Battle Royale II: Requiem

Battle Royale II: Requiem
Theatrical release poster
Japanese name
Kana	バトル・ロワイアルII 鎮魂歌
Transcriptions Revised Hepburn Batoru Rowaiaru Tsū Rekuiemu
Directed by	Kinji Fukasaku Kenta Fukasaku
Screenplay by	Kenta Fukasaku Norio Kida
Based on	Battle Royale by Koushun Takami
Produced by	Kimio Kataoka Mitsuru Kawase
Starring	Tatsuya Fujiwara Ai Maeda Shugo Oshinari Ayana Sakai Riki Takeuchi Aki Maeda Haruka Suenaga Natsuki Kato Sonny Chiba Beat Takeshi
Cinematography	Junichi Fujisawa
Edited by	Hirohide Abe
Music by	Masamichi Amano
Production company	Fukasaku-gumi
Distributed by	Toei
Release dates	May 18, 2003 (2003-05-18) (Cannes) July 5, 2003 (2003-07-05) (Japan)
Running time	133 minutes (2003) 155 minutes (Special Edition) (2005)
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese
Budget	$9 million
Box office	$14.9 million

Battle Royale II: Requiem (Japanese: バトル・ロワイアルII 鎮魂歌, Hepburn: Batoru Rowaiaru Tsū Rekuiemu) is a 2003 Japanese dystopian action film directed by Kinji Fukasaku and Kenta Fukasaku, who co-wrote the screenplay with Norio Kida. It is the sequel to the 2000 film Battle Royale, which in turn was based on the 1999 novel of the same name by Koushun Takami. Unlike the first film, Requiem is an original story. It is set three years after the events of the previous film and follows Shuya Nanahara, who has now become an international terrorist intending to bring down the Japanese totalitarian government. As a result, another class of ninth graders is kidnapped and sent to eliminate Nanahara within a limited time period of 72 hours.

Director Kinji Fukasaku, who helmed the first film, started production but died of prostate cancer on January 12, 2003, after shooting only one scene with Beat Takeshi. His son Kenta Fukasaku, who wrote the screenplay for both films, completed it in his directorial debut and dedicated it to his father.

Battle Royale II: Requiem was theatrically released in Japan in July 2003, by Toei. In stark contrast to its predecessor, it drew negative reviews from critics and audiences and grossed $14.9 million against a budget of $9 million, less than half of what the previous film grossed with double the budget. In 2005, an extended version, entitled Revenge, which runs 20 minutes longer than the theatrical cut, was released on DVD after the incident. It included additional action, improved effects, slow motion shots, new score in several scenes, and a extended storyline.

Plot

Three years after the events of the abandoned island, the survivors of the previous Battle Royale have demented a rebel group called the Wild Seven led by Shuya Nanahara, destroying the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building before declaring war to the adults of the very system that cause them to kill each other.

Nanahara Shuya becomes the leader of the terrorist activist organization Wild Seven, which was formed by past Battle Royale winners, anti-Battle Royale Law activists and victims of the Battle Royale Law, and carries out a "Capital City Hall bombing terrorist attack" and declares in his statement that he "declares war on all adults." Fearing the "retaliation" of the children, the adults pass the New Century Special Anti-Terrorism Act, called "Battle Royale II," in the name of justice, which forces high school students to fight against the Wild Seven.

In the midst of all this, Kitano Shiori, whose her father Takeshi was killed by Nanahara Shuya three years ago, volunteers to join "Battle Royale II" in order to put herself in the same situation as her father, and transfers to the municipal boarding school, Shikanotoride Junior High School, composed of "a ragtag collection of delinquents and losers", where problem children from all over the country gather, including Aoi Takuma. Many of these students are orphans whose parents or family died in bombings by the Wild Seven, including American soldiers. That winter, at Christmas, the 42 students of Class 3B, where Shiori and Takuma are enrolled, are then tricked into going onto a "field trip" and then kidnapped by the authoritarian Japanese government. After their school bus is diverted to an army base, the students are herded into a cage, surrounded by armed guards, and confronted by their schoolteacher, Riki Takeuchi, who lays down the ground rules of the new Battle Royale game named Battle Royale II, that is, to "find and kill Nanahara Shuya, who has barricaded himself on an isolated island, within three days".

