Wednesday 22nd April

Battle Royale II: Requiem

Director: Kenta Fukasaku, Kinji Fukasaku
Year: 2003
Stars: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Ai Maeda,

So here was something a bit different. Now, I have to admit, this has sat having been recorded (and not watched) since 2007. My hubbie, possibly in his wisdom, absolutely refused to watch this, and I wasn't bothered enough to push the issue - or find time to watch it when he wasn't around. So what better time than when you're ill and don't really care what you watch? I was feeling a bit better, couldn't face another romance, and figured Battle Royale wasn't going to be quite as gory as, say, Saw II. Plus, it was the first day since I got ill I thought I even had a chance of managing something subtitled.

The reason for the refusal to watch this? Battle Royale, in short. I know it's meant to be great, but neither of us really found it that brilliant. It just didn't meet my expectations at all, possibly due to over hype. Yet that didn't stop me being curious, at least, about the second one.

Well, this one is everything people claim it to be - dull, boring, and, in parts at least, it makes no sense. This time around the children are tag teams - if one dies, the other gets blown up. Being that these children have been sent to kill off an international terrorist (the winning child from Battle Royale), this makes no sense. It's clearly just an excuse to blow things (in this case, children) up. Unless I'm missing something here?

The rest of the film appears to involve little more than everybody running around fighting. There's nothing like enough plot to fill the ridiculously long running time of over 2 and a half hours. The best part? For me, realising that Shuya Nanahara (the terrorist) was the same actor who played Light Yagami in the Death Note films. If only I'd been watching that instead.

The first Japanese film I've been disappointed by since I started this blog.

Rating: 1.5 out of 5 (and only because it's STILL better than As You Like It).