Battle Royale II: Requiem

After loving the first battle royale, I was extremely disappointed in this and struggled to make it through the whole movie.

Most of the faults have already been pointed out. The acting (not really a feature of even the first film) is laughable. Fujiwara, who was well cast as the naive Shuya in the first film, looks totally out of place as a hard bitten terrorist/freedom fighter.

The rugby coach was one of the worst actors I have ever seen, hardly a suitable replacement for Kitano.

The direction is full of choppy cuts, meant to convey a sense of fast paced action but effectively just turns the movie into a bloody mess.

Obviously the movie wasn't helped by the untimely demise of the director. Avoid this one and watch the first instead.

This film is basically guts and gunfire entertainment from Japan.

(WARNING!- A BASIC PLOT OVERVIEW NOW FOLLOWS:) Picking up where "Battle Royale" left off, a new class of schoolchildren are forced to enter the BR 2 program in order to eliminate Nanahara Shuya, survivor of "Battle Royale", and now leader of a group of child terrorists comprised of survivors of the "Battle Royale" program, who have decided to wage war on the adult society that has rejected them.

Firstly, it should be noted that although this film may lead you to ponder topics such as:

The global circumstances that give rise to Terrorism. The traumatic effect of combat on children. The foreign policies of the United States. The breakdown of parent/child relationships within Japanese society.

These things are incidental and not what this film is for.

This film is about the good old "bang,bang you're dead", "No I'm not! you missed me!" playground antics we used to get up to as children, only here it's adults only entertainment. Put any kids you might have lying around the house to bed, hang up your film critic hat and hold onto your seat, because this film is about teen bloodshed and bodycount and there'll almost certainly be tears before bedtime! Yes there's a plot, but if you are going to try to take this film seriously you will come to a major hurdle in the first act, as soon as the class's teacher enters the arena to lay down the rules!

Kids - CHECK, Guns - CHECK,

LET BATTLE COMMENCE!....

I just finished watching BATTLE ROYALE II and was really impressed. A great sequel that lives up to the first, because it adds enough new stuff to keep things fresh. I loved the idea that the students are now forced to become a strike force, and that their collars are now tied together (one dies, so does their partner).

The battles are brutal, although I'm a little iffy on the politics. Anyway, it's a fun, beautifully shot movie that shouldn't disappoint fans of Battle Royale. Definitely adding this one to my collection.

This does build up well from the first film, even if it borrows heavily from Saving Private Ryan to start with. The initial set of unlucky volunteers are decimated in their first mission in the new game, leaving the old heroes, who are now terrorists, with a problem.

The whole thing is overblown, and could have done with tighter editing. As usual, there are some interesting characters, strange humour and stuff that just doesn't work.

There is a little too much sentimentality and not enough Beat Takashi.

I saw the first BR movie a while ago and I remember how quick the pace was. People would die one after the other and it was just about killing. There was barely any insight on the characters, making it a little dull, but i enjoyed it nonetheless because the special bond between Noriko and Kitano was added.

I expected the same with the second movie, but instead I got the opposite. The plot in this movie is really really lame. They go to the BR place, everyone's acting super crazy, and the main character's best friend dies, just like Nobu. Then everyone dies within the first 30 minutes or so. I also didn't like it how everyone had a partner and if your partner died, you'd die too. They had the important mission of killing a terrorist to complete here, but they just played around.

Though this movie lacked the plot, it made up for it in the meaning. For example,questions are raised. If teens and adults are so different, how do teens eventually become adults? Is it because they eventually realize they can't achieve their goal? And to prevent this disappointment, do the adults need to force this reality on them with violence? This is a very anti-communist movie so i can see why it's controvertial in countries.

Though i think the main message it's trying to send out is that life isn't just black and white. It's alright to be in-between.

So...this is an excellent movie that I would recommend seeing, you will get a lot out of it. And don't worry, the blood is so fake, it's funny. XD