Battle Royale II Photos

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Cast

Ai Maeda
as Shiori Kitano

Tatsuya Fujiwara
as Shuya Nanahara

Natsuki Kato
as Natsuki Kato

Shûgo Oshinari
as Takuma Aoi

Ayana Sakai
as Nao Asakura

Ai Iwamura
as Smiling Winner from first Battle Royale

Haruka Suenaga
as Haruka Kuze

Minoru Murata

Takeshi Kitano
as Takeshi

Yuma Ishigaki
as Mitsugu Sakai

Yuma Ishigaki

Miyuki Kanbe

Masaya Kikawada

Riki Takeuchi

Sonny Chiba
as Shinji Mumura's Uncle

Yoko Maki

Yuki Ito

Natsuki Kato

Aki Maeda
as Noriko Nakagawa

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Critic Reviews for Battle Royale II

Audience Reviews for Battle Royale II

• Apr 01, 2018

  For the time being, and I don't know how long it's gonna be since I haven't checked since last night prior to watching this, the reviews will be done on my phone. The Chrome browser on my laptop went nuts. Opening tabs nonstop, I can't uninstall it since every time I try to the browser opens up again. I can't really use an alternate browser, because Chrome will pop up every time a new tab is opened. Hoping it's a bit of a glitch. I hope it is, because it's really annoying to type out reviews on this phone. I digress, it's time to talk about Battle Royale as a whole and how some people like to lord it over fans of the Hunger Games because the first movie, they feel, is a rip-off of the original Battle Royale. Yes, because the people killing each other for others' entertainment/enjoyment wasn't around prior to Battle Royale. Movies like Death Race and Running Man DIDN'T come out before Battle Royale. I suppose they mean the fact that the original Hunger Games, in essence, sees the same basic concept of teens being dropped onto an island where they have to kill each other as a result of some government mandate. I can't disagree with that comparison in the slightest. But, to the Hunger Games' credit, its focus shifted from the competition itself, to the political struggle between the government and the Resistance over Katniss Everdeen, whom they want to use as a propaganda tool to push their own agendas. It's really cool stuff. And, to be, I think the Hunger Games does more with its concept, as a continuing franchise, than Battle Royale did with its original movie and this sequel. The Condemned (a shitty WWE-produced movie) is more of a rip-off of the original Battle Royale. The reason I bring this YA-novel into this review is the fact of the matter that the majority of this movie, once the second round of teens meets up with the terrorist group and their leader, ends up feeling like some of the second-tier franchises that started popping up after the Hunger Games was successful. The Divergents and Maze Runners of the world, where a group of teens (part of a resistance) fight back against their oppressors, usually some figure high up in this dystopian world. So, in a way, you could say that Battle Royale II was ahead of its time. It just so happens to be a shame that what this sequel offers is so much more generic and uninteresting than anything in the original movie. The best sections of the movie are those that embrace the absolute over-the-top nature of the concept. Everything with Riki Takeuchi at the start is absolutely tremendous. Tremendous in that Riki Takeuchi, who's a Japanese B-movie legend, overacts the shit out of his first scene with the new subjects, laying down the ground rules for what they're about to do. It creates a good contrast to Takeshi Kitano's stoic performance in the original movie. Riki Takeuchi, pretty much playing himself, just takes the chance and he cuts loose and delivers an incredibly entertaining performance. Hell, his performance put me in a good mood that I was with the movie from that point onward. And that's despite the fact that everything after that point, until the new batch of teens meets up with the terrorist rebel group, feels like a boring war movie, complete with D-Day style sequence of the teens coming out of their boats to face fire from the terrorist group. I was enjoying the over-the-top violence, in spite of everything. I think that over-the-top goodwill is lost once the new group meets up with Wild Seven and their leader. This is where the movie falls apart. I don't wanna say I don't value story, but if you're gonna introduce more story and "world-building", at least make sure that it's worthwhile. I honestly could not have given a single fuck about any of the characters in this movie. No one outside of Riki Takeuchi was of any interest to me and the fact that they kept trying to make me invest in this Wild Seven rebel group and their struggles for peace and justice is one of, if not, the worst parts of this film. I get that they weren't trying to just repeat the first story with a new cast of characters, but the movie gets way too self-serious for its own good. It wouldn't have been such a big issue if Takeshi Kitano and his stoic presence was still overseeing the Battle Royale, but his character died. But when you see Riki Takeuchi act like a fucking madman, which I'm assuming is what he is in real life, the self-serious tone halfway through is a real jarring one. And it makes the movie much worse. The leader of the Wild Seven group talks and talks and talks without really saying anything. There's some dick-measuring here between the leader of Wild Seven and Taku that leads to, you guessed it, mutual respect. Kitano's daughter from the first movie is here to kill the leader of the rebel group for murdering her father. She, inexplicably, ends up fighting for the group's cause. It's not that she couldn't or shouldn't have joined their side, it's just that it comes out of nowhere and they refuse to explain why. It just happened and you're not supposed to question it. As I mentioned, the sequel is more "character-driven", but they were bunch of bodies to me. No one stuck out and it made investing in their plight near impossible. Another one of the film's biggest problems is the fact that it's so damn long. There's no reason in this fucking world, or any other, that this should be over two hours long. Tell me, really, what is there to this movie where 2+ hours of length is justifiable. It just doesn't really expand on the world in a way that I found interesting or compelling. I understand that Kinji Fukusaku, director of the original movie, died after filming the scene with Takeshi Kitano and his son, Kenta (who wrote this and the original) finished it for him. But he just failed to capture the spirit of the original movie. You can tell a different story from a new perspective, and there's no problem with that, but the only thing this shares with the original movie is the name. The clever social satire is gone in favor of a painfully dull 'war' drama focusing on a cast of characters that have no real discernible personalities. You don't care about anything that happens to anyone that isn't named Riki Takeuchi. In fact, this is everything a sequel should strive NOT to be. I've seen worse, but this is still a bad movie. Give me everything that Riki Takeuchi filmed for this that ended up on the cutting room floor and I'd enjoy that SOOOO much more, it's not even funny. He's the reason this gets the rating it does. Other than him, this is just a bad movie, no way to slice it other than that.
  Jesse O Super Reviewer
• Feb 09, 2013

