Battle Royale II (2003)
"Batoru rowaiaru II: Chinkonka" (original title)

Three years after the failure of the last BR program, a second act is forged and a class of students are sent to an island with one objective: kill international terrorist Shuya Nanahara.

Directors:

Kenta Fukasaku, Kinji Fukasaku

Writers:

Kenta Fukasaku, Norio Kida,

Stars:

Tatsuya Fujiwara, Ai Maeda, Shûgo Oshinari

2 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Credited cast:
Tatsuya Fujiwara	...	Shuya Nanahara
Ai Maeda	...	Shiori Kitano (Transfer Student)
Shûgo Oshinari	...	Takuma Aoi
Ayana Sakai	...	Nao Asakura
Haruka Suenaga	...	Haruka Kuze
Yûma Ishigaki	...	Mitsugu Sakai
Miyuki Kanbe	...	Kyoko Kakei
Masaya Kikawada	...	Shintaro Makimura
Yôko Maki	...	Maki Souda
Yuki Ito	...	Ryo Kurosawa
Natsuki Katô	...	Saki Sakurai
Aki Maeda	...	Noriko Nakagawa
Riki Takeuchi	...	Riki Takeuchi (Sensei)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Aja	...	Kazumi Fukuda
Munetaka Aoki	...	Jun Nanami

Storyline

Three years after the events in "Battle Royale," Shuya Nanahara (Tatsuya Fujiwara)is a well-known terrorist bent on bringing down the government. In response, they order the creation of the "Battle Royale 2" program, and send a class of junior-high students to catch and kill him.

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Plot Keywords:

terrorist | island | sequel | teenager | loss of loved one | 

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Taglines:

We declare war on all adults!

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Genres:

Action | Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [jp] News, information, character diaries, trailers

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

5 July 2003 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Battle Royale II

Filming Locations:

Nishisinoki-gun, Nagasaki, Japan

Box Office

Budget:

$9,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$255,504 (Hong Kong) (15 August 2003)

Gross:

$404,862 (Hong Kong) (22 August 2003)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Fukasaku-gumi, GAGA, Nippon Shuppan Hanbai (Nippan) K.K.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

134 min 155 min (director's cut)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The name of the terrorist group, "Wild Seven", is Nanaharras nickname in the original novel. It is also the name of the brand of cigarettes that Kawada smokes in the novel, a nameplay of "Mild Seven".

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Goofs

During the gunfight between the terrorists and the students, in the rundown building, a cable can be seen supporting Kurosawa.

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Quotes

Takuma Aoi: Shut up!

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Crazy Credits

Towards the end of the credits a flag is shown, followed by black and white stills from the action sequences in the movie and then a black and white photo of the whole class that participated in the BR2 act, then another BW still of Nanahara and his comrades, and lastly a BW shot of director Kinji Fukasaku.

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Connections

References Fight Club (1999)

User Reviews

Royale with too much cheese

The enjoyably histrionic Lord Of The Flies-meets-The Running Man premise of Battle Royale is taken a film too far and far too seriously in this confused, confusing mess of a sequel.

Another class of errant schoolkids is abducted by the Japanese authorities, fitted with explosive collars, and despatched to a bleak island for a particularly harsh lesson in survival. But instead of killing one another, they must fight a band of young terrorists led by previous Battle Royale 'winner' Shuga. To the death. The very messy death.

The opening scene is identical to the first Battle, with a wacko 'teacher' (think Mr Blonde in a leather jacket) pairing up the kids and gleefully demonstrating that if one of the pair dies, so must the other. Then, from the chaotic Saving Private Ryan-like landing on the island to the dreadfully protracted denouement, it's an epilepsy-inducing procession of carnage and cod philosophy.

Had Fukasaku and Son stuck to pure action, BRII would have made for queasy fun. But their propensity for heavy-handed sermonising on the nature of war and society is not only unconvincing, it's boring. If the characters put as much effort into fighting as they do delivering 'profound' speeches, their chances of survival would be infinitely higher.

That's not to say that lots and lots of people don't get blown up, shot, eviscerated and decapitated. They certainly do. Unfortunately, BRII looks like a video game and sounds like a sociology lesson as given by someone who's had too much saké.