Battle Royale (Japanese)

[misfits859]

I'd like some opinions of this film. I'd heard so much about it I finally ordered the DVD with English subs. For those of you that've seen it, what did you think?

[RavenBlade]

Well, It's a pretty disturbing movie if you ask me.
It is well crafted, depressing, and violent.

The things these kids have to do
in order to survive, is down right horrorfying (sp?)

Now, before I had shelled out cash for the dvd,
I had to download it to see what all the fuss
was about. I was not disappointed.

Last I heard, there is a sequel in the works.
And I can't wait for that. All though
a state side release is highly unlikely,
being that, the first one, was pretty much
banned.

Raven

[SteveSzyk]

Battle Royale was great! Unfortunately the copy I saw had no sound, but otherwise the picture was perfect. The film was amazing. I couldn't keep my eyes off the screen. Shocking, violent, amazing... Everyone, try all you can to get your hands on this... You won't be disappointed.

BTW: I am still alive... although it doesn't seem it since I haven't posted in weeks. Computers been constantly fuckin up, and schools been tough, but fuck school, movies is what matters :p Heheh...

[APzombie]

My video store has this, i looked at the cover the other week and thought about getting it for the night, though i saved it for one of those special occasions with some friends....

[ICP RULZ]

I want to see this flick soo bad. But I hate watching movies on the tiny little computer screens. It is soo hard to watch the movie. I downloaded BrainDead and Jason X and I don't think I enjoyed the movie as much as I would'ev if I would'ev watched it on T.V. or on the big screen.

[Kim_EZ]

Well, Tartan DVD (of the UK) has released a NTSC version of Battle Royale on DVD for American audiences.

http://www.dvdasian.com has it

[Mojo67821]

So NTSC means it will play on region 1 DVD players? By the way thanks for the link Kim

[APzombie]

I dont have the link, but a recent Aint it Cool article said that the director is now sick and will die pretty soon, but before he dies, he wants to make a sequal!

weird stuff man...

[Kim_EZ]

Well, this DVD is spose to be Region Free and NTSC means we can watch it on American DVD Players.

[Romero&Juliet]

After all the fuss I heard about Battle Royale i HAD to go track it down...after about a few weeks of combing EVERY video store in the city, it turns out that my best friend's verry brother just got a copy earlier that day!!

So we got together, got all relaxed and watched Battle Royale.
I was screaming like a little freaking schoolbroad in about five scenes (every one that involved that heartless chick with the badd ass knife thingy..).. and although THEY liked it too (I had NO IDEA that my friends older brother was into good movies, which is really cool. We talk horror ALL the time now!), I think they're gonna stick to the theory that I'm crazy in the head for getting so much Enjoyment out of it!

