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Battle Royale 2 Revenge Uncut SE
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List Price: $19.95
Our Price: $19.95
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Toei
Starring: Tatsuya Fujiwara; Riki Takeuchi; Sonny Chiba
Directed By: Kinji Fukasaku
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Average Customer Rating:   
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Binding: DVD
EAN: 0596817001595
Format: Anamorphic
Label: Toei
Manufacturer: Toei
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Toei
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2005-10-11
Running Time: 155
Studio: Toei
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Editorial Reviews:
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This brand new revenge edition is 17 minutes longer then the previous release. The language is Japanese with English Subtitles. Extra features include: Footage from the movie's gala premiere, Alternate "Farewell to the Piano", Warsaw Orchestra scene, Trailers and TV spots, Theatrical premiere stage greeting, Kinji Fukasaku birthday stage greeting, Deleted scenes, Behind the scenes specials, and more! Before Kinji Fukasaku passed away he vowed to spend the last of his days working on the sequel to 2000's Battle Royale. Despite his illness, Kinji turned down 24 hour medical assistance in favour of finishing as much as he could, knowing that no amount of treatment could help him at his terminal stage. When he passed away the directing reigns were handed down to his son, Kenta who finally presented an eagerly awaiting world with Battle Royale II. Part II takes place three years after the events of the original BR program and sees survivor Nanahara taking charge of anti-state organisation terrorist outfit: "The Wild Seven". His organisation has declared war on the adults who previously forced school kids to engage in war under the BR regime. The government finds itself in a desperate situation and passes a new anti-terrorism act called Battle Royale II. The class 3-B of Shikanotoride high school are taking a school trip by bus and upon waking up they find themselves wearing metal collars and taken by a military outfit to a secret location. Here they meet their sensei, Riki Takeuchi who tells them that they have three days to hunt down and kill Nanahara or face a certain death by his hands. Given soldier's uniforms and machine guns they are soon sent out to the island where Nanahara and his group are hiding. The fight for survival begins once more.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Rent don't own
Comment: The storyline of BR II was stupid and didn't make sense. I own both movies and say BR II was a pale imitation of the first. There was no suspense or surprises. At first, It looked like a remake of the first movie. The only thing that made it worth viewing was that it helped answer a few unanswered questions from the first movie. No major revelations, but it was nice to have a more complete picture about the background of BR I. I would recommend renting BR II if you can find it but not buying it.
In a side note, although I think BR I is a masterpiece. I do see a flaw in both stories. The kids in BR are supposed to be the worst in the school system and cannot be rehabilitated. They are destined to be the worst elements of society like bullies, future criminals, or Paris Hilton types. In the story, after they are introduced to the game they break character. The school trouble-makers turn into sympathetic, sad, love sick, romantic victims. It was like a bunch of bikers are thrown into prison and suddenly become cute puppy dogs who are just misunderstood. Only 3 characters maintain the tough rebellious characteristics that made them a candidate for the Battle Royale.
From the beginning, the story tells you that students have become uncontrollable and immoral and to get rid of the worst of them Battle Royale was created. I think the story teller should've made up a reason why there was a mixture of bad and good kids sent to the Battle Royale Island like "you can't punish the guilty without hurting the innocent" or "there's always collateral damage" or some kids were there by accident. Any excuse would've helped me kick that question out of my head during the movie because clearly most of the students didn't deserve to be there.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great film
Comment: I enjoyed the movie. I'm not going to give anything away, so if you're looking for that, skip ahead. What I will say is that there's enough drama and action for both sides of the party and that nothing seems misplaced or off.
Customer Rating:
Summary: ??? the @#$@ is the rest of the movie?
Comment: I enjoyed the parts of the film I have seen yet, I have bought 2 copies and both seem to be missing footage and the end of the movie. The two copies I bought were from 2 seperate sellers and neither had ever seen the film so they could not answer my question. Has anyone else had this problem?
Customer Rating:
Summary: Don't trust anybody over 30. Shoot everyone else.
Comment: "Battle Royale 2" is exactly what would happen if Michael Moore got all liquored up, had a weekend cheeseburger & rotgut bender in some cheapo New Mexico hotel room, and then remade "Saving Private Ryan" the next morning.
Why not just take all of the first film's fans and shoot them in the face? That would have at least been merciful.
Instead, Kenta Fukasaku, who took the helm of Number 2 when his old man Kinji croaked, rips off everything insane, edgy, dangerous, and gloriously bloodthirsty about the infamous Battle Royale---pretty much "Lord of the Flies" with an NRA membership and exploding necklace IEDs---and turns it into a steaming cauldron of rhinoceros doodle.
