[Discussion]Battle Royale I & II

Battle Royale (バトル・ロワイアル Batoru Rowaiaru?) is a 2000 Japanese thriller film, adapted from the 1999 novel of the same name by Koushun Takami. It is the final film directed by Kinji Fukasaku, was written to screenplay by his son Kenta Fukasaku, and stars Takeshi Kitano. The film tells the story of Shuya Nanahara, a high-school student struggling with the death of his father who is forced by the government to compete in a deadly game, where the students must kill each other in order to win. The film aroused both domestic and international controversy, and was either banned outright or deliberately excluded from distribution in several countries. Wiki


Plot
At the dawn of the new millennium, Japan is in a state of collapse. Unemployment is endemic and school violence is out of control. The beleaguered government retaliates with Battle Royale... Each year, a randomly chosen class is pitted against itself on an abandoned island in a cruel game of survival. The rules of the game are simple: 1) it lasts three days; 2) Each player starts with food, water and a "weapon"; 3) if more than one player survives, everyone dies (by detonating special electronic necklaces; 4) there is no escape. Takeshi Kitano plays a downtrodden teacher turned Battle Royale operation leader. As the game progresses, terror and panic challenge the students' fragile trust in each other. But despite the game's brutality, the adolescent players remain obsessed with their crushes, their petty grudges - and their dreams...


Cast
Tatsuya Fujiwara as Shuya Nanahara
Aki Maeda as Noriko Nakagawa
Taro Yamamoto as Shogo Kawada
Takeshi Kitano as Kitano
Masanobu Ando as Kazuo Kiriyama
Kou Shibasaki as Mitsuko Souma
Takashi Tsukamoto as Shinji Mimura
Sosuke Takaoka as Hiroki Sugimura
Yukihiro Kotani as Yoshitoki Kuninobu
Chiaki Kuriyama as Takako Chigusa

I may be a little partial, but if you liked the book you HAVE to watch the movie! The first one, at least. It's my favourite japanese movie ever, I loved everything about it...compared to the book, it's less about politics and more about kids vs adults...they're different but great in their own way. The movie's wonderful from every point of view...not just the story, but also acting and music. As for the second one, don't bother with that...it's not horrible, but not even good...I'd skip that if I were you! Now, that's just my humble opinion, which might be a bit biased as I'm a big big fan both of the movie and the book...

Hunger Games wishes it was Battle Royale. I laughed when people accused Hunger Games of ripping off Battle Royale because it's quite possibly true. Never cared for that book but I loved Battle Royale. It's been awhile since I've seen it so I might have to watch it again <3

I loved the movie then I read the manga and now the book. The manga and book are better. The movie doesn't give that much detail but it was still really good. =)

Szasha wrote: I did enjoy the book - I found it to be realistic and I liked how it focused on the characters and their psychological and social developments. How gory is the first one, though?

It is a bit gory...there's blood, teenagers dying and people getting things stuck in their heads...I wouldn't define it as extreme, but it still can upset sensitive people.

Szasha wrote: I was just curious, I am going to watch Battle Royale regardless of its gore factor.

All right then, I was telling you just in case!! I hope you love it as much as I do!

Yep, completely true...don't bother with the second, it totally let me down!

BR 1 was quite good. BR 2 story was decent, but the action was pretty bad. of course, its always kinda funny that english people have no clue that hunger games was a complete rip off. like a really bad rip off. their movie was pretty poorly done too, except for some of the sci-fi scenery