Yeah, it's a bit of wierd concept for a film.. for anyone who's not seen either, here's a brief overview of both (without giving away anything important):
BR1: Basically, it's set in the near future in Japan. Juvenile crime has spiralled out of control and so the Japanese government creates the "Battle Royale" act. This means, each year a class of high school graduates with the worst grades/highest crime level is selected and they're basically kidnapped and taken to an island.
Once there, they're fitted with an explosive necklace and told they have 3 days on the island to kill each other until there is one survivor. If there's more than one survivor once the time limit expires, their collars will activate killing anyone still alive.
Each kid is then given some supplies and a random weapon, ranging from tin lids to machine guns and sent out onto the island and the game begins.
This all sounds really horrible, and the film is quite gruesome in places but the main part of the film is how the kids deal with the situation. Some of them can't take it and kill themselves right away, others stick with their friends hoping to avoid killing anyone and trying to find a way out of it whilst others just want to survive and go on a killing spree.
It's all briliantly done and the acting is top notch - especially considering how young all of the actors are.
BR2: Ok, Battle Royale 2 is set about 3 years after the first film. The survivor from the game in the first film has gone on to become a terrorist and wants to bring down the government and put a stop to the Battle Royale act once and for all. He's built up a sizeable army of kids who have either survived Battle Royales since his or have lost family members to them.
Under pressure from America to deal with the terrorists but not wanting to waste it's own militart resources, the Japanese govenrment decides to change the rules for the Battle Royale and instead of making the kids kill each other, they send a class of kids to the island where the terrorists are hiding and their goal is to kill their leader. If they manage it in 3 days, they all get to survive.
Again they are all fitted with explosive collars which will explode once the time limit expires to encourage them to try and fulfill their mission, but this time, to encourage team work and survival, they are each linked to a class mate - if either of them die, ther team-mates collar will explode killing them too.
It's similar to the first film but it's a lot more political and brings up a lot of issues about terrorism, the reasons for it and Americas stance against it.
Again, it's very well done with excellent acting. It drags a little towards the middle but it's a great film and quite thought provoking.
If you're planning on watching them and haven't seen either, I'd say it is worth watching the first film before the second, you understand more about why things are happening in the second if you've seen the first and above all, it's a great film.
The first film is based on a Japanese novel, the second is an entirely new script written just for the film by the son of the first films director. He was due to direct the second but died early in the filming so his son took over the directing and finished the movie (he also wrote the screenplay adaptation for the first film).
More info about both can be found here for anyone interested:
http://battleroyalefilm.net/You can get both films (both in 2 disk special editions) for a combined total of £19 - less than a typical 2-disk UK release here:
http://www8.cd-wow.com/searchresults.php?P...d=battle+royaleAdvert over! I'll shut up now.
