Battle Royale II - questions & discussion thread
01-31-04 | 04:52 PM
#31
DVD Talk Legend
My copy is somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. It shipped from HK on Friday morning.
If it reaches California on Monday, then I should have it by Wednesday. Yay, right after my surgery on Tuesday.
If it reaches California on Monday, then I should have it by Wednesday. Yay, right after my surgery on Tuesday.
02-01-04 | 02:34 PM
#33
DVD Talk Legend
Unclecraig, that site sells bootlegs and nothing else.
BTW, reviews have come in on the R3 DVD.
The first disc includes the same transfer (anamorphic and all) as the Japanese R2 that is out, just with a DTS track in addition to the DD track.
The second disc includes a little over a half an hour of making-of footage (along with a few trailers) that is also subtitled in English (along with Chinese).
BTW, reviews have come in on the R3 DVD.
The first disc includes the same transfer (anamorphic and all) as the Japanese R2 that is out, just with a DTS track in addition to the DD track.
The second disc includes a little over a half an hour of making-of footage (along with a few trailers) that is also subtitled in English (along with Chinese).
02-01-04 | 11:32 PM
#34
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Originally posted by Matthew Chmiel
The second disc includes a little over a half an hour of making-of footage (along with a few trailers) that is also subtitled in English (along with Chinese).
The second disc includes a little over a half an hour of making-of footage (along with a few trailers) that is also subtitled in English (along with Chinese).
02-02-04 | 08:44 AM
#35
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From: NJ
Originally posted by Matthew Chmiel
The second disc includes a little over a half an hour of making-of footage (along with a few trailers) that is also subtitled in English (along with Chinese).
The second disc includes a little over a half an hour of making-of footage (along with a few trailers) that is also subtitled in English (along with Chinese).
02-03-04 | 09:18 AM
#37
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From: NJ
Originally posted by Icon769
Anyone know when the R3 Battle Royale 2 Disc that HkFlix has for preorder will ship???
Anyone know when the R3 Battle Royale 2 Disc that HkFlix has for preorder will ship???
I would think they will be shipping it sometime this week, unless somehow they got delayed getting there copies in.
02-03-04 | 10:27 PM
#39
DVD Talk Legend
Yeah. YesAsia sent their shipment out to the US warehouse on Thursday and they shipped mine out Monday via UPS Ground. This morning it was in Sparks, NV... so that means tomorrow it'll be in Las Vegas,NV. My surgery was this morning and my prescription is more cowbe.... errrr BRII.
02-04-04 | 09:16 AM
#40
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From: NJ
I received mine yesterday from Poker Industries. Haven't gotten a chance to watch it yet (opted for Lost in Translation instead). Nice packaging, don't care so much for the DVD case, I would have preferred a hinged holder instead of a disc on each side. And the print jobs are so drastically different on each disc it looks weird. I know I am nitpicking 
. Anyway I can't wait to pop this in the player
. Anyway I can't wait to pop this in the player
02-05-04 | 09:35 AM
#43
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From: NJ
I finally got to watch this last night. I have to say, I really liked it. I really don't understand where the negative reveiws for this movie are coming from. I can see some people being offended on just how anti-american the movie is, and maybe that will skew your taste for the film, but I thoroughly enjoyed watching the film.
There are some aspects I didn't like of course, but that is every film. I thought the BRII "command center" was too hi-tech, what I always really liked about the first BR film is that it was so real, in the sense that it was simple. In this one they went too futuristic designwise on certain things. I also think Takeuchi Riki takes the character just a tiny bit over the line. Most of the movie he is great though.
There are some aspects I didn't like of course, but that is every film. I thought the BRII "command center" was too hi-tech, what I always really liked about the first BR film is that it was so real, in the sense that it was simple. In this one they went too futuristic designwise on certain things. I also think Takeuchi Riki takes the character just a tiny bit over the line. Most of the movie he is great though
.
02-06-04 | 06:27 PM
#44
DVD Talk Legend
I watched the DVD and I posted the following thoughts to a BR community on LiveJournal:
---
In the winter of 2000, due to a fancy invention called the internet, I heard of a little Japanese film called Battle Royale. The film, being released that Christmas, involved the simple plot of a bunch of ninth graders being thrown on an island and they would have to kill each other. I was amazed at such a plot line, but I quickly forgot about the film.
In the Summer of 2001, Movieline (or Premiere, it was one of the two) devoted an article to Battle Royale labeling it as one of the most controversial films that America will probably never see. The article went into detail about how the film would never get a release in America as Toei (the distributors of the film) wanted the film to have a wide theatrical release (after it's success in Japan), but due to the film's content (children killing one another), that such a film would never have a release; especially after Columbine. The studios who were interested in the film (such as Lions Gate) wanted to get the rights, but couldn't devote themselves to giving the film a wide release. From that moment on, I knew I had to see this movie.
