A Battle Royale with Cheese

Let's face it. Sequels of really good films are more often than not complete wastes of time. "But what about Godfather II", you cry. "That was as good as, if not better than, the first one." Fair enough, but along came Godfather III to undo all of that. Look at Wings of Desire (a masterpiece) and Faraway, So Close (a nightmare). We could do this all night. Filmbrain really liked the original Battle Royale. Kinji Fukasaku, in the twilight of his life, gave us this deeply disturbing, unsettling film (his 61st) about children who are forced by government decree to kill each other in order to survive. It's quite a political film, and Fukasaku is extremely critical of contemporary Japan, with their knee-jerk reaction of blaming "the kids" for almost every national problem. That Fukasaku injects a fair amount of dark humor into the proceedings simply adds to the discomfort level. Takeshi Kitano, in one of his best roles ever, manages to play both horrific and sympathetic as the children's teacher and overseer of the game. Though the film never had an official US release, it has found quite a following on DVD. The novel on which the film is based has been translated into English, and is well worth reading. When Filmbrain first heard that Fukasaku was planning a sequel, he worried a bit. What was the point? Where could they possibly take the story that was interesting enough to warrant a sequel? Then Fukasaku died, and the project was taken over by his son, Kenta. Though there's no way of knowing the father/son breakdown of the finished product, the end result (Battle Royale II: Requiem) is a glorious mess. First off, it's a sequel in name only. Sure, our hero Shuya Nanahara (Tatsuya Fujiwara) is back, but this time he's a full-blown "terrorist", looking like a lost member of Van Halen. There is indeed another Battle Royale, but the rules are very different, and it has very little to do with the story. The overlong storming the beach scene (lifted right out of Saving Private Ryan, right down to the camera techniques) has so much bloodshed, that by its end there are only a small handful of kids left. Whereas the first film spent a fair amount of time on the back-story of many of the kids, thereby giving some meaning to their deaths, here most of them are dead within minutes -- some without even uttering a line of dialog. The teacher this time is played by Riki Takeuchi, and his performance is so badly overacted it made William Shatner blush. (His exit from the film is an unintentionally hilarious scene that has to be seen to be believed.) With the game out of the way, the film turns its sights on things even more political -- namely terrorism, and a polemic against America's history of attacking other nations. The controversial opening, which has a pair of twin towers crumbling to the ground in Tokyo, provides a hint as to the tone of the film. [The following could be considered spoilers, but honestly, there's not much to spoil.] Nanahara is now the head of a terrorist organization called Wild Seven that has declared war on all adults. It was his organization that brought down the Tokyo towers, and now he and his team of pint-sized terrorists are holed up on an island. The Battle Royale kids are assigned to kill him, but naturally they convert to his side. In the three years since the first Battle Royale, Nanahara has been traveling the world, spending a lot of time in countries that America has attacked over the years. What he witnesses is that even in the worst of conditions, kids are still kids. They are life, joy, the future of the nation, etc. From his island hideout, he somehow manages to make an illegal worldwide TV broadcast where he first runs us through a list of countries that America has bombed, followed by a call to rise-up against America for their actions. Shortly after the broadcast, the Americans begin launching missiles at the island -- some type of new, quick, pre-emptive response to any terrorist threat. (In all fairness, America is never mentioned by name, but it takes nary a sixth grade education to figure out to whom they are referring.) From here on out the film is an endless battle that quickly turns very dull, followed by a brief epilogue in Afghanistan that is just pure cheese. Filmbrain was not bothered, incensed, nor insulted by the anti-American (and quasi pro-terrorist) stance of the film. It's not intelligent enough to be offensive, and the numerous holes in the screenplay preclude any chance of a sensible plot. (When the children in Nanahara's army grow up to be adults, do they automatically become the enemy?) A well thought out and executed film that takes America to task for some of its foreign policy decisions would have been welcomed, especially coming from Fukasaku pere. Instead, we have Battle Royale II: Requiem -- a two-hour video game that reminded Filmbrain of another really bad sequel -- Aliens.

