have any BRs.

I have to say that the new director is an idiot. I know that sounds harsh but what he has just done is irresponsible. Instead of asking themselves what is wrong they point the finger at someone else in the timeless tradition of scapegoating that the Nazis, the Taliban, and Al Qaeda has used to justify its actions.

Remember Shouya's Christmas day video message? Nice rendition of Osama B. So according to Shouya's logic and hence the director's message: We are really freedom fighters. Yes we blew up buildings and killed thousands of innocent men, women, and children, but we had to wake them up and show them the reality of the world. Yes we are freedom fighters.


Right. Again I say the director is an idiot.


Oh yeah, and he can't direct.

[Fenrir]

I prefer the book, it explains better wtf happened to Japan and how it lead to the "program". The whole thing with the Great Dictator is left out of the movies, sadly. But the point is, that the Japan Shuya and his comrades fight against is a totalitarian system, I really advise reading the original book and then tell me it's bad to fight that government by any means necessary.

Judging it from the american point of view with all the muslim extremist crap won't work well, it's far too different. Try seeing it from another point of view. Fighting a totalitarian regime by any means necessary is often the only way. I'd like to point out the different resistance groups in the occupied countries in WW2 (some even in Germany), or the original IRA during and after WW1 (with Michael Collins as infamous military leader of that group).

Quote:

Now BRII has Shouya fighting the Japanese government and indirectly the United States.

Sorry, but that is bullshit.

I don't think you can compare the political (and fictious) situation of the Japan in Battle Royale to the situation of the US in our world, it's definitly NOT even slightly similar. Or do the US have a dictator in power and a military that controls everything, together with a program that forces 1,950 junior high school students each year to fight each other till death?

The Japan in Battle Royale is a totalitarian regime which controls everything. It reminds me of the 3rd Reich, or even some of the communist regimes, but it works a lot better.

Not to mention the fact that the US are actually the "enemy" of the Japanese government in BR. Think, for crying out loud THINK!


General U.S. Grant said "Sacrifizes have to be made". Churchill sacrifzed Coventry in order to keep the secret about the broken german codes secret. Collins bombed and killed british soldiers and agents in Ireland. French, Dutch, Danish, etc resistance did the same. The French Revolution cost thousands of lives, so did the Russian and so did... the American in 1776.

Comparing Shuya to Bin Laden is well... it would mean that Bush is like the Great Dictator in BR, aka like Hitler, Stalin or Mussolini? If that is so... well... then I have to say "Blast him, kill his ass asap!".

You're surprised they used the style of Bin Laden in the videos? Errrr... Apart from the fact, that Bin Laden was the first terrorist to actually use media like this IRL, it's a good way to send such messages. It's efficient and it works. Terrorists IRL have always used the means of communication of their times, so why wouldn't Shuya do that either? So it has a similarity to Bin Laden's message... *rolls eyes* So what? Cope. I don't think there's anyone standing with a gun behind you aiming at you "WATCH BRII OR ELSE!" It's slightly anti-american? So what, I'm not complaining about all the movies from the US that showed germans and austrians as typical nazis. Hell, even a few of the later Godzilla movies have anti-american parts.

I think people don't get how simple such regimes work... Hitler himself said "People are blind and stupid" and it worked for him, it worked for so many others and it will work in the future.

I'm not going to comment on 9-11 anyway, cause then I would have to comment on the allied terrorist attacks on Hamburg, Dresden (direct attacks on civilian living areas, with ~120,000 civilians dead, to "shorten the war", it failed badly -as usual, moral bombing never worked-, the war did not end sooner cause of that, it ended cause the allied forces eventually got over the damn Rhine and into Berlin, and they had to fight for each square meter), Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Tokyo (within 4 days, damage to the industry minimal, cause the industry was on its knees already; ~300,000 people, mostly women and children, dead. Thanks to people like Secretary of Wars Stims, while Eisenhower and other generals and admirals said "it's not really necessary". *notes there were tries to surrender before 6th of August 1945, but those were ignored by... politicians*).

