Review: Battle Royale II: Requiem

Three years after the first film and surviving teen Shuya Nanahara (Tatsuya Fujiwara) is now seen as a dangerous terrorist who declares war on all adults. Meanwhile, a new class of over 40 students is about to be introduced to a slightly varied rendition of the brutal, dehumanising blood sport. Brought together by psycho teacher Riki (Riki Takeuchi), armed to the teeth and fitted with exploding collars (ala “Deadlock”) they are forced to take part in an assassination plot against Nanahara. But when they finally arrive at his island hideout, things aren’t what they seem, and Nanahara provides the students with an alternate scenario. One of the young combatants, played by Ai Maeda, is the daughter of Takeshi Kitano’s ‘Kitano’, the teacher from the first film (And yes, Ai Maeda is the younger sister to Aki Maeda from the first film who briefly turns up

 

here). The original “Battle Royale” was a wickedly funny, shocking twist on the old “Most Dangerous Game” plotline. This 2003 follow-up from directors Kenta and Kinji Fukasaku (the former taking over for the latter- his father- who died during filming) is seriously disappointing, and mostly boring. It’s ridiculously long (I saw the 150 or so minute Director’s Cut) and slow, and fails in its attempt to take the story in a different direction whilst also trying to provide the same “Most Dangerous Game”-style goings on. I initially admired the attempt at something different, but it ultimately doesn’t come together and the film is lots of blood-splatter with no impact.

 

Another big problem is, the film also fails to generate interest in any of the characters, once again (yes, even in the supposedly more character-based cut I saw), but because this is a sequel, it’s not nearly as easy to forgive, even with the somewhat troubled production in consideration. The film should’ve focused on just a couple of the characters (the daughter of Kitano, certainly should’ve been front and centre), and used back-stories/flashbacks early and often. Obviously you would want all of the characters to be beefed up, but even with my suggestions, the film would be even longer than it already is, and because most of the back-stories come in the second half the film is dramatically inert. I mean, we don’t even see Kitano in flashbacks until about 90 minutes in. Besides, killing lots and lots of kids is this series’ M.O., but for the most part the characters don’t really ‘pop’, and thus it’s hard to care. It’s obvious to me that Kitano’s daughter should’ve been the main character (and one does initially find her intriguing), but she ends up completely lost in the shuffle in this mess, despite having the most potential interest of any character. Her relation to the teacher (Kitano) in the first film is barely even brought up at the end, which is just insane to me.

 

Meanwhile, the motivation for all the killing here is a lot weaker. In the first film, it wasn’t even a choice, unless you wanted to die yourself. Here, once the students meet those on the other side, surely the solution is easy: Team up, destroy their true enemy. Unfortunately, what should’ve taken an hour ends up taking more than two hours as things seem to turn into Peter Pan’s Lost Boys meets “Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome”. There’s also some really oddball logic here, like the supposed young ‘terrorists’ planning on killing all the adults in Japan. Think about that for a second. Isn’t that a tad short-sighted? Or was I just meant to ignore that little oversight by writers Kenta Fukasaku and Norio Kida? Also, attempts at bringing real world war/geo-political issues into the film are bizarre, offensive, and seemingly irrelevant to what is a Japanese splatter flick, essentially.

 

Sadly, the splatter this time around (hitting the camera lens, I might add) is rendered largely unwatchable by the “Saving Private Ryan”-esque camerawork by Junichi Fujisawa. It’s initially hilarious as Fujisawa stages an early skirmish like the Omaha beach landing from “Saving Private Ryan”, but sadly, it’s not just an in-joke, it’s the entire film’s shooting style. And it’s absolutely no fun to watch at all, as there’s nothing entertaining to me about watching the camera shake all about. It just alerts me to the fact that I’m watching something being filmed by an inebriated cameraman. As such, the action can really only be enjoyed by gamers, perhaps. Hell, that goes for the whole film, really, though I do love me some exploding throats (Even if I’m surprised the heads didn’t pop off).

 

I also took issue with the idiotic performance by Riki Takeuchi as this film’s menacing teacher. Am I the only one who thought his scowling facial expressions were modelled on Paul Sorvino at his hammiest? It’s a ridiculously phony, wannabe tough performance that doesn’t for a moment convince. Takeshi Kitano was infinitely more menacing by barely bothering to act at all. He looked positively dead inside and very creepy (and hilariously deadpan). This guy? Uh-uh. It was an embarrassing performance, and I wasn’t buying it. I was, however, totally buying the music score by Masamichi Amano (who scored the original in similar fashion) and the opening title crawl, which combine to give this a genuinely funny, over-the-top start. Well, I found it funny, at least, and Amano, at least to my ears, didn’t seem content with merely rehashing the original score, most of the time.

 

A mixture of the original film, “Wedlock” (or “Deadlock” depending on where you live), and “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome”, this sequel to the spectacularly nasty, satirical original is a disappointing, overextended, underdone mess. With poor characterisation, slow pacing, and mostly unwatchable action, it’s a huge letdown.

 

Rating: C