"Battle Royale II" (2003)

(Originally released as Batoru Rowairu II: Chinkonka)

Starring: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Ai Maeda, Shugo Oshinari, Ayana Sakai, Haruka Suenaga

First, the lowdown: Battle Royale is back and this time it's war!

The book Logan's Run by William F. Nolan, opens with the following passage:

"The seeds of the Little War were planted in a restless summer during the mid-1960s, with sit-ins and student demonstrations as youth tested its strength.
By the early 1970s over 75 percent of the people living on Earth were under 21 years of age.
The population continued to climb — and with it the youth percentage.
In the 1980s the figure was 79.7 percent.
In the 1990s, 82.4 percent.
In the year 2000 — critical mass"

In the introduction of Battle Royale II we are first treated to a shot of the Tokyo city skyline, peaceful enough until a series of explosions reduces five of the largest buildings to rubble. The audience is then informed that two survivors of the Battle Royale tournament have banded together with anti-government terrorists, calling themselves "Wild Seven". Wild Seven has put a contract out on adulthood, in particular the Battle Royale Act from the first movie, and has been spending the last three years blowing the ba-jeezus out of anything that stands in their way. (Kinda like if Peter Pan and the lost boys were backed by Al-Qaeda.)

We then cut to a high school rugby match. Given the broad way that the camera sweeps over everyone, it's pretty obvious that these guys are going to be this year's lucky contestants. Unlike the first movie, where there was only a vague mention of the class's poor behavior, it's pretty obvious that there are more than a few undesirables in this new class. (Mainly because they look like rejects from 1980s hair bands.)

The movie progresses pretty typically, with the usual group of kids making a field trip (on Christmas Eve!) and being driven into the usual series of unknown tunnels before finally waking up with explosive collars around their next and being roughly shoved into an abandoned warehouse. This time things are a little different, the new teacher (Riki Takeuchi playing a CHARACTER named Riki Takeuchi) is even more crazy-pantsed than the one in the previous movie. When the kids ask what's going on, Sensei Riki lists all of the countries that the United States has bombed. (And I think he's missing a couple, actually.)

Japan is beginning to feel inadequate under the displays of military might that Good Ol' USA has been displaying, and with the recent series of terrorist attacks, the government is finding their own Self-Defense Force sorely lacking in manpower. So in order to make up the shortfall, the government has decided to "retool" the Battle Royale program. Instead of being a free-for-all contest to the death, the participants are pretty much drafted, with the goal of taking down the leader of Wild Seven: Shuya Nanahara, the main character from the previous movie.

The students are given a choice, be drafted or die. One student in particular, Shiori Kitano, knew of the new goal of Battle Royale and transferred into the class for an opportunity to avenger her father, who Nanahara killed in the previous film. When one student refuses, it is demonstrated that the explosive collars now work as a pair: since there are an equal number of boys and girls in the class, if one student dies, his opposite also dies. Also if the two students get more than 50 meters away from each other, the collars go off. After that display, volunteers were easy to come by.

Nanahara has holed himself up in an abandoned island off the coast of Japan and now looks like a bizarre cross between John Lennon and Shoko Asahara (the Japanese subway bomber). With his group, the Wild Seven, they have been strategically bombing metropolitan Japan to foment revolution among the nation's youth.

The students arrive on Nanahara's island by remote controlled boat and are immediately assaulted. In a scene that borrows much from Saving Private Ryan the first few moments are completely chaotic as the kids scramble under heavy fire, unable to shoot back because their ammunition hadn't been airlifted yet. After the ammo is dropped the students regroup and we find out that their numbers have been reduced by half. Shiori takes control of the group, leading them into a series to decrepit buildings that had been serving as the Wild Seven's Headquarters.

Once inside the Wild Seven discover that their new invaders are wearing Battle Royale collars and disable them with an electro-magetic pulse bomb. Nanahara then explains to the kids that they should enlist with him since they both have a common enemy: the grown-ups that put them in this mess in the first place.

After this part, the movie loses it's focus and becomes a series of soapboxing statements that really do nothing more than reveal director Kinji Fukusaku's stance on war, militarism, and the USA's bullying of everyone in the world community. The idea of "kids vs. grownups" is a pretty good one and fits in the vein of Battle Royale's overall tone. But here it's brought up as almost an afterthought. With the exception of a brief cameo appearance by Sonny Chiba (!), the movie is pretty much like watching a Ford Pinto fall apart in front of your eyes as you're driving it. And when you think things can get any more insane, something even LOONIER happens in the next 5 minutes.

Overall the thing I was disappointed in the most was the fact that the opening scenes of the sequel show some hint of explaining the gaping holes and loose ends that were made in its predecessor. But once it got full steam, the movie pretty much acted like the first installment never happened, but expected you to remember stuff from it anyway.

Line of the movie: "You aim, you shoot. Life is a lot like that."

Three stars. Now with more DOOM.