Battle Royale was the movie that would introduce me into Asian cinema (the only brushes I had with Asian cinema prior to BR were a few anime flicks like Akira and Grave of the Fireflies). I bought both the VCD and R3 DVD from DDDHouse (the VCD for my old DVD player and the R3 DVD to play in my computer) and two weeks after ordering them, they arrived at my doorstep. I put the R3 DVD into my computer and I quickly fell in love with what in my opinion is one of the best films ever made. But this is not a review of the first film. This is a review to the 2003 follow-up.
I heard about a sequel being in the works in the Summer of 2002. The film was slated for a Summer 2003 release which called for Nanahara and Noriko getting captured by the Japanese authorities and being placed in another game of Battle Royale in which the students were even more vicious. That didn't happen, and something deep down inside of me tells me that is the sequel that should've been made instead of what was presented to us in July of 2003.
I went into watching the film with an open mind. I heard many negative reviews about the film prior to the DVD release from Universe in Hong Kong. I tried not to read tons of information involving the film (other than the basics), but I knew before hand that Battle Royale II was an entirely different vehicle than the first film. Half of me was hoping the film would be good (I had surgery earlier in the week, it's probably the medicine making me expecting that I'd enjoy it) and half of me was expecting the film to suck. Battle Royale II has been one of my most anticipated sequels in the past few years, so I was awaiting the moment in which I could finally see the movie. I didn't care how bad the reviews were, I knew I was going to watch this movie and maybe hope to enjoy it.
The plot for this film is fairly simple. Taking place three years after the events of the first film, Nanahara (Tatsuya Fujiwara reprising his role) has started a terrorist organization known as the "Wild Seven." Nanahara proposes a war against adults which causes his terrorist organization to take some of Japan off the map. People die and the Japanese government creates The BRII Act in their defense. Similar to the BR Act, this time it pits 42 students against Nanahara and his terrorists buddies. Instead of the students killing each other off, this time they have to work together as a team. That's as basic of a plot summary I can give without giving spoilers.
The first act of the film (which includes the bombing of a few famous Japanese buildings, the gathering of the kids for a new game of BR, and the infamous "Saving Private Ryan" rip-off scene) is not even all that bad, it's actually the best scenes the film has to offer. What I enjoyed mostly about the first act is the film's fast-paced energy. The film quickly sets the plot up (in under fifteen minutes, similar to the first film) and gets right into the action. Once the plot is established, students are dying left and right, shit is just being blown up, blood is being pumped by the gallons, and the ever great Riki Takeuchi shows how great overacting can be when done right. The first 45 minutes of Battle Royale II actually gives the watcher hope that this sequel might be on par with the first film, if not better.
Then comes the film's second and third act. Then what hope one had that the film would be good will be taken back immediately.
Once the film's first forty-five minutes are done with and the remaining students who are still alive run into Nanahara and the "Wild Seven," the film quickly goes off the deep end and never looks back. The film's second act is unbearably awful. The second act has many problems that it cannot simply overcome. One of the problems with the second act is when the film starts to promote it's message on terrorism and how it's good. Instead of just having one character telling us this terrorism is good (like Nanahara) and letting us move on with the story, we're dragged through over forty-five minutes of the students grasping the fact that they have to contribute to terrorism to survive. The second act is a character driven piece, but the problem with this is that you don't give a shit about any of the characters.
The first film created characters that one could identify with. They were just normal teenagers thrown into a game where they would have to kill each other. Most of them didn't want to be in the game and we got to see all their emotions when they would have to kill one of their friends or when they were being killed by a friend or an enemy. With the sequel, the students (along with the "Wild Seven" gang) are just sitting ducks. From the start of the film, they're established to be losers, the rejects of society. When the game begins, each character is simply killed off one by one. The script never even evolves any of the characters. They're all one-dimensional characters just waiting to be plucked off. When someone else dies, the characters whine, but never do anything to help the situation. Instead of wanting to see the characters survive and beat the game, you just want them to die just so the film can end. All the time that could've been devoted into developing the characters was wasting on promoting terrorism. How sad.
When the film's third act comes (along with even more America bashing, this time it's just more blatant), the viewer doesn't even care what the hell is going on anymore and just wants the movie to end. The film tries to save itself with an action sequence involving the Wild Seven and the remaining students going against the Japanese military, but as the sequence is nice to look at, there is no substance to it. It's just people killing each other.
That's the entire problem with Battle Royale II. Unlike it's predecessor, the sequel has no substance to it. The film dwells too much on undeveloped characters and situations the viewer doesn't care about. If Battle Royale II was under ninety minutes, the film might've worked. Instead we get a film that is over forty-five minutes too long.