I didn't really get much out of the teacher character, though.. in the ending, especially.. I think there should've been a little more lead up to the obsession sub-plot anyway..


~~~OH< !! and there's one scene that went WAYYYY over my head... why did the Chick with the potasium cyanide want to Kill Nannahara?? Was there some personal shit going on that I didn't pick up on?

[Kim_EZ]

She heard that he killed someone (that guy, the axe) and was afraid he'd off her and the girls. So, that's why she wanted to poison him.

[Romero&Juliet]

Originally posted by Kim_EZ
She heard that he killed someone (that guy, the axe) and was afraid he'd off her and the girls. So, that's why she wanted to poison him.

OHHHH YEAH!!! I TOTALLY missed that! Thanks!

[Jewbo]

i just got the 2 disc set. its got sum great extras. and i loved the film. not as gory as id expected but i loved it anyway.

[Romero&Juliet]

Originally posted by Jewbo
i just got the 2 disc set. its got sum great extras. and i loved the film. not as gory as id expected but i loved it anyway.

yeah, I was expecting WAYYY more gore... but about ten minuites into the movie I totally forgot about it.

[misfits859]

I was sorta surprised by the lack of gore too. I hated the cheesy "Your're cute" or "I loved you" lines before someone was killed or died. I thought that it was a well done movie overall but nothing spectacular. I don't expect to see anything like this in US theatres anytime soon.

[Andrew Tom]

It was great, until the ending which tops my "most disappointing ending ever" list. Not what I wanted, and apparently not what Arrow wanted either...

[Jewbo]

yeah the ending kinda confused me a little i dunno wot really happened.

SPOILER MAYBE????/

they didnt kill each other so y did the teacher think they did?????

[RogueSpear]

Originally posted by Jewbo
yeah the ending kinda confused me a little i dunno wot really happened.

SPOILER MAYBE????/

they didnt kill each other so y did the teacher think they did?????

I finally got a chance to see Battle Royale the other day and I'll through my two cents in.

**Spoilers**
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It was my understanding that the whole thing was set by the teacher. From what I gathered, the teacher had some sort of obsession of Noriko and wanted to end his life with her because his life had gone down the toilet. So I think he got Kawada to come back to the game again to protect Noriko so that she could last until the end and he could die with her.

That's why he told all the soldiers at the end to leave without checking the bodies. He knew that Kawada did not really shoot Nanaharra and Noriko. That's why he waited around.

At least that's the way I perceived it. Either way it was a great movie.

[Hardcore Horror]

This is a great movie, that nobody in hollywood could ever come up with. If you still haven't tracked a copy down, you can go to ebay. Go to the stores section and search far east dvd. He has an all region ntsc version (plays in my dvd player region 1) for $15 us and shipping is only $3. But he also has The ring triology, versus, the ring virus (korean remake), etc.. In a couple of weeks i will have listed on ebay BATTLE ROYALE shirts. I'm just waiting for the distro. to ship them to me..

[someguy]

I have it on computer,but I can't get it to play the audio. Can anyone help?

[Asokan]

Pure exploitation. But then one helluva lot stylish pervert fun. Kids killing each other to survive on a island - what a great fucked up idea. And the execution is no less cool, funny, thrilling, disturbing and exciting. A must-see, but hardly teaching you anything about its themes, since the characters are slight or shallow and the plot mainly interested in the increasing body count. Gotta see this one again. And you should too!

[Donnie Darko]

I think that the characters may seem shallow because of cultural differences. For instance, when Chigusa (yellow running suit) dies and tells Hiroki "You're so cool", that's just something that, from what I understand, is a great compliment in Japanese youth culture, and really is tantamount to telling someone you "really really really like them". I don't think that the characters are supposed to be the focus as much as the relationships between characters, and how they develop under the circumstances.

Anyway, this was a fun movie. Had a lot of interesting kill sequences, reasonable effects, minimalistic but engaging plot, likeable hero/heroin (sp?), and a good ending. I read an interesting article about how the movie is a metaphor for the current Japanese education system which really helped me get deeper into this movie.

[Donnie Darko]

Oh, and BTW, as somebody had posted this earlier... NTSC does not mean that it can play on Region 1 DVD players. NTSC is a type of video encoding. The US uses NTSC along with a few other countries, but Europe, Asia, and a large percentage of other countries use PAL. That's why you cannot watch VHS tapes from Europe on American players. The sound comes through fine, but the video is all messed up because US televisions are set up to decode the NTSC format. Some DVD players have PAL <--> NTSC converters built into them, so it doesn't matter what video format the disc is in. Region free players generally come equipped with this because otherwise they are essential useless without it.

[steve-dejected]

i was reading about it on house of horrors.com, from what i read it sounds awesome, i'd like to get my hands on it

[Toby]

Today I read that Kinji Fukasaku died at the age of 72, losing his battle with cancer. He was currently working on BR2, but I'm not sure if he finished it.:(

[Fisting Ackbar]

http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/20030112p2a00m0ot001000c.html

At least part 2 will still come out.

[someguy]