The students are forced to choose between the "winners" who will participate in the game and the "losers" who will refuse to participate, but they learn that choosing the "losers" means being killed by the schoolteacher. Most of the class chooses to participate, but Makimura Shintaro, a boy in the class of Boy #15, refuses to participate even after being shot in the leg, and is shot to death. After that, Riki informs them that if a boy or girl with the same attendance number dies, the other will also be killed by a bomb planted in their collar, and in the midst of the fear, Fukuda Kazumi, a girl in the class of Girl #15, instantly dies. After that, the remaining 40 students are taken by boat to Battleship Island, an isolated island where the Wild Seven are hiding.

The Wild Seven, unaware that they are being attacked by Battle Royale II, kill many students, including Boys #5 Urabe Shugo and #7 Shimura Tetsuya(the Schwartz Katz team on the gangs), on the boat the students are on, in a gunfight after landing, due to the explosion of the collar caused by the death of a pair, and by entering a minefield. Takuma accidentally shoots Girl #6 Sagisawa Nozomi near the Wild Seven hideout, which causes Sakurai Saki(Haruya's daughter/sister) to see Takuma's collar and realize that the enemy is a high school student.

The 18 surviving students break into the hideout and chase the Wild Seven girl, but they are all surrounded by a trap that had been set. The Wild Seven members try to persuade the students to put down their guns, but some of the students continue to point their guns at them, and Boy #4 Kurosawa Ryo, who lost his family to terrorism, spits hatred. A Wild Seven boy known as Toki tells them that they are victims and tells them to put their guns down, the situation is that the terrorists are forcing the junior high school students to put down their guns, and after venting their hatred for Ryo's Wild Seven, they tell them that they are also victims and persuade them to quickly put down their guns, but his message does not reach Girl #12 Nosaka Maho, and he is shot by Maho and falls into the water to his death. This prompts Ryo and three other male students to attack the Wild Seven, but in the end, all five are killed in a "killing spree" counterattack, and Boy #13 Hosaka Yasuaki, who did not attack at all, is also collaterally killed in the crossfire.

As a result, the collars of their partner, Shiori, and the three girls, start to ring. When Nanahara Shuya hears this, he refuses to abandon Shiori and the others and tries to save them with an EMP. However, the rescue is too late, and one of them, Girl #10 Natsukawa Yuko is killed in the explosion. The EMP activates just in time, saving Shiori and the other three girls from death. Battle Royale II is then canceled, and the Wild Seven removes the collars from the 11 surviving students, including Shiori and Takuma. Two of the survivors are delinquents Takuma Aoi and Shiori Kitano, the daughter of the "teacher" who was killed by Shuya from a Battle Royale program three years previously. Taken into the Wild Seven's base, the surviving students' explosive collars are removed and they are encouraged to help the Wild Seven end the Battle Royale for good. While most of the survivors agree, Takuma and Shiori remain unconvinced. Meanwhile, Haruka Kuze is still wounded by the bullet, so she decides to use Epipen, but she realizes that it is infected and necrotic, so she throws it away. She is noticed by the Wild Seven kids, but Kuze still wants to go away and she wants to leave. Not hesitating herself, one of the kids gives her a rectangular chocolate bar, which Kuze excitingly grabbed and ate immediately. In the meantime, Haruya meets Saki, who was pretending to get the weapons down.

On Christmas Day, Shuya sends a video message to the world stating their goal to live free. In response to the video, the United States fires a missile upon the island, interrupting the students and the Wild Seven. Under pressure from the U.S. government, the Japanese prime minister takes command of the military present at the Battle Royale headquarters and orders an attack on the Wild Seven's base, with no survivors allowed – if they fail, the U.S. will bomb the island. Takeuchi is enraged by the change of actions and is discovered to have the same type of collar on his neck as the students.

The survivors of the base (including the surviving students, except Shiori) retreat to the mainland via a mine shaft while the war between the Wild Seven and the military occurs. Hearing gunfire outside the tunnel, Takuma and two of his friends return to help in the fight. The combat takes numerous casualties on both sides, leaving Shuya, Takuma, and Shiori as the only remaining fighters. While they try to evacuate, Takeuchi appears and, after a brief personal exchange, allows the group to flee as he sacrifices himself.