Oh well.
---
I had no problem with how anti-american the film was. I had a problem that they had to hammer it into my head a thousand times like I'm some sort of a retard.
---
In the winter of 2000, due to a fancy invention called the internet, I heard of a little Japanese film called Battle Royale. The film, being released that Christmas, involved the simple plot of a bunch of ninth graders being thrown on an island and they would have to kill each other. I was amazed at such a plot line, but I quickly forgot about the film.
In the Summer of 2001, Movieline (or Premiere, it was one of the two) devoted an article to Battle Royale labeling it as one of the most controversial films that America will probably never see. The article went into detail about how the film would never get a release in America as Toei (the distributors of the film) wanted the film to have a wide theatrical release (after it's success in Japan), but due to the film's content (children killing one another), that such a film would never have a release; especially after Columbine. The studios who were interested in the film (such as Lions Gate) wanted to get the rights, but couldn't devote themselves to giving the film a wide release. From that moment on, I knew I had to see this movie.
Battle Royale was the movie that would introduce me into Asian cinema (the only brushes I had with Asian cinema prior to BR were a few anime flicks like Akira and Grave of the Fireflies). I bought both the VCD and R3 DVD from DDDHouse (the VCD for my old DVD player and the R3 DVD to play in my computer) and two weeks after ordering them, they arrived at my doorstep. I put the R3 DVD into my computer and I quickly fell in love with what in my opinion is one of the best films ever made. But this is not a review of the first film. This is a review to the 2003 follow-up.
I heard about a sequel being in the works in the Summer of 2002. The film was slated for a Summer 2003 release which called for Nanahara and Noriko getting captured by the Japanese authorities and being placed in another game of Battle Royale in which the students were even more vicious. That didn't happen, and something deep down inside of me tells me that is the sequel that should've been made instead of what was presented to us in July of 2003.
I went into watching the film with an open mind. I heard many negative reviews about the film prior to the DVD release from Universe in Hong Kong. I tried not to read tons of information involving the film (other than the basics), but I knew before hand that Battle Royale II was an entirely different vehicle than the first film. Half of me was hoping the film would be good (I had surgery earlier in the week, it's probably the medicine making me expecting that I'd enjoy it) and half of me was expecting the film to suck. Battle Royale II has been one of my most anticipated sequels in the past few years, so I was awaiting the moment in which I could finally see the movie. I didn't care how bad the reviews were, I knew I was going to watch this movie and maybe hope to enjoy it.
The plot for this film is fairly simple. Taking place three years after the events of the first film, Nanahara (Tatsuya Fujiwara reprising his role) has started a terrorist organization known as the "Wild Seven." Nanahara proposes a war against adults which causes his terrorist organization to take some of Japan off the map. People die and the Japanese government creates The BRII Act in their defense. Similar to the BR Act, this time it pits 42 students against Nanahara and his terrorists buddies. Instead of the students killing each other off, this time they have to work together as a team. That's as basic of a plot summary I can give without giving spoilers.
The first act of the film (which includes the bombing of a few famous Japanese buildings, the gathering of the kids for a new game of BR, and the infamous "Saving Private Ryan" rip-off scene) is not even all that bad, it's actually the best scenes the film has to offer. What I enjoyed mostly about the first act is the film's fast-paced energy. The film quickly sets the plot up (in under fifteen minutes, similar to the first film) and gets right into the action. Once the plot is established, students are dying left and right, shit is just being blown up, blood is being pumped by the gallons, and the ever great Riki Takeuchi shows how great overacting can be when done right. The first 45 minutes of Battle Royale II actually gives the watcher hope that this sequel might be on par with the first film, if not better.
Then comes the film's second and third act. Then what hope one had that the film would be good will be taken back immediately.
Once the film's first forty-five minutes are done with and the remaining students who are still alive run into Nanahara and the "Wild Seven," the film quickly goes off the deep end and never looks back. The film's second act is unbearably awful. The second act has many problems that it cannot simply overcome. One of the problems with the second act is when the film starts to promote it's message on terrorism and how it's good. Instead of just having one character telling us this terrorism is good (like Nanahara) and letting us move on with the story, we're dragged through over forty-five minutes of the students grasping the fact that they have to contribute to terrorism to survive. The second act is a character driven piece, but the problem with this is that you don't give a shit about any of the characters.
