Welcome to Thunderdome

Posted: **Sun Mar 01, 2009 11:50 pm**

I forget where I heard about this cult Japanese movie, but it went on my X-Mas list and I've finally gotten around to watching it this weekend.

The story takes place in an alternative timeline where the Japanese government has passed a law concerning out of control youth. The law is the "BR Act".

In this movie, the 9th grade class of a typical high school is on a field trip which gets diverted to an island for enforcement of the BR Act. Enforcement here involves all the children getting handed bags with supplies and a random weapon. They are then released onto the island for three days. At the end of three days, there will be one child left alive. One survivor. If not, everyone dies thanks to explosive collars they're all wearing. (Not sure if this came first or The Running Man.) So the film consists of 14 & 15 year old kids in a massive death match.

As you can imagine, this film was controversial in Japan upon its release, but it was also popular.

When I originally heard about this film, I was told it had lots of gore. That isn't really true. Sure, there's blood and death, but nothing too over the top. The special effects guys did an excellent job here.

What blew me away though, was the acting. With such a giant cast there are bound to be a few bad actors, and there are, but overall, these kids do an amazing job. Of particular note are the four main characters in the film.

The writing is a bit shaky, enhanced by poor translation, but it works. This isn't just a survival story. The kids confront demons from their past, which is petty interesting, but a little corny at times.

Overall, if you have the chance to see it, do so.

8 out of 10

Posted: **Mon Nov 12, 2012 9:44 pm**

This popped up on Netflix and I decided to watch it since more than one person has told me, "Yeah I was going to watch The Hunger Games but I liked it better the first time I saw it when it was called Battle Royale

First of all, BR sucks because it isn't even in English.

Just kidding about that part.

But seriously though, I didn't think BR was ALL THAT AND A BAG OF POCKY.

There were 42-some-odd kids on the island, and we got to see how the majority of them get killed... this made the movie feel, to me, very badly paced. Too much focus on random people who never had a line, never had a name, never had cause or reason or motivation, and we just don't care beyond, "Hey wow that kid who actually looks like an adult actor in a school uniform just got killed by that other." 70% of the kills, I just didn't care about and they didn't move me in any particular way. At least HG starts off with like 22 kids, and we see half of them get wasted in a 30 second free for all right at the beginning. This brings down remaining characters down to a manageable level, and we can actually have an opinion about their fates.

I also didn't care for the way most of them were ignoring the fact that they just couldn't pretend they could have their group and still be buddies, and they were trying to be friendly and play house... I guess that actually is a realistic childish trait.... until a trigger happens and within 45 seconds they have all killed each other over barely concealed, extreme paranoia. SO actually, I guess I did like that part a little. They pretended until they couldn't, 90 seconds later.

No motivation for the person who volunteered. No reasoning for the past winner that got resnatched. I didn't understand what was going on with the Youth of Japan that they felt they needed to start killing some of them HUNGER GAMES STYLE. Yeah, I went there. I mean, they showed that there were some bad eggs, but they also showed there were some who were nice. I don't know. They never tried beating them? Seems like hitting them is a step between letting them run wild, and killing them. Maybe it is just me.

I didn't like how the teacher was allowed to run the show, that didn't make sense. I didn't like how nothing seemed to be televised or broadcasted... if that class wasn't meant to be a warning to others, then what is the point? Why not just take random groups of schoolkids and shoot them behind the school? There was a hint that the media was in on it at the very beginning, but it was brief and it is never touched on again. A reporter shouting, "The survivor this year appears to be a girl!" was all we get, and that implies that no one sees the winner until the helicopter from the island lands. So I dunno.

Battle Royale is certainly a thing, but I don't think it is necessarily a better film than THG.

Posted: **Tue Nov 13, 2012 12:45 pm**

I think all of your estrogen makes it hard for you to like movies obviously geared towards men.

Seeing The Hunger Games first, not to mention that you actually bought it, would make you biased. You saw an English speaking version of a movie with a huge budget and well known actors, then tried to watch the low budget, foreign version. You stacked the odds against it.

You should have watched Battle Royale prior to seeing The Hunger Games when I told you too.