Battle Royale

[lester1/2jr.]

Do you want to be even more of a player than Jay Z and have more power in the film industry than the cast of Oceans Eleven?  I'm not sure about the availability of this feature (Mine was bootlegged off a VCD) but "battle royale" is all that.  "Survivor" meets "Lord of the Flies"...
        It's the future, and a class is chosen to participate in a battle royale, one left standing, set on an island.  they wear necklaces that will explode in three days if someone does not win, forcing them to kill each other.  A hell of a lot more interesting than the last two seasons of Survivor, that's for sure.  Plus, my copy had two short features tacked on at the end.  One a grisly horror story which was sort of "Alive" meets "Blair Witch" and another that had an ancient samurai finds a cell phone and takes advice from the guy on the other end.  
        I haven't seen the Story of Ricky yet.  I had been pretty dissapointed in the Japanese stuff I'd seen, especially Zero Woman.   Don't sleep on this one...

[Mofo Rising]

I read an excellent write up on this movie in Pulp, and was foolishly waiting for somebody to port it to America.  I don't think this will happen.

Time to get a bootleg, I think.  I notice they're selling all region DVDs on eBay.

[Skaboi18]

I've been thinking about buying a VCD of this film for a few wks now.  It must be good if it's banned in America!

[StatCat]

I haven't seen it but I have heard mixed reviews. Other recent Jpaanese films that are fun and that I recommend are wild zero, Junk, and Versus. Versus I definitely recommend if you like fast paced sumurai fighting with guns and swords and with a few zombies thrown in.

[lester1/2jr.]

It (battle royale) was a blockbuster in Japan.  I guess they've been having alot of Columbine type craziness over there, poosibly due to the extreme competitiveness in the schools and workplace.  It struck a chord from what I gather.  If you can find VICE magazine ,which is usually free in record stores and skateshops and such, they have a good piece on the whole business over there.

[Joshua]

If anyone's interested Spritle's old school anime "www.oldschoolanime.cjb.net" has a fansub version.

[Neville]

I really like "Lord of flies" and the movie seems to use some ideas ripped off from it. I am glad, frankly, because great ideas should not be left unused. I am looking forward to see this movie.

[lester1/2jr.]

There is clearly some Lord of the Flies in it, but it takes place over like two and a half dies so it's less about growing tension and more about immediate survival