Battle Royale

[DaemonCorps]

So I recently manned-up and finally got to looking into the Battle Royale series - the story of kids brought to an island to kill each other with only one allowed to survive.

After seeing the first live action movie, I could understand how such would get such hype with its "controversies" alone. Though minor details concerning the rules brought up made me want to take a look at the original source material that was the novel. I'm a little more than a fourth into it so far and as expected, minor things glanced over in the movie were much better explained in the novel.

Striking while my interest was still high (and with the powers of Netflix at hand) I just got to watching the second movie, which while it doesn't have any source material this time around to work off of, I felt was at the least an understandable route to take in the story. Looking it up online, it apparently got a lot of heat and didn't rate anywhere near as high as the first movie did, but honestly I have no idea why. The first movie scored high to critics for taking gore and adding something of a moral underneath it all as long as the viewers were actively looking for one. The second movie worked more in the reverse, going less for the gross-out deaths (though there's still plenty in this one) and more for an obvious moral literally told straight to the viewer's faces... but it works. I'd rank it right up there with "Die hard" in terms of Christmas movies.

... finally, I decided to take a peek at the manga. Um... yeah. I get how there's bound to be some kind of sexual content in a series as visually disturbing as this one, but really... the manga was much too gratuitous where the movies and novel at least left enough to the fan's imagination. That said, I stopped at around the third manga chapter.

So what're y'all's thoughts on the series?

[Dr. Insomniac]

I watched the movie 3 years ago and liked it quite a bit. What's interesting was how the one character who sticked in my mind the most was the teacher, Kitano. Yeah, being involved in forcing teenagers to kill each other is more than enough to make you an irredeemable douche, but these scenes with him calling his daughter, that one where he's just exercising in an open field, and how he's trying to protect Noriko show him as someone you can't help but sympathize a bit. It's still not enough to make him likable, but you can't help but feel bad for how fucking lonely the guy looks and acts throughout the film.

[DaemonCorps]

If anything, I feel like the second movie did a pretty good job making more adult characters more redeemable, which is rather odd considering the first movie was basically a cautionary tale to the youth about adults in authority. Still, it's not like the third Terminator where they basically undo the second movie's message about being able to shape your own destiny--the Battle Royale movies seem to give two different sides of an argument, ending with the final fight to claim which side is more justified. Good stuff all around.

I'm not all that big on movies like these ones, but I'd definitely look into picking up the movies to own myself some day.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I first saw the Battle Royale movie a few years ago at an anime club night. Back then I loved it for its theme and its intense scenes. Then I read the book, which I loved even more, but then I realized that the movie didn't hold up quite as well as I originally remembered it. It really just rushes through a lot of things, which is understandable, but it loses a lot of themes presented in the book, or at least presents them in a more abrupt way, which kind of makes its attempts come off as pretty shallow. I still view the film as an entertaining action movie, but it doesn't have the same appeal for me as it used to, as I prefer to read the book, or even the manga, which at least get more time to flesh out the large cast of characters (Shogo was always my favorite character in the story).

I will say that I like some of the changes that the movie made, though. In particular, I like how they actually made the administrator of the game a more 3-dimensional character. He had more sides to him and wasn't just a one-note bad guy who enjoyed nothing more than the misery of children, like he was in the novel or the manga. The move made a definite step-up, in that regard.

As for the sequel, I have never actually seen it, so I can't comment on what I think about it.

[No-Personality]

I don't know anything about Asian anime, manga, and comics. So, I was just told from a bunch of Asian horror fans that the movie was a must-see. But I'm not much on action, and it's very action-oriented, so I didn't like it. Been a few years, so I don't really remember why. But, there ya go.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, the movie does contain a higher ratio of action to story than the novel, naturally, but its not like its really about the action. Its about the main characters trying to survive in an almost hopeless situation.

[No-Personality]

Survival plots always rub me the wrong way at first. Since Battle Royale has been labeled horror, I'll mention some other examples of what I'm talking about: Night of the Living Dead and The Return of the Living Dead. I like them fine now but there's something about sitting there that first time for over an hour and 20-something minutes while everyone runs around in a space trying to find a way out or a solution, etc(.), that makes me tap my feet and go, "c'mon already!"