The first film created characters that one could identify with. They were just normal teenagers thrown into a game where they would have to kill each other. Most of them didn't want to be in the game and we got to see all their emotions when they would have to kill one of their friends or when they were being killed by a friend or an enemy. With the sequel, the students (along with the "Wild Seven" gang) are just sitting ducks. From the start of the film, they're established to be losers, the rejects of society. When the game begins, each character is simply killed off one by one. The script never even evolves any of the characters. They're all one-dimensional characters just waiting to be plucked off. When someone else dies, the characters whine, but never do anything to help the situation. Instead of wanting to see the characters survive and beat the game, you just want them to die just so the film can end. All the time that could've been devoted into developing the characters was wasting on promoting terrorism. How sad.
When the film's third act comes (along with even more America bashing, this time it's just more blatant), the viewer doesn't even care what the hell is going on anymore and just wants the movie to end. The film tries to save itself with an action sequence involving the Wild Seven and the remaining students going against the Japanese military, but as the sequence is nice to look at, there is no substance to it. It's just people killing each other.
That's the entire problem with Battle Royale II. Unlike it's predecessor, the sequel has no substance to it. The film dwells too much on undeveloped characters and situations the viewer doesn't care about. If Battle Royale II was under ninety minutes, the film might've worked. Instead we get a film that is over forty-five minutes too long.
Oh well.
---
I can see some people being offended on just how anti-american the movie is, and maybe that will skew your taste for the film, but I thoroughly enjoyed watching the film.
02-06-04 | 08:48 PM
#45
DVD Talk Limited Edition
Just bought mine from CDWow for $7.95 shipped (using the coupon links)
02-06-04 | 11:07 PM
#46
DVD Talk Legend
**mild spoilers for part 1 and 2**
Well - I just watched it... it did start off strong and then kinda became dull action. Lots of shooting and yelling and no real creativity or point. I didn't really care about the America bashing - cuz... well... all they said was that America bombed all these countries and well... we did. It's not a part of our history that I'm totally proud of, so I wasn't really squirming in my seat over it. I didn't like the pro-terrorism stuff though because these are the characters we're supposed to be rooting for and it turns out they're just murderers rather than survivors. I liked the idea that at the end of the first film, the survivors go off to take out a few key buildings that house those responsible for creating the game they survived or whatever - it seemed justified at the time. However, in this film - they go the extra mile to show what their actions did and how they affected other people and innocents - this just made the heros of the film into the bad guys as well... so, in effect, they just shot themselves in the foot by eliminating any positive characters to root for.
I'm glad I have it and watched it and whatever, but I won't be buying the Korean DVD or anything. The HK DVD is just fine - the DTS track is a little bass heavy and the subtitles have quite a few misspellings and grammar errors, but overall it's just fine.
I guess I'd rate this film about a 6/10.
Well - I just watched it... it did start off strong and then kinda became dull action. Lots of shooting and yelling and no real creativity or point. I didn't really care about the America bashing - cuz... well... all they said was that America bombed all these countries and well... we did. It's not a part of our history that I'm totally proud of, so I wasn't really squirming in my seat over it. I didn't like the pro-terrorism stuff though because these are the characters we're supposed to be rooting for and it turns out they're just murderers rather than survivors. I liked the idea that at the end of the first film, the survivors go off to take out a few key buildings that house those responsible for creating the game they survived or whatever - it seemed justified at the time. However, in this film - they go the extra mile to show what their actions did and how they affected other people and innocents - this just made the heros of the film into the bad guys as well... so, in effect, they just shot themselves in the foot by eliminating any positive characters to root for.
I'm glad I have it and watched it and whatever, but I won't be buying the Korean DVD or anything. The HK DVD is just fine - the DTS track is a little bass heavy and the subtitles have quite a few misspellings and grammar errors, but overall it's just fine.
I guess I'd rate this film about a 6/10.
02-08-04 | 11:39 PM
#48
DVD Talk Limited Edition
Here: http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...light=superbit
I'm not sure if CDwow is still running the e-voucher promos (I just had a couple left over from last month).
I'm not sure if CDwow is still running the e-voucher promos (I just had a couple left over from last month).
03-07-04 | 02:25 AM
#50
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I ordered this and a few other titles from YesAsia. When I received my package a few week ago I was too excited. My buddy and I watched the first BR and really liked the unique vision of the film. I have not had time to watch the sequel until tonight. Nothing really new to add but I just wanted to say that I was extremely dissapointed. The first hour is pretty good but the second half is unbearable. I did make it through to the end but barely.
I wanted to ask a quick question: Does anyone know why some Region 3 DVD's are actually Region 0 and others are not? I tried to pop this in my main player but it could not read the disc, so I watched the movie on my Tosh 3900. I thought the pic quality was really good and I enjoyed the DTS track immensley.
I wanted to ask a quick question: Does anyone know why some Region 3 DVD's are actually Region 0 and others are not? I tried to pop this in my main player but it could not read the disc, so I watched the movie on my Tosh 3900. I thought the pic quality was really good and I enjoyed the DTS track immensley.