Battle Royale anyone?

Battle Royale by Takami is a pretty fun book. The first 50 pages are a little thick but then it really gets going after they kill the first student. Plus the movie has already been made and you know nothing about it... American companies won't distribute it because it's too violent... censorship issues should come up. Download the English subtitle version and pick up the book for a nice read, that is as long as you like murder and Japanese school girls.

off topic from the book but is the film really unreleased in the US,did it not even get cinema release?
I find that hard to understand.





[edit on 11/9/2005 by Ras Dedan]

Nope... not even a small theatrical release. Like I said, American distributors won't put it out because of the violence, but you can buy the book and you can download the English subtitle version off the major file sharing networks.

I think companies might also be afraid to put it out because of the school shootings, which it has nothing to do with. I have heard that Tarantino wanted to do a Battle Royale remake or straight Rolling Thunder video release but no one would let him so instead he did Kill Bill and put one of the stars of Battle Royale in it.

i saw the movie a couple years ago, was really awesome...didn't even matter that i couldn't understand what they were saying.

I'm a huge fan of Battle Royale, and I equally like both the book and movie.

Though I've avoided the sequal... I don't want to ruin the ever-lasting moment

Even though I saw the sequel without subtitles or a English dub I thought it was pretty alright. If you want to check it out then it's worth a watch. The premise is different though, it students in combat units basically thrust into battle opposed to student vs. student murder action. Still it had really great action sequences. Some parts of it didn't make a lick of sense but it doesn't affect my view of the original whatsoever though it does provide a strange wrap up for a couple characters from the first. Can you say “Taliban”? You have to watch it to understand.

I had a look on IMDB and it got played at a couple of film festivals but that appears to be it,America is indeed a place of much strangeness.
As for the sequel it was extremely disappointing, the storyline was pretty sketchy and the acting was mostly terrible,especially disappointing as it was the great Kinji Fukasaku last film,he was a giant of Japanese cinema who directed so many classic films he died during filming and his son carried it on,a sad end to a brilliant career.