October 13, 2007

Battle Royale II

I wasn't planning to watch it, because I'd heard it wasn't much of a movie, but Luna rented Battle Royale II because she wanted to watch it. I thought the first movie was brilliant. Unfortunately, the sequel really doesn't make any sense and has no purpose to it. It's just a violent mash-up of teens with guns and insane adults with guns, justified by superficial motivations and excuses. There's a lame attempt at a political message, but it's completely an afterthought that doesn't actually have much influence on the plot.

In Battle Royale II, Shuya Nanahara leads a terrorist organization called The Wild Seven from an island off the coast of Japan (which for some reason the Japanese government does not want to simply bomb to oblivion). This time the students are kidnapped for a new Battle Royale where the purpose is to storm the island and kill Nanahara. Their landing looks like a small reenactment of World War II. About a third of the students die before you even recognize their faces. The Wild Seven claims to be fighting all adults, for having created a world where children cannot live in happiness and specifically Japanese children. Apparently blowing up downtown Tokyo is the method by which this will be accomplished, despite there being lots of Japanese children in Tokyo.

The Battle Royale II Wikipedia entry has a little bit of analysis of the political message that is supposed to be conveyed by the film. But the contrived plot (Nanahara has heavy artillery, why didn't he shoot down the helicopter instead of trying to swat flies on the beach?) and lack of character development makes it pointless. And in the end, nothing was accomplished other than a lot of people died for no good reason. Only this time, it was because of Shuya they died. The corrupt government and adults of the world are certainly doing bad things but Shuya hasn't done anything better.

Posted by josuah at October 13, 2007 8:13 AM UTC+00:00