Battle Royale
 

Has anyone else heard of this movie/book? If anyone has, what is it about?

i have had it for 2 years now.
It's pretty decent, but it's not "the grapes of Wrath" or anything..

here is a review i swiped from the Battle Royal UK site

If you can get a DVD copy ofg it, please do so.. but If you must get a VCD or VHS copy avaoid the Korean copies like the plague. Bad english and chinese subtitles. There are no dubs of this movie. But it's very good. The director died this year directing the sequel, and his son finished the movie for him. The books im trying to suffer through, but I just dont read japanese THAT well.. :D There is also a manga for those who like to look at pictures.

here is a link for the review and more info: battleroyalmovie.com

You can purchase it here: http://pokerindustries.com/

Viz will be producing the graphic novels and can be purchased here: animecastle

The movie is excellent. I got it off of ebay for less then $10.

I saw the Flaming Lips on Sunday night. During one song (can't remember which one--"Fight Test," maybe?), they played a scene from Battle Royale on the big video screen behind them. Watching Japanese schoolgirls slaughter each other with submachine guns while a couple dozen people in animal costumes danced on each side of the stage and huge balloons bounced around the audience made for one of the more interesting visuals I've ever seen at a show...

That must have been hilarious

I bought the Novel just recently.

i remember seeing a preview for this movie when i was in japan a few years ago. it looked pretty freaky. i haven't seen it though.

i just saw this film last night in sydney.

CLASSIC!

this is a fantastic film. i may even go so far as to say the best i've seen this year.

i'm now in the process of hunting down a copy of the book.

i think my friend has a rip of this. are you talking about the one where they kidnap a class of japanese kids, put them on an island, and they have to kill each other, last man standing wins?

I have this film myself and it is really good although it slows down in the middle. Best of all it has Beat Takeshi as the teacher.

thats the one Uuudar.

just heard that a sequel is in the works...

I'm almost very certain that Tokyo Pop acquired the American rights to the manga. If not them, someone else, because I specifically remember reading about this before. I can't wait!

The sequel is finished I think. Western world probably wont get a cinema release though.

Back from the dead
I resurrect this thread.

I saw Battle Royale with my girlfriend last night. I'd like to talk about it, but I don't know what I want to say yet. I'm blown away.

Anyone seen this? What do you think?

I saw it... it was messed up. The ending was kind of lame. I didn't think it was that great at all. Just a stupid action movie with 9th graders. It was okay but nothing spectacular.

You can't go wrong watching a bunch of schoolkids killing each other. I liked the bit where they have to pick a bag which has weapons in it. Some of the bags have guns, some have stuff you couldn't kill a fly with !

i liked the movie a lot, but im really in love with Takeshi Kitano. The manga and written novel are pretty intense as well.
What do you wanna talk about sledge?

I still haven't seen the film, but the novel was severly disturbing. Needless to say, I enjoyed it thoroughly. Some good characters and a really good perspective on what really lurks in everyone's heart....

Veritas en Lux!
Jimmy The Hutt

Hehe.

My friends and I disagree about the craft of the movie, sometimes to polar-opposite opinions - I think it did a really good job of fleshing out the teenagers, while they thought they were flat stereotypes with no development; I think the violence was intended to prove a point about Japanese society, while they thought it was just a gorefest.

I see how you could interpret the movie both ways. I guess I'm just led to give it the benefit of the doubt.

So... intelligent drama or brainless bloodfest?

What makes me think that this is more than just another slasher fic is the consistency of each character. Take Mitsuko (the crazy killer girl). Yeah, when she dies there's the voiceover where she says "I just didn't want to be a loser." If you go back and watch again you can see hints of that earlier, especially in the conversation with the second girl she kills. She's had a tough life that easily leads her to the conclusion that no one will help you and you better work to get to the top.