Finally saw it. I really enjoyed it. It does have some intense scenes(Kiriyama!!!)but adds a little comedy in the mix. Of course I laughed at the comedy(what's up with Kitano?)and then got shocked a few minutes later. And for people that didn't like the ending,I actually liked it a lot. It didn't take the route of what it would have been and I liked that for some reason. But overall,not the greatest,but certainly enjoyable.

7.5/10


Also I've noticed that Japanese movies end credit music do not fit the movie. For example,in Ring,there was a techno song at the end credits which took me out of the picture. Now there's some pop song in Battle Royale. What's up?



Oh yeah,I burned a VCD off of the internet for the movie. You can get it off of KaZAa. Just make surer it's the full copy,not the ones split up into 2 parts,there's no sound on it. Get the full one,cut it in two and burn it.

[Kim_EZ]

Asian music is different than American music by a lot and so what we see as unfitting for end credits is what Japanese movie makers think is fitting...

The Ring 2 had a really catchy pop song in the ending credits.

[Darkfyre]

I only have this on my computer too, but I definately wanna get the DVD. It seems I've been completely absorbed in a morbid society, as I was laughing at most of the scenes, or rooting em on. By the end I was disapointed, only at the fact it wasnt long enough, and that it sorta did just peter out with a somewhat boring ending.

I still love it, and hope that the sequal will still get its way out.

**SPOILER**
I'm not too sure what was happening at the end, with the Teacher not getting the bodies checked. He said something about Kawada cheating, and that Kawada knew how to de-activiate the collars... In my opinion, I think Kawada pretended to shoot Shuya and Noriko because of the mic's in the collars, so as long as the soldiers thought they heard them die, it would be over. Plus the fact that the computers were bugged so they wouldn't be able to trace if they were still alive anyway. Kawada kept his word to them because he considered them friends... and damn is he a great character.
Ah hell with it, it's not meant to be a confusing movie.

Damnit Kuriyama, hold your gun 'straight'!

[FT13TH Addict]

I was able to get a Region 0 NTSC copy of it off of ebay. Haven't watched it yet though.

[someguy]

I want to know who you liked in the movie and didn't want to bite it. I also want to know who you wanted to die. ***SPOILERS***

I really like that girl with the glasses who killed her friends with the uzi when her friend got poisoned. But I really hated Hirono(The girl with the pistol who tried to kill Mitsuko)and Megumi. I could tell they were bad actors and I plugged my ears listening to them. They had very weird voices sometimes. But that's a minor thing. I just found them annoying. And I never liked Nobu. Got on my nerves. I also felt bad for Motobuchi because he just wanted to go home and have a good future but he went insane.

[MotorizedInstinct]

So i finally saw Battle Royale (i now it took me awhile) and now i know what everyone was screaming about. This movie was just an Ass Kicking good time, and all of a sudden real life would jump in a fuck with your mind. At one point its an Escapism flick and the next its really disturbing. GREAT FILMMAKING!

[BadCoverVersion]

I said no whispering...

Battle Royale is one of my favourite films of the past 5 years. Fucking ACE visuals, and completely ludicrous death sequences...such a simple (and entirely believable) concept, yet the end product beggars belief.

My favourite part has got to be the mass bitch fight over the dodgy poisoned pasta...just quality!!!

[Jim H]

being that, the first one, was pretty much
banned.

No it wasn't. Just no one is willing to pick it up for distribution because of school shootings.

Good movie, I really liked the kid who was doing it for fun. He was hella entertaining, but he's supposed to be better in the manga. In the manga he's the son of a rich family, and the first thing he does is kill all his close friends when they least expect it.

Beat Takeshi is awesome as well.

[Donnie_Darko]

Easily in my top 10 faves of all time (if not top 5)... I've had a shitty VCD... well, it's good, but it's no DVD... for a while now, and am still waiting for my 2disk set to come in.

For those in the know... or not in the know...

Battle Royale 2 (http://br2.battleroyalefilm.com/)

The FULL trailer is up now... and it fucking ROCKS!!! DAMN I can't wait to track this one down... damn!!!

[TheJadedGamer]

GOD I WANT TO SEE THIS MOVIE!!

[PhantomOfTheParadise]

Actually, there's more to it than just someone not wanting to pick up the rights - someone HAS already contacted Toei about picking up the rights and they were actually TURNED DOWN by Toei.

OH and Psycho Haired Boy (as I like to call him) is very interesting in the novel - and he at least gets some words.

[Doug Branches]

Originally posted by Kim_EZ
She heard that he killed someone (that guy, the axe) and was afraid he'd off her and the girls. So, that's why she wanted to poison him.

This post is from quite awhile ago but I would just like to clarify that she didn't hear Shuya killed someone, she saw the end result of him and Oki (guy with the axe) fighting. She saw Oki fall to the ground with the axe lodged in his head and thought Shuya killed him on purpose.

Also, for anyone wanting to know info on Battle Royale 2, or clear up some of the questions about the first movie, www.battleroyalefilm.net is without a doubt the best BR site currently. Check it out.

[The Delfonics]

I have only seen this movie twice but it was so fresh that I bought the 40 dollar Tin (and because I had a ton of money to blow at the time) Its not on my Top20 but boy does it really entertain and amaze you. (8/10)

[TheJadedGamer]

Whoa. Just seen this movie about an hour ago, and it was one of the best movie I ever seen. (9/10)

[Donnie Darko]

Sadly, after reading the book, the movie pales in comparison...

[TheJadedGamer]

I'm planning on getting the book soon.

[JCR]

There is a review of BR2 up on aint it cool (http://www.aintitcool.com) which is so negative it's scary. I really hope it's not as bad as all that as I was really looking forward to it. :confused:

