This review may contain spoilers
BATTLE ROYALE 2: REQUIEM FINALLY ANSWERS ONE HARD-HITTING QUESTION: what if movies were bad?
Obvious spoilers ahead. I tried to avoid anything major in regards to character deaths or plot beats. However, I do mention a specific scene and what happens in it, as well as what happens in the first ~20 minutes. Read at your own risk...? Is that how that saying goes?———————
I first watched this movie roughly three months ago. I have not rewatched it a single time. Despite this, I find I have more to say about it than I did back then. The longer I think about this film, the longer my criticisms become. Because this film is just Remarkably bad. I really struggle to understand how this happened. This'll mostly just be a word vomit of criticism because I need to get this out.
At first glance, the plot doesn't seem that bad. In fact, it's almost compelling! A movie taking place after the first movie that has the protagonists of the last movie become terrorists that the government wants to hunt down could be interesting, but this film really fumbles it. I'm not usually one to judge logic in an unrealistic film (my favorite movies become incredibly stupid if you think about the logic for more than a few seconds) but Wow this was really stupid! Every character was really stupid and the plot was really stupid!! There's a rule they implement at the beginning that just... makes no sense. I imagine it's trying to say something about how governments needlessly kill their own people, including children, in war? But it's a sloppy way to deliver that message, and takes away any suspense or emotional weight that the character deaths could've otherwise had.
On that topic, the pacing in this film is terrible. Honestly, it's difficult to talk about the pacing because I have never seen a film with pacing this terrible. I'm genuinely at a loss for words and I do not understand how you can mess up while directing THIS terribly. Nothing happens in the first 30 minutes, then there's a headache inducing action scene that should hold emotional weight but just doesn't. This continues to happen the entire movie, with long strings of really boring scenes that try to build characters (but fail) and then bursts of jarring, confusing and most importantly, meaningless action. Even when important things Are happening, it feels like nothing is happening.
While on the topic of characters, the characters are so poorly fleshed out that when they inevitably die, you feel nothing. This is especially upsetting when it comes to the one character that had potential, AKA the daughter of Kitano's character in the first movie. The beginning of the movie is spent focused on her and trying to build her up, but after that, they sideline her and focus on... some classmate of hers that has an incredibly boring backstory and motivation. Okay. They try to give her more weight later on but once again, it falls flat. Another character they squander is actually the protagonist of the original movie, Nanahara. I won't go into too much detail as to not spoil anything too hard, but Nanahara goes from a sweet and compelling character in the first movie to a washed-up failure of a revolutionary in the sequel. I've never seen a sequel ruin a character quite like this film does with him, he is completely unlikeable and as per usual for this movie, stupid.
Now, as much as I cannot stand this movie, I do appreciate the attempt at commentary. Note the use of the word "attempt", because while on the surface I agree with the messaging on the United States, imperialism, nuclear warfare and resistance, it is handled just as poorly as every other aspect of the film. The first Battle Royale's commentary is incredibly tactful and effective, whereas this one simply Tells you "THIS IS ABOUT THE UNITED STATES!!! DO YOU GET IT!!!!" while barely showing how. I will not give a terribly handled movie props for having a message I agree with. I would've given it its flowers had they handled it even marginally better, but they didn't.
Even my favorite part of the movie, that being Takeuchi Riki's insane performance, shouldn't have been part of it. It was incredibly entertaining and funny but that doesn't fit what the movie is trying to be at all. I'm glad he was part of it though, because its a glimmer of "so-bad-its-kino" comedy in an otherwise unbearably stupid and boring film.
The movie isn't all bad though! There's a scene where Takeshi Kitano asks his teenage daughter if he should kill himself that's probably supposed to be emotional but instead comes off incredibly humorous. It's also not relevant at all to the story! 10/10, no notes. it's beautiful.
If you want a movie like Battle Royale with compelling characters and good directing, don't watch this. If you like war movies and want hard-hitting anti-US government, imperialism and war commentary, still don't watch this! There are so many movies that handle these topics with more tact and grace that you could watch instead. there's no reason to watch this unless you're a Kinji Fukasaku completionist, and even then this shouldn't count because he only directed One scene in it before his death. It's sloppy, terribly paced and drawn out. Not worth your time in the slightest. Kenta Fukasaku got what he wished for with outrage for the sequel, but probably not for the reason he wanted. Instead of generating outrage for the messaging, he generated outrage for how boring it was! So maybe he should've been a little more specific with his wishes...
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