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It's been three years since Battle Royale's survivors,
Nanahara and Noriko, escaped from the island and the world
has descended into an Age of Terrorism. The Wild Seven, led
by Nanahara, is an anti-state organisation that has declared
war on the adults who force teenagers to kill each other under
the murderous BR Act. Fearful and desperate, the government
has now passed a Millennium Anti-Terrorism Act, better known
as BRII. On their way to a ski vacation, a coach load of Junior
High School children are abducted by the military and forced
to put on uniforms with lethal explosive necklaces. They are
given 72 hours to hunt down and kill Nanahara and The Wild
Seven, or they will face certain death at the hands of the
authorities...
Battle
Royale 2: Requiem is set a few years after the first Battle
Royale film, and follows the exploits of Nobu
(one of the survivors from the first film) as well as revealing
that that Japan has gone even more 'Battle Royale' crazy.
Nobu
has formed a terrorist group called Wild Seven who are dedicated
to bring down the 'adult' run regime in Japan. In response
to this threat, the government in Japan find the group's hideout
and send in a class of Battle Royale contenders. The difference
with this particular class is that their mission is to eradicate
the terrorist group within a certain time or their collars
will explode. Couple this together with the fact that their
collars are in pairs and if one of the pair dies then the
other matched collar will explode... and you have a very explosive
situation. Will any of the new Battle Royale contenders survive?
Will the government win? Will this film be as good as the
first one?
I will only answer the last question because, if you do decide
to watch the film, I don't want to spoil it for you. As a
big fan of the first film, I can only say that I was disappointed
by the sequel. Don't get me wrong, the action scenes are delivered
with such an impact that you cannot help but be impressed
by them. But one thing that it does lack is the humanity of
the original.
Even
though the film does deal with very touchy subjects (terrorism,
sending poor children to do the governments dirty work - sound
familiar?) it does it in such a slap dash way that you can't
really connect with it.
The
first film blended superb action with humanity and emotion.
This film separates the two and gives you very large doses
of both. It would have worked better if they had mixed it
up a bit. The first half is primarily action and the second
half delves into the subject of terrorism and how to get the
government to listen and stop serving their own selfish ends.
Ultimately the message does get lost because the film makes
it very difficult to care about the subject.
One
of the first scenes that we see are massive sky scrapers being
blown up and it does make you wonder whether they were trying
to convey something important to the audience, or just trying
to piss of Americans.
The
DVD itself has a very good picture transfer and optional DTS
sound. The extras include a trailer and some film notes. All
in all, a poor package for an okay film.
Ultimately,
this is a film that is not a profound as it thinks it is.
It will give you some food for thought but probably not about
terrorism - more like whether or not you feel that sequels
are a good idea.
Simon
Lee
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