[Jason13thh]

Again this film kicks major ass !!! very very entertaining and brutal,too.
Love this film ( own it of course !! )

[Donnie Darko]

Originally posted by JCR
There is a review of BR2 up on aint it cool (http://www.aintitcool.com) which is so negative it's scary. I really hope it's not as bad as all that as I was really looking forward to it. :confused:


The news... she ain't so good...

Regardless of the possibility of a horrible sequel (did BR really need a sequel... I think we all know the answer to that), I'm still going to say anyone who hasn't read the novel should run, not walk, to their local bookstore and purchase it.

The book does the admirable job of filling in all the plot holes that came up in the movie, such as "Why don't they just do x, y, or z" (insert your own idea here). He usually blasts off a line or two why they can't do x, y, or z and then just keeps burning through the story. It also develops the government backstory, and more as to why they are there (the review at creature-corner was inaccurate on a few of it's facts... in the book, they do not have a 3 day limit, they keep fighting until no one has died within 24 hours, or there is only 1 left, which makes a lot more sense to me, and the reason why they are there is discussed, which is mostly a form of control the government imposes, not on bad kids, but just on younger generations to limit any kind of challenge to their government from new ideas). The characters are more fully developed than in the film (mostly due to time constraints), and it's far easier to see each of the characters motivations (in the movie, Shinjii "The Third Man" just kind of does his thing without any good backstory to make it believable).


So, why are you still reading this... go shop.

[JCR]

A sequel was never really wanted, but it was more or less inevitable given the 1st one made a shitload of cash at the Japanese box office- one of the highest money makers of the year 2000 there I think, and therefore we just have to hope it's good, although the signs so far are not positive.

[MotorizedInstinct]

I loved BR but i was alittle disappointed in the ending or to be more specific in the confusion of the ending. Well, i found a sight that says that the English translation was fucked up in a couple of scenes (some major ones in the end) and that more is explained in the movie. go to Battleroyalefilm.com (http://www.battleroyalefilm.net/movie/spoilerending.html) and see for your self.

[EoghainFOKeeffe]

I watched BATTLE ROYALE last night. I agree with everybody who said it's one of the best films they ever saw.

It's got an incredible soundtrack (excepting the song during the final credits!), great performances, buckets and buckets and buckets of gore and a healthy mix of sadism and humour.

It's a very funny movie with a shockingly nasty streak.

I was very surprised to hear it hasn't been banned in the US! In fact, I'm surprised it hasn't been banned in most countries - it has some VERY controversial material in it.

[Gretchen_Ross]

i just love this movie. it's got that great epic quality. i've got the book but i don't think i'll have time to read it soon. i've got 6 or so "battle royale" avatars on my site. feel free to look and take one if you like.

[someguy]

http://www.joblo.com/newsimages1/killbill04.jpg















Look familiar?

[MotorizedInstinct]

Yea i saw her in the Kill Bil trailer and thought that was pretty awesome. Tarantino is interviewed on the Korean Special edition of BR. He basically talks about how much he likes the movie. It's pretty short, but cool.

[dark-angel]

Battle Royale is a brilliant, but somewhat disturbing, little Asian horror. Believe me it is horrifying.....

THe premise behind the story is creepy enough, I mean the government gets so fed up with the youth they pass the Battle Royale bill....

Anyway the story is gory, but at the same time it develops its characters well through flashbacks etc..... Whilst watchin the movie, you really feel for the characters... Apart from anything else no doubt you might even recognise yourself or some of your friends in the characters...... especially if you have recently finished school etc

Overall this is a fukin awesome Asian horror

[Weird_Kitty_Cat]

just saw this the other night. we refer to it as the Japanese death fest.

SEMI SPOILER
i thought the ending was too happy.

-meghan

[XCoRyX]

upon first recieving this flick in the mail, i was just seeing if it lived up anywhere near the hype...

and DID IT EVER....

one of my favorite movies now officially...EVER....

another pure reason why even a blind man can tell that takeshi kitano is one of the most badass actors alive...scratch that, THE most badass.

[Genghis Khan]

I fucking LOVE this movie. I had heard about it on JoBlo and on various other websites and it didn't seem very interesting to me. Then, one day at my local bookstore, I found a copy of the manga and decided to look at it. I read one chapter of that book and that was all I could think about the rest of the day. Later on I found another thread here on JoBlo about it and with that thread a link to the website about the movie. I spent that entire day on that website and that thread. I told my friend about it and she decided that she wanted to see it too. So I downloaded it on the computer and we watched it and loved it! We are currently trying to buy it off the Internet. This is without a doubt the best movie I have seen in a long time and it is easily my third favorite movie of all time. Anyone who hasn't seen it needs to! It totally kicks ass!

Rock On!!
:cool:

[XCoRyX]

Originally posted by Gretchen_Ross
i just love this movie. it's got that great epic quality. i've got the book but i don't think i'll have time to read it soon. i've got 6 or so "battle royale" avatars on my site. feel free to look and take one if you like.

since ya offered, i 'borrowed' one...:D