I don't know, there are just these little details that fit together. Kawada ties his shoelaces and sprints out of the room when his names is called at the start, which fits with his commando-like persona. It's thrown into sharp relief by the other "transfer," Kiriyama, who's chewing gum or tobacco as he walks out of the room slowly, completely relaxed. When Kawada runs back in because he doesn't like his weapon, he knocks Kiriyama aside, but Kiriyama doesn't even stop chewing - completely without surprise or emotion. Nothing groundbreaking, just kind of neat.

IMO, it's the characters that keep this movie from being senseless violence.

the movie was all about the characters


has anyone seen the sequel yet? heard it was a let down from the original.


does anyone know where i can the manga or novel, i really want to read this

jheri you can buy the manga in most places that sell manga
Try bookstores, or suncoast video, etc..
if that doesnt work, i believe VIZ published the manga and possible the written english novel as well.

How do you make a sequel to that? Just out of curiosity...

Veritas en Lux!
Jimmy The Hutt

The offical plot summary for BR2:
This movie wont be following the novel so much, but will be more of a "war movie" based on the director's experiences in WWII. I hope the director's kid Kenta didnt fuck up his fateher's vision and dying wish..
It should be interesting.. we might see it on VCD or DVD in about 6-8 months or so..

well.. what i mean by that is.. we wont be seeing it stateside, but .. i figured you could guess that :)

There was a second novel as well, I take it? Coolness....

Veritas en Lux!
Jimmy The Hutt

I've seen Battle Royale a few times, and I think it's pretty great. It's by no means a cinematic masterpiece, but there's something about it that sucks me in every time. I think what I like most about it is the tone--it's part action movie, part horror, part sensitive coming-of-age story. Plus it's got a bunch of cute kids in school uniforms annihilating each other, which makes for some truly unbelievable visuals. It's a movie that could never be made in America.

I've heard that Kinji Fukasaku (the director) said the movie wasn't allegorical, but come on: it's a movie about schoolkids from one of the most hypercompetitive educational systems in the world forced to compete against one another for literal survival. Plus it illustrates how solutions are often worse than the problems they purport to solve. It's got a lot of whoa-check-that-out carnage, but at heart I think it's a pretty serious movie.

Bonus trivia: Chiaki Kuriyama, who plays Chigusa in Battle Royale, has a role in the new Tarantino movie (she's the one swinging the mace at Uma Thurman in the trailers).

It's a Japanese, gorey version of "Lord of the Flies". I thought it was pretty entertaining, but the ending was pretty bad in my opinion. Certainly worth seeing if you don't mind seeing kids murder each other :crazy:

In defense of this movie, and other foreign cinema.. A lot of japanese movies have similar endings to this..
It's a different culture and the pacing, underlying tone, and themes are different than may western releases. A lot of people hate japanese and chinese movies for this reason. Imagine what they think of our blockbuster movies. Diff'rent strokes.. you know?

Hal: i didnt see Kill Bill, but i knew she looked familiar..
she was the jogging/ track girl who went a little nutty and hunted that bow with a switchblade.. right?

She's the one. I would've loved to have seen what it was like in the theatres, when half the audience doubles over at a certain point during that scene....

Has anyone seen any movies like Suicide Club or Stacys? Battle Royale is apparently the tip of the iceberg in terms of wonderfully effed-up Japanese movies.

There are more?? I'm a happy man. Got more titles I can look up?

There are a couple of sites I've picked up on--

Poker Industries
Snowblood Apple

--that have gotten me started. I'm sure that there are way more comprehensive sites around, but these two are enough for the moment--you have to track a lot of this stuff down, since it's not like the local Family Video is going to be offering something like Flower of Flesh and Blood anytime soon....

There is a sequel also. I have the special edition with extra gore and such. It is brilliant.

That movie sounds like an updated version of Lord of the Flies. If I see it, I will have to watch it sometime.

I just bought this movie, I'd been meaning to for a long time, and I remembered it when I saw this thread.

I just have a question for all of you. Is this movie scary? I mean, I hate scary movies and I get terrified at anything, even tough I see it coming and I know its fake. I just want to be warned before I pop it in. Thanks all!