Battle Royale II: Requiem (2003)

So, the first film had only the original idea (a bunch of people killing each other to survive), and nothing else was good.This film, has totally nothing good to offer. It has absolutely no meaning at all.They arm a class of low profile criminal teenagers to go and kill the "terrorist" group which is formed by the previous two winners and some other teenagers. 1) How did they expect a bunch of teens to know anything about military guns and tactics? No sense.2)If the "terrorists" were so dangerous, why didn't the military kill them until then? They were just a few angry teens with guns... No big deal for an armies Special Forces right?3)Why on earth would the terrorist hide in an island? The air force could kill them in a matter of seconds if they bomb the island4)Why do they need to put them in pairs? They need those "terrorists" killed so they said "Oh lets put them in pairs so if one gets killed, the other dies as well... They will sure kill the enemy this way yeah!"Save yourselves time, and do not watch this movie.

Though it does not fully follow the formula of the first, this film sets to outdo the first film's level of ferocity and violence, and does so beautifully. With extreme levels of gore and violence, it surpasses the first with a political twist. Set 3 years after the first film, where the Battle Royale game defunct, and teens forming a terrorist rebel army. A class of teens are handed guns and forced to complete one task, kill the terrorist leader.Along with the expect extreme amounts of gore, the film audaciously tackles terrorism in 2003, a time when the world had many fresh wounds caused by terrorist acts. Not only is there a scene of two identical towers falling after an explosion only 2 years after 9/11, it also sets out to contemplate what drives terrorists to kill scores of innocent people, humanizing them. Not to mention the terrorist children are all either dressed like al-Qaeda terrorists and Marxist revolutionaries. Not subtle at all and a very brave message to put out for the time this was released.The acting is so over-done to the point of silliness, but thats not why you came here. You came here for the legendary amount of gore, and this film will not disappoint. With nearly 100 people killed on screen, this film has enough gore to satisfy even the thirstiest veteran gore film enthusiast. Though some of the digitally rendered blood can sometimes be a bit unrealistic and take you out of it for a moment, but enough real blood is used to keep it classy.While you won't get the same movie you saw in Battle Royale 1, you will certainly appreciate the spin taken, as well as the dramatic increase in action and gore.

As a sequel to BATTLE ROYALE, the blockbuster smash-hit that stands as one of the finest Japanese movies of recent years, BATTLE ROYALE II had little chance of recapturing that film's magic. It doesn't. The troubled production didn't help, with director Kinji Fukasaku dying after a single day's shooting, leaving the remainder of the job to be completed by his son Kenta. The good news is that BATTLE ROYALE II doesn't go down the traditional route of copying the first film's formula; instead, this breaks new ground entirely, as a new class of troublesome schoolkids are tasked with attacking Shuya Nanahara's island fortress and killing him.Yes, there are problems here. The running time is overlong and the film misses Fukasaku's inspired direction; this looks and feels more like a routine movie without the magic. Not many of the characters are sympathetic, other than those already established in the first movie. In addition, there are quite a lot of lousy CGI effects used to simulate the blood which just don't cut the mustard in terms of today's effects technology. Overlook these issues and you have a pretty good movie that asks intriguing questions about the nature of warfare, justice and humanity, as well as providing fitful bursts of action along the way.The first half of the film is actually the best. There's a reprise of the teacher-student scene from the first movie, with Takeshi replaced by a new, even more insane guy who pops pills like no tomorrow, and one incredibly gruesome moment involving the infamous explosive collars. Then the film becomes, somewhat surprisingly, a war movie, heavily riffing on SAVING PRIVATE RYAN as we watch the inexperienced schoolkids attempting to storm the terrorist's island and getting blown up and shot along the way. The second half is much more slower, full of dialogue and philosophy, but that doesn't stop the climax from being pretty exciting: we follow the dwindling survivors in a ferocious gun-battle with enemy soldiers, watching as they're picked off one by one before the ending (and a twist epilogue, of course).The acting's pretty good, with Tatsuya Fujiwara taking the honours as usual: he's made a credible transformation from innocent student to terrorist leader in this one, and we're behind him all the way. The film is enlivened with plenty of over-the-top performances, and the climatic rugby-ball sequence is hilarious in the extreme. Not a great film by any means, instead a solidly enjoyable one.

I really liked this movie. The actors were great and the story was good too, although it had some problems (more on that later). I liked the special f-x, they were very good. Great camera movement, made the action scenes exciting without it being hard to understand what happened, which was great. It's still very hard to understand why they did all this to the kids though. If they wanted to win the war against the terrorists, then why did they make things harder for their own 'warriors' by e.g killing everyone whose partner dies? Otherwise it was a great sequel, classic. Overall great movie, I can recommend this to anyone who likes political movies, action movies or just war movies.