First of all Battle Royale isn’t really all that violent in my opinion and it isn’t supposed to be watched as a party movie. It’s more a sober film to watch either by yourself or with friends who are likeminded. If you want gore and fun, check out Wild Zero, Ichi the Killer or Versus. Battle Royale is more of a theme film. Loss of innocence, seperation of the youth with their elders and blanket statements on violence it’s self. Not the kind of film you’re supposed to hoot and holler for, even though many do.
Nobody should watch Battle Royale for the gore, because there’s really not much of it withstanding the neck explosion scene near the beginning. Think of it as a Japanese Lord of the Flies. If you don’t like it, you just don’t like it. I thought American Beauty was lame but others loved it, different strokes for different folks. If you didn’t see the beauty inside of it then I doubt anyone could make you change your mind you know.
Battle Royale was one crazy trip to watch. From the opening theme, the mood was set but it got a little choppy in the story telling up until that fatal bus ride. After that, it’s quite fast moving. And all throughout the movie you’re thinking, “how in Jupiter did they come up with the BR act?” Although it was shocking and ‘violent’, the underlying morals are there: loyalty, trust, love, symphaty, blahblah.
One word for this flick? Irony.
[quote]SPOILER
maybe its cause i didnt let it sink in yet, but who is the survivor at the beginning of the film who’s smilling?[/quote]
*** POSSIBLE SPOILER ANSWER ***
I think that girl is the previous year’s winner. The actress appeared many other times in the movie as a double. More info from http://www.battleroyaleonline.com/
any real fans of the film battle royale should try and find the book. Battle Royale the book was written by Koushun Takami and is 10x better than the movie. i read the book first and was very disapointed by the movie (although i still bought it).
about the movie, i agree with pantsman that it’s not that violent (it looks like a disney movie compared to ichi) and that it is a loss of innocence film. the book makes the themes stand out better, the themes in the book are also better, for example shuya’s absolute shock when he kills someone for the first time, and also the idea that in the Battle Royale, friends who have known each other for years turn on each other and kill each other off. Battle Royale is a pretty good movie spawned from a VERY good book. FIND IT AND READ IT!
Battle Royale amazed me when I saw it, like with pantsman, it was my first introduction into Japanese cinema. It wasa demented blend of violence, dark humor and loyalty vs homor theme that seems to spread itself throughout these type of films.
And you gotta love Kitano, their whacked-out teacher.
But how else is the film gonna fit into a movie under 3 hours with all that shit like how it came to be. Battle Royale cut right to the theme. and that was why it seemed all forced and rushed. Because when the game actually starts, didn’t you notice how the pacing slowed down a bit. There was more character devolpment and what not. I wouldn’t call this over-rated for a second.
Yeah you’re right, that tends to happen when you hype yourself up for a movie so badly. Then it fails to deliver. I know that feeling, it happens all the time. The best thing to do is once you hear about the film from a bunch of people (like friends and probably look at a few reviews) stop and don’t look at anything else because reading to much makes you expect more out of the movie. :-/
When I saw this film, I was totally shocked at what I was looking at, I knew the theme was students killing each other but I didn’t think it would be that in-your-face and mean-sprited. I didn’t know that any of the deaths were so bloody and brutal, I didn’t know there was a psychotic teacher watching all of this and laughing at the fact that all those kids who gave him troubles in the past were offing each other. Everything in this film impacted me and shocked me much more then it did with you probably.
I hope you get what I mean, but if you didn’t like it as much as I (or some others) did that’s ok by me. What would you give it outta ten?
i really want to see this movie, i might order it from asiancultcinema for 30 bucks. i heard that it is just a Japanese exploitation film that pretends to have a real message, but i dont care. i still want to fuckin see this movie bad.
[quote]im sure they could have come up with something better than the BR act and just used the narrator to kinda wrap it up in like 10 min, i think it would have been worth my while.  And do you really consider that character development?  maybe cause i only watched it once, but most of the characters were just killed off after a very brief summary of who they were.  i think either the film had to be longer, or they should have had less characters, i mean their deaths didnt mean much since the audience didnt really have any (not to sound like a feely touchy guy) intimate connection with them.  the sad music following their deaths seemed so cheap.  maybe its because ive heard so much hype about the movie, i just expected too much, but i didnt think it was all that great.  or maybe its just taste.  btw, was bullet in the head in this kind of pace?  cause i was thinking about buying it online real cheap, but i wasnt sure if it was worth it[/quote]
You could check out the Director’s cut to see if that fills out any emptiness you had with the characters. There’s some added flashback scenes (Like Mitsuko’s rough childhood and a basketball game that Class B plays in which shows how united they were) and another thing that I like in the Director’s Cut is that we’re reminded who the kids were that got killed. Instead of Kitano just reading the names off in the speakers, their faces are (sometimes) shown on the screen. And there’s a bonus ending scene that’s an extended version of Norik’s dream with Kitano.
My only gripe with those scenes is that they’re awkwardly placed. But their point is still able to come across to the viewer.
i watched it recently, and thought it was a pretty nice movie. there were a few things i wouldn’t have put in (i didn’t like the ending at all, all the suspence and violence of the movie deserved a better climax, i think…), but it was worth watching, anyway…
(the freaky smiling girl with the doll at the beginning is the survivor of the past edition, she has no relation to Noriko’s class, or at least that’s what i thought when i saw it.)
as for br2, i haven’t been able find it anywhere around here…i’ve been told it’s not as good, though…
I got Battle Royale and watched it this past weekend. I thought it was damn good. i thought the ending was very satisfying as well. I got the director’s cut off of ebay for about 17 bucks i think and it was WELL worth it. check this out if you haven’t.
The book and the mangas are amazing, the movie could have been done better. Although I read the book before I saw the movie so I might have gone into it with high expectations…However, it is still a very good movie, just somewhat of a letdown after reading the book.
I would like tokick you for that spoiler, because i am reading the book now
fucker
[/quote]
sorry about that, not a REALLY bad spoiler, but bad enough, i guess
i agree with Deaner, though, if you read the book first (like i did), the movie will be a letdown. if you see the movie first and then read the book, the book will give you a much more in depth look at the story
sorry about that, not a REALLY bad spoiler, but bad enough, i guess
i agree with Deaner, though, if you read the book first (like i did), the movie will be a letdown. if you see the movie first and then read the book, the book will give you a much more in depth look at the story
[/quote]
Ok,
I agree.
It better to watch the movie first, and if it didnt satisfy you. You can read the book.
i do remember the watch thing in the book. i don’t remember the context it was in, though.
[quote]so why dont you book readers tell me what was up with the dream thing?  was it just something cool that the author just wanted to stick in for fun?[/quote]
the dream thing wasn’t in the book at all
(atleast not that i remember, i read it a while ago though)