  Still cool, but messes with the formula too much. The result is a shitload of plot holes. The ending battles are pretty cool, but the character development is pretty bad. Some of these characters are cool enough to have their own movies, but they're all getting killed off too quickly for you to really appreciate them.
  Stephen S Super Reviewer
• Nov 25, 2012

  This film had the potential of being a great, memorable follow-up to Battle Royale.Instead it's a mess, one that is boring, poorly constructed and has a poor cast. The idea for this sequel was interesting, but the execution was poor, and offers nothing to appeal to fans of the first film. Battle Royale 2 just doesn't have anything going for it to make for a worthwhile viewing. If you're expected a great sequel, you'll be sadly disappointed as it is a tiresome, uninspired sequel to a great film. The original should have been a standalone film. The film could have been better than it turned out to be because it had as good idea, but the script and subsequent execution failed to deliver an accomplished sequel that would match the original. Unfortunately, this film fails and ends up missing the mark. I really was disappointed in the result and I felt it could have been much better than this. The aspect of the film that really doesn't do it justice, and brings it down significantly is that it tries to accomplish too much in two hours. Thus the plot is unfocused, there are too many things going on at once, and you lose interest in the film. Battle Royale 2 is a mediocre sequel, and could have been much better than what it turned out to be. If you watch this, don't expect much out of it, as it is a mess from start to finish and really doesn't offer anything to appeal film fans. This sequel is simply put a missed opportunity to follow up a great film and considering the idea of children rebelling against the adults, I'm surprised they weren't able to deliver anything better. A really shame and Battle Royale 2 is not worth checking out. Stick with the first film.
  Alex r Super Reviewer
• Oct 16, 2012

  I loved Battle Royale for the idea that gave life to The Hunger Games (though Miss Collins denied having been influenced by it while writing her celebrated trilogy). But I think and know that it isn't much of a masterpiece. And the second installment was something of way lesser value than the first. I'm sorry but it doesn't work.
  Maymay A Super Reviewer

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