If you don't like it, then you don't like it and put it that way, but don't bring up weirdass comparisons that lack any logic part or historical knowledge.

Get the book, it's available on amazon, then you'll understand wtf is really going on in BR, since the movies only concentrate on small parts of the real background (turning a book into a script always leads to deleting some stuff).

Let the soldiers run the countries and send all politicians to the south pole, tyvm.

[bandkanon]

Hey Fenrir,

oh yeah you said this "Terrorists IRL have always used the means of communication of their times, so why wouldn't Shuya do that either"

So then you agree Shouya is a terrorist then? So he isn't a freedom fighter? So then why is the director glorifying his actions?

Dude I'm not arguing against the book. You do know that BRII was not written by the same author as BRI right? Wait, you do know that BRII isn't even written originally as a book right? You do understand that BRII came from the director's head right? Why do you assume that everyone who watches BRII is supposed to know the backstory that was in the book for BRI? When they see BRII they get the message the the USA is the bad guy.

And hold on there partner, I never aid the US was angelic either. But you still didn't refute the statement that the director purposely wanted Shouya to look like Bin Laden and blow up a dozen buildings. You still haven't said a single thing about how the director, since he came up with the story, wanted Shouya to consider themselves as freedom fighters after killing thousands of people and then glorifying their cause as a world revolution. And why in the world would I compare BRII within itself as its own entity. So the movie then has no meaning for us. Ok I guess the movie is just a simple crappy B movie action flick then.

You know what. I realized what our diagreement is really about. You think that the movie is self contained and shouldn't be compared to our world. I think that the movie was meant to be interpreted as a reflection of our current situation.

[bandkanon]

Fenrir,

Oh yeah you have just equated the attack on 9-11 and the Allied firebombings in Europe and Japan, not to mention the atomic attacks, as in the same category. I think that the attacks shouldn't be considered terrorist attacks, and neither should 9-11. However, I would like to point out that WWII was a declared war. The Nazis and the Japanese were both warned and told to stop aggressive action. They were told that civilian population centers would become legitimate targets and that the war is now total war. Bin Laden in his own way has declared civilian targets to be also legitimate prior to 9-11. I also think that the response the US has taken is a response that has provided a de facto interpretation of 9-11 as an act of war.

Although the patriotic jingoistic side of me really has this to say about American firebombings, carpet bombings, and atomic attacks: That'll teach you to fuck with us again!! But then that would be wrong and counterproductive and highly inaccurate given the fact that alot of the time its the US screwing other countries.

[bbgirl03]

i'm just wondering..
because i love the movie

even though.. its full of blood
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[daveyheats]

Theres the manga volumes, currently being published in the US by tokyo pop, and the novel, but Im not aware of any series yet. It would be great if a series was made though, whether it was anime or drama.

[The Man]

Yeah, we got 'em here in the States. Hawai'i, specifically, just got issue # 6 of the manga about a month ago.

Hoooo-wee, lemme tell ya'; the English-translated manga goes into (it seems like) more detail with regard to the background characters; you also visually see what a totalitarianist Japan looks like (not much different from what I've seen in other manga or TV dorama that shows a modern-day Japan) vs. the movie, which only shows the island. Above all . . . I gotta admit that the portrayal of the violence of Battle Royale is accorded much more clearly in the manga artwork than the English-translated novel and the visuals and sounds of the film managed to show (I have to say, of course, both versions had their own style in any case).

The characters are drawn, in the manga, as the novel describes them (i.e., Kazuo Kiriyama is illustrated in all his congenital-derived unemotion; hair slicked back; a true angel of death; Mitsuko Souma? Oh, you just wanna JUMP into the panels . . . oh, but, wait, bad idea, right? Still, she just looks very attractive and voluptuous as we know her).

A Battle Royale TV series where we see how "The Program"-aged students make their way about this totalitarian Japan would be fascinating. And, would cut back on any violent scenes that TV producers of such a show would have to promote overtime hours to ponder "what's fit for TV"?

[bbgirl03]

whose the cast?
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