Comments

[Chris]

I found a Region 3 probably-bootleg copy of this dvd used recently. I'm glad that I didn't seek out an import of this, as the sequel Law of Diminished Returns broadsided this film to the point of pain.
Takeshi Kitano's cameo felt awfully shoehorned, and I did have to scan back to make sure I didn't imagine Riki Takeuchi's exit. He was acting as if he needed to project the people in the farthest row. It rivaled Jeremy Irons in Dungeons & Dragons in terms of overacting.

[girish]

yikes! that DOES sound like a bad sequel.
i agree with you--the original is priceless. i saw it in a theater with a couple of hundred people, and i heard more audible, shocked gasps during that film than any other i've seen.
the pointed and powerful political allegory really made it work though.

[Marleigh]

Yay! Filmbrain finally reviews a film I know something about!

I don't think there is a film in recent memory that disturbed me so much as the original Battle Royale. I had so many nightmares after I saw it that I woke my boyfriend up with my restlessness. I wasn't expecting much from Requiem once I heard that Fukasaku's son was taking over the reigns in his father's wake. Anyone remember Henson & Co. post-Jim Henson? Not even worth thinking about.

Further, I'm saddened by your response to Aliens, Filmbrain. Sure, Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection sucked, but Alien and Aliens were both great. They both still frighten me and it's been twenty years since the first time I saw them. How can you blaspheme so?

[FIlmbrain]

Alien is still a great film. Moody, scary as hell, and really well acted on top of it all. Kind of a perfect mixture. Oh, and it's also one of the most stylish movies of the period.

Aliens was directed by James Cameron. That in itself should be a case of "nuff said" -- but I'll go on. Somewhere, at some point, somebody told JC that he could write. He can't. Worse than can't, if there's such a thing. But the screenplay wasn't the biggest problem with Aliens -- it was that he took this brilliant story and turned into 2+ hours of hack and slash. D U L L.

Unlike you, I really liked Alien 3, and the 'new' version included in the Alien DVD boxset is even better. That is a dark, dark film. Ripley, the alien, and a planet full of rapists and killers. Best thing about it -- he kills off, in the very beginning, all the manipulative things that Cameron had Ripley save -- a girl, a cat, Mother Teresa, Santa Claus, a dodo...whatever it was. Dead from the get go.

But then...I'm a David Fincher apologist.

[James Russell]

I've never thought the second Godfather film was as good as the first葉oo long and diffuse for my liking葉hough I suspect I'm in a minority.

I was also not overwhelmed by the first Battle Royale, having been led to expect something way more OTT. Possibly if I'd seen it at the cinema it might have worked better than just catching it on DVD, but alas the cinema season here was so limited that DVD was the only option...

[Chan Chong]

I haven't seen Battle Royale 2..and never planned or plan to do so. Actually, I thought the first Battle Royale was quite cheesy to begin with. It felt like some high concept anime to me. I guess I have a hard time watching modern Japanese live action films and taking it seriously. I've recently seen 'Audition' and I had the same feeling. Those two films feel too manipulative and methodical to me...-_-;

[Oliver Wang]

Duuuuuuuuuuuuude - I CANNOT you just shit on Aliens. I was thinking about this just yesterday, but this is such a great sequel, especially for a sci-fi film. I'd go on but I'm still in shock that you put it down. Damn!

[FIlmbrain]

I realize I'm in the minority on Aliens.

You see -- I was 14 when the first film came out. It was everything to me. Kept me up for days with fear. The second film took what was a great story, and great characters, and turned it into 2+ hours of hack and slash.

But hey -- I bought the Alien box set anyway. . .

[Aaron the Cinephiliac]

Funny enough, I mention Aliens on my site's bio as important to my own formative years... but I digress. I bought an import DVD of Battle Royale II from an outlet store near Union Square (you're in NYC, no?) -- the disc had the worst subtitling ever, so it wasn't easy to make sense of... but really, is it not one of the tackiest vehicles for an anti-American riff ever attempted? Thanks for bringing this title up; I have been wanting to hear somebody else's feedback since I viewed this stinker a couple months back.

[Monkstar1]

I just watched the film last night and didn't like it too much. What I did find interesting was the anti-america parts. I am american and was a little offended but I could also see where they were coming from. Are there any GOOD films with anti-american undertones to it?