Without a doubt the younger Fukasaku was already in an untenable position: #1, he had to finish what his old man had started. And #2, he had to make a sequel to Battle Royale, a wicked, deviant, deeply troubled cult classic, full of sound and fury (oh yes, especially fury) signifying total carnage.
So going in, did I expect Kenta Fukasaku to top his old man? No. But did he have a make this atrocity?
BR2 badly wants to be Battle Royale, like a little changeling dwarf child badly wants to be a real boy. So it has all the ingredients, all the trimmings, all the neato stuff Kenta thought he should include, of the first flick: the graduating class riding together on the bus; the nerve gas interlude; the chaotic broil of soldiers, armor, helicopters, klieg lights, herding Shenizaru Middle School #4 into the Death Room for guns, gear, and a little object lesson in what happens to disobedient children (hint: spare the beeping collar, spoil the child).
This time our class has been drugged and dragooned by their Sensei (Riki Takeuchi, who chomps pills like Rush Limbaugh in a fright wig and later really switches it up for a groovy last-minute mass die-in, donning his rugby gear and death-collar to get into the game, you know, really show you what it means to be the ball, BE THE BALL BABY!)---hauled to a military camp on a desolate beach overlooking, um, Monster Island, and forced to don battle-dress to take out that dastardly bunch of truants, the Terrorists, now doing a little Brand Management(tm) as the Wild Seven. Jeez, and you thought high school Detention was rough.
The rest of the flick goes by the numbers and on the Bounce, as follows:
1) Kids storm the beach! Machine-guns chew up the Kids like they're beef jerky in an all-night truck stop!
2) Gratuitous Syrupy Flashback! OK: the first flick did this too, chiefly as a way to develop character on the fly. But a) you actually cared about the characters in the first BR, and b) the first BR didn't chow down on donkey rungus.
3) Kids/Special Forces/Army/Tac-Nuke Storm the Beach! (see #1, above)
4) Lead Terrorist Guy Emotes! Makes rousing speech!
5) Gratuitous Syrupy Flashback!
6) Kids Storm the Beach!
That's the film, and it goes on for what feels like, uh, eternity. Comparing BR2 to its infamous predecessor is like comparing Bizarro to Superman. The guy's got the color scheme right, you know, same hairdo, red cape, flies around, faster than a speeding bullet and so on, sure, but there's something---wrong. Something off. Like a Hot Fudge Sunday, only with liquid squid sclooge for a topping instead of hot fudge.
It is monstrously terrible. It is ploddingly derivative. It is howlingly incompetent. It can be funny, though---in a "we're laughing at you, not with you" way. Example: the Military kidnapped the kids, bullied and beaten them, shoved guns and billy clubs in their faces, slammed them into the blood-smeared concrete floor, shot one of their number at point-blank range, popped the tops off two others like ripe grapefruit courtesy of their necklace-bombs, and then force-marched the rest out to Monster Island on a suicide mission---and even so, one radio-man slaps his cheeks McCauley Culkin style later in the movie and shouts in shock and surprise "Commander! This is impossible---your class has joined up with the terrorists!" Betrayal! No way!
Credit to Kenta for portraying us (America, baby, yeah!) as the monsters we are. We worked hard for it! That's right: just as a hot crap Sundae would be nothing without a cockroach doodle on top, BR2 manages to underscore and highlight its own inferiority by being pointlessly, gratuitously anti-American. The survivors end up hiding out with the Taliban (and, evidently, a papier-mache tank) in Afghanistan. The chicks are in burkhas. One of the schoolboys is even named "Osamu". GET IT? OSAMU, GET IT?
Taken another way, "BR2" is the ultimate Daddy Movie, a Far Eastern take on the Big O (for Oedipus, not Oprah): a non-stop cage fight with a barrel of Daddy Issues! The Ingenue & Beat Takeshi---Daddy Issues! The Grown-Ups v. the Kids---Daddy Issues! The Cool Emoting Hero with a Revolutionary Father---Daddy Issues! And best of all, the Ultimate Daddy-Kiddy Relationship, Japan v. the USA---Daddy Issues!
Whatever. BR2 is hardly an act of filial piety: if Kenta wanted to strike a blow at Daddy from Hell's Dark Heart, why not just snort the old man's ashes over a cheeseburger, the Keith Richards way? That would have been kinder (& certainly more interesting to watch).
If I've made this swill seem enjoyable, I've failed: this is shoddily done tedium that is a snooze to sit through. Kenta Fukasaku has made a war flick that really is The Bomb---just not the kind he was hoping for.
JSG
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not as good
Comment: This wasn't as good as the first. The first is way better. This one went too far off the story line into a whole other type of movie. I did not enjoy this as much as i enjoyed the first, but this is still a good movie.
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