Batoru rowaiaru II: Chinkonka (2003)

User Rating:

4.7/10   

Directors:

Kenta Fukasaku
Kinji Fukasaku

Writers:

Kenta Fukasaku (writer)
Norio Kida (writer)

Release Date:

5 July 2003 (Japan)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

This time it's war.

Plot:

Three years after the failure of the last BR program, a second act is forged and a class of students are sent to an island with one objective: kill international terrorist Shuya Nanahara.

Plot Keywords:

Terrorist | Island | Friendship | Self Sacrifice | Teenkill

Awards:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Tatsuya Fujiwara	...	Shuya Nanahara
Ai Maeda	...	Shiori Kitano (Transfer Student)
Shûgo Oshinari	...	Takuma Aoi
Ayana Sakai	...	Nao Asakura
Haruka Suenaga	...	Haruka Kuze
Yuma Ishigaki	...	Mitsugu Sakai
Miyuki Kanbe	...	Kyoko Kakei
Masaya Kikawada	...	Shintaro Makimura
Yoko Maki	...	Maki Souda
Yuki Ito	...	Ryo Kurosawa
Natsuki Kato	...	Saki Sakurai
Aki Maeda	...	Noriko Nakagawa
Riki Takeuchi	...	Riki Takeuchi (Sensei)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Aja	...	Kazumi Fukuda
Munetaka Aoki	...	Jun Nanami
Riasu Arama	...	Rena Niimi
Sonny Chiba	...	Makio Mimura (Shinji's revolutionary uncle)
Seiichi Ebina	...	Tatsuro Morishima
Ryoji Fujihira	...	Masami Shibaki
Maki Hamada	...	Chizuru
Ayumi Hanada	...	Ryoko Hata
Kenji Harada	...	Naoki Jo
Hitomi Hasebe	...	Asuka Motomura
Takaaki Ikeyama	...	Yasuaki Hosaka
Asuka Ishii	...	Maho Nosaka
Hiroaki Ito	...	Soldier
Ai Iwamura	...	Mai (Smiling Winner from BR1)
Kotaru Kamijou	...	Kenji Maezono
Minami Kanazawa	...	Yuko Natsukawa
Ryo Katsuji	...	Haruya Sakurai
Asami Katsura	...	Risa Shindo
Mika Kikuchi	...	Ayane Yagi
Takeshi Kitano	...	Kitano (as Beat Takeshi)
Musashi Kubota	...	Wataru Mukai
Miku Kuga	...	Kengo Yonai
Maika Matsumoto	...	Shiho Matsuki
Michiho Matsumoto	...	Sanae Shioda
Yoshiko Mita	...	Takuma's mother
Chisato Miyao	...	Hibiki Yano
Akane Mizuno	...	Sayaka
Yuuko Morimoto	...	Kana Yûki
Aiko Moriuchi	...	Miki Ikeda
Mitsuru Murata	...	Soji Kazama
Ami Nakagawa	...	Honami Totsuka
Kayo Nayuki	...	Eri Yoshiyama
Yûya Nishikawa	...	Nishi
Kenji Ohba	...	Mimura's Comrade
Nanami Oota	...	Hitoe Takeuchi
Yuka Ozawa	...	Shinobu
Gou Ryugawa	...	Lieutenant Anjo
Rika Sakagushi	...	Yuka Mifune
Mai Sakamoto	...	Shoko
Makoto Sakamoto	...	Osamu Kasai
Mikiya Sanada	...	ATAT soldier
Shoko Sato	...	Nozomi Sagisawa
Takeru Shibaki	...	Shugo Urabe
Mitsuki Shimada	...	'Wild Seven' Member
Sae Shimizu	...	Ai Yazawa
Hikaru Takahashi	...	ATAT soldier
Kei Tamura	...	Tatsuhiko Hasegawa
Takeshi Tanaka	...	Masakatsu Taguchi
Takashi Taniguchi	...	Leader of the Anti-Terrorist Attack Team
Masumi Tooyoka	...	Yukari
Toshiyuki Toyonaga	...	Shota Hikasa
Masahiko Tsugawa	...	The Prime Minister
Haruka Umeda	...	Aya
Toshihiro Wada	...	Satoshi Imakire (as Toshihiro Wada)
Kouta Yamada	...	Tetsuya Shimura
Kazuki Yamamoto	...	Yosuke Miyadai
Michiko Yamamura	...	Reporter
Nana Yanagisawa	...	Mayu Hasuda
Takahiko Yanagisawa	...	Shiro
Kazutoshi Yokoyama	...	ATAT soldier
Yasutake Yuboku	...	Kiyoshi Minamoto
Takashi Yukawa	...	'Wild Seven' Member
Yuuma	...	Yuuma

Also Known As:

Batoru rowaiaru II: Rekuiemu (Japan) (alternative title)
Battle Royale 2: Revenge (UK) (DVD title)
Battle Royale II (USA)
Battle Royale II: Requiem (literal English title)

Runtime:

Japan:134 min | Japan:155 min (director's cut)

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Singapore:M18 | Hong Kong:III | Australia:R | Germany:18 (JK/SPIO) | Japan:R-15 | New Zealand:R18 | South Korea:15 | UK:18 | Finland:K-18 | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

Nishisinoki-gun, Nagasaki, Japan

Company:

Fukasaku-gumi

Trivia:

The name of the terrorist group, "Wild Seven", is Nanaharras nickname in the original novel. It is also the name of the brand of cigarettes that Kawada smokes in the novel, a nameplay of "Mild Seven".

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: The cameraman's shadow can be seen in one of the flashback shots of the children.

Quotes:

Takuma Aoi: We never had anywhere we could go. I knew that all along. Or any place to go home to! This is war right? You're all fighting for your lives! But die and you're just one more candle! Even those poor little kids. You're all the same. You're no better than the adults!
Shuya Nanahara: How I wish this war would end. I keep on asking myself. How can I answer all those who have died? I don't know... But inevitably, we'll all grow up to be adults. The best survivors can do, is to keep remembering the ones who 'died.' Always and forever. Even after we grow up.

Movie Connections:

References Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

Bloody mess!

Bad sequels are especially painful when their predecessors were brilliant and mesmerizing films. Like in the case of "Battle Royale", which was the most controversial shocker in years and probably the only film of the recent Asia-mania that was worth the hype it caused. BR featured a simply absurd story and exploitative violence, yet it worked. The sequel, for some reason, wants to be more ambitious and turns the premise into a gigantic anti-war campaign. Sole survivor Shuya Nanahara of part one has become a feared terrorized who declared war to all adults but, instead of responding, the government sends a fresh shipment of adolescents with death-collars over to the hideout island of Shuya in order to annihilate him. The only really good sequences are almost exact copies of situations that already took place in part one (a giant amount of nasty collar-explosions) but the shock-effect is gone. I normally have sympathy for filmmakers that try something new instead of re-telling the original but in this case the director should have optioned for a screenplay that harped more on the same successful idea. Something's also pretty wrong with the regularity and structure of this film. The first 45 minutes are stuffed with hard-boiled action, featuring for example a Saving Private Ryan-like coast-storming. But then the boredom kicks in and the story begins to live up to its extra title: "Requiem". Endlessly irritating friendship speeches, tedious morality and unnecessary flashbacks completely ruin the tempo of the film and you literally have to struggle yourself through every remaining minute that's left. 134 minutes is way too long for a film like this, by the way. The whole BR2 project is an incompetent mess and not at all recommended. It's too idiotic too pass for a war epic and far too moralizing to become a controversial cult flick.