Outside Wild Seven's base, combat starts again and Shiori is mortally wounded by gunfire. Before she dies in Shuya's arms, she reveals herself as Kitano's daughter and seemingly forgives him for his past crimes. Shuya and Takuma run out to kill the rest of the soldiers while the U.S. bombardment begins. The program then ends on a voided status, listing the fates of Shuya and the surviving students as unknown. Three months later, Shuya and Takuma rejoin the other survivors, including Noriko Nakagawa, in Afghanistan. They have regrouped as friends, and what lies next for them remains unknown.

Cast

Main article: List of Battle Royale characters

• Tatsuya Fujiwara as Shuya Nanahara
• Ai Maeda as Shiori Kitano
• Shugo Oshinari as Takuma Aoi
• Ayana Sakai as Nao Asakura
• Haruka Suenaga as Haruka Kuze
• Yuma Ishigaki as Mitsugu Sakai
• Miyuki Kanbe as Kyoko Kakei
• Nana Yanagisawa as Mayu Hasuda
• Masaya Kikawada as Shintaro Makimura
• Yōko Maki as Maki Souda
• Yuki Ito as Ryo Kurosawa
• Natsuki Kato as Saki Sakurai
• Aki Maeda as Noriko Nakagawa
• Riki Takeuchi as Riki Takeuchi
• Sonny Chiba as Makio Mimura (Shinji's revolutionary uncle)
• Ai Iwamura as Mai
• Mika Kikuchi as Ayane Yagi
• Beat Takeshi as Kitano
• Yoshiko Mita as Takuma's Mother
• Nanami Ohta as Hitoe Takeuchi
• Takeru Shibaki as Shugo Urabe
• Toshiyuki Toyonaga as Shota Hikasa
• Masahiko Tsugawa as The Prime Minister

Production

Kenta Fukasaku said, "We never set out to make Harry Potter." He explains that he wanted audience members to ponder "big issues" and to view the world from a point of view held by a terrorist. Fukasaku added that the film, against "the new Matrix" and Terminator III, needed to "provide something that Hollywood can't." Fukasaku intended to provide an alternative to what Time magazine's Ilya Garger describes as "the moral certainty of American culture" as seen in U.S. films and foreign policy.

Kenta Fukasaku said that he viewed his task as finishing his deceased father's movie instead of as directing his first creation; the son credits the film as his father's. Kenta Fukasaku desired a lot of controversy and outrage for the sequel, adding that "the more strongly people react, the better." The film was mainly shot on Hashima Island ("Battleship Island").

Reception

Requiem received generally negative reviews from film critics. The film received a rating of 30% at Rotten Tomatoes based on 10 reviews, and an average rating of 5.4/10. Many of the reviewers criticized the film for being inferior to the original, having a contrived, confusing plot line, its controversial, provocative sentiments, and generally bad acting.

Ilya Garger of Time said that while the film has more "bullets, bombs and dramatic battlefield deaths" than its predecessor had, the sequel does not have the "who'll-die-next-and-how suspense." Garger described the characters in Battle Royale II as "a simpler breed" who join forces to defeat the adults. One of the few positive reviews was from Jamie Russell of BBC who stated that the film "scrapes by on the strength of its startlingly subversive political commentary," wearing "its anti-American sentiments on its sleeve." Despite criticizing it for being "torturously overlong, resoundingly clunky and full of a bloated sense of its own importance," it concluded that "its decision to cast its heroes as teenage Al Qaeda-style terrorists fighting against a fascistic adult America is staggeringly bold."

Music

The sequel's soundtrack has more original work by Masamichi Amano and fewer classical pieces. One of them, Farewell to the Piano, is played by Shiori Kitano herself during the film.

The song from the opening credits is "Dies Irae", taken from the Verdi Requiem.

The end title song is by the Japanese punk band Stance Punks. The song "Mayonaka Shounen Totsugeki Dan" features on their first full-length, self-titled album.

Books

The book The Road to BRII (ISBN 4834252124) is a behind-the-scenes photo collection about the production of the movie. About ten tie-in books related to the movie have been released in Japan.

Related manga

A manga series called Battle Royale II: Blitz Royale is partially related to Battle Royale II: Requiem. The school in Blitz Royale is Shikanotoride Junior High School, and the "teacher" pops pills like Riki Takeuchi. There are numerous plot differences between the film and manga.

External links

• Battle Royale II: Requiem at IMDb
• Battle Royale II: Requiem at Rotten Tomatoes
• Comparison of DVD releases