I was really disappointed with this film. I am going to be brief: it felt like an extended Japanese episode of Xena Warrior Princess. It had the same sort of visuals and all the fighters seem to have been carrying around their own personal trampolines. The plot was barely worthy of the description "plot" and seemed as if it had been forced in to justify the action scenes. The film was certified 18 and yet I could not understand why this was the case. It felt like an old Kurosawa film with no real visual violence, just people being swatted at by a sword then turning to face the camera with a thin sliver of blood across their chest. During the middle part of the film nothing seems to happen and there is a wholly unecessary and unconvincing subplot involving some sort of terrorist with really bad hair.
My biggest problem with Battle Royale was that it was essentially a showcase for the director to have some young Japanese talent kill each other and there is little about this description which differs from Princess Blade. Like Battle Royale the director seems to think that the ocassional scene in which characters doubt whether killing is justified, or relate some story about a dead mother or dead lover are in some way supposed to give the film an emotional depth which absolves it from being termed merely a film about fighting.
Visually it feels like an MTV video and is probably less emotionally involving. I serioulsy recommend you watch another film, but if you feel the need to complete your Tartan Asia Extreme collection nothing is going to stop you stumbling across it. And then regretting doing so.
My biggest problem with Battle Royale was that it was essentially a showcase for the director to have some young Japanese talent kill each other and there is little about this description which differs from Princess Blade. Like Battle Royale the director seems to think that the ocassional scene in which characters doubt whether killing is justified, or relate some story about a dead mother or dead lover are in some way supposed to give the film an emotional depth which absolves it from being termed merely a film about fighting.
Visually it feels like an MTV video and is probably less emotionally involving. I serioulsy recommend you watch another film, but if you feel the need to complete your Tartan Asia Extreme collection nothing is going to stop you stumbling across it. And then regretting doing so.
