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