Battle Royale

[samurainoir]

Any Battle Royale fans out there? Given all this Hunger Games hype, I'm wanting to revisit the original teens killing each other for sport story.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOCzc...eature=related


I didn't realize they rereleased it in 3-D in the past couple of years.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXDnJ...eature=related


Each of it's incarnations, novel, movie and manga is equally strong and unique. Despite the fact that it is the same story, I like how you get different perspectives and emphasis in the different medium. Whereas you've got the POV of the main characters in the novel, the Manga plays much more like ensemble in the tv show Lost... including flashbacks to their life before. Of course given the time limitations of the movie (no time to get to know anyone else very deeply outside of the main two), it's strength is as an action movie with a message.

I original dismissed Hunger Games as a BR knockoff, but the strength of BR is the fact that they are insulated from the outside for the most part and it's allowed to become Lord of the Flies without the larger world-building aspects that HG has. Plus the fact that the kids in BR are actually classmates gives it a Breakfast Club with firearms and knives vibe to it.

[wolfie]

I have Battle Royale but it is so long since i've seen it i can't remember what happens which seems like the perfect excuse to watch it again.

[Adam West]

I haven't read the book or have seen the movie. I do see that it is being released on blu-ray on March 20, 2012. Even if "The Hunger Games" are perceived to be a rip-off of the book, looks like Battle Royale will gain a new audience.

[samurainoir]

My original assessment prior to reading HG was very much wrong. While it shares the overarching premise, the execution is decidedly it's own thing. Particularly since the author really tapped into the North American "Reality TV" and celebrity obsession within this scifi world. It's much harder to argue that HG is really as much a microcosm as BR is with it's cross section of classmates. We don't get any sense at all of an audience at home interacting with the insular Island in BR the way HG does, and at direct impact to the participants.

[ctc]

Hmmmm....

Battle Royale was pretty good. I haven't seen the second one yet; but I've heard it's pretty good too.

Don C.

[mazinz]

Hmmmm....

Battle Royale was pretty good. I haven't seen the second one yet; but I've heard it's pretty good too.

Don C.

AHHH NOOOO! The second installment was one of the more horrible films I (as well as the 4 others tortured who were watching it with me) that I had the displeasure of enduring for 90mins. It started off good, but Kinji Fukasaku's (director) son took over since his father died during it's production and the film overall crashed very badly

The film was really, really bad (and not in a good way at all)

I am also aware that only 12 years later Anchorbay is giving the US a 4 disc box set with all versions of the films and such (add that to the 20 other dvd worldly releases out there) and I think a dir's cut for the second film as well, perhaps that may improve things a bit, but really do not bother with the second part at all

[samurainoir]

Second BR did suffer tremendously from the death of the director. I don't recommend it at all, but it does give a bit more leverage to the HG knocking off BR argument in that like the second and third HG books, you have former winners banding together to take action against the government system. But again, same ideas are executed completely differently.

Tried to read the second series of BR Manga, But the decision to go with a much mre cartoony artist kind of loses the pathos and kinetic action of the first series.

[cjefferys]

Love the first film, I haven't seen it in years, so it's definitely overdue for a re-watching. Back in the day, I picked up the Korean DVD of the film (unlike the Japanese DVD, the Korean one had English subs). This version was the directors cut though, and most people seem to think that the original cut was superior, but I've never seen that cut. I had heard very bad reviews of the sequel, so I went into that one with low expectations, and I still didn't care for it.

[Gorn Captain]

Great film. If they ever do a reality show with this formula and a bunch of obnoxious kids, I'm hooked!