Jun. 22, 2005 - 7:04 pm
well Netflix recently added this functionality to where you can see what your friends are watching. since my boss Stephen and friend Dave are both now on my Friends list, i noticed that they had both recently watched Battle Royale. i think Stephen had told me something about it recently too.
it's about a group of 40 Japanese students who are taken to a special deserted island in a military program called the Battle Royale, obviously. the program is very zany, but also sadistic. the 40 young students are there to kill each other off. only one person at the most can survive. that one person has to make sure that everyone else is dead. if more than one person is alive after the three days, they will all be killed because of the explosive collars that they wear around their necks. each student also gets a random "weapon" that can range anywhere from a cooking pot lid to an automatic rifle. in this tournament, most of the students end up trying to find the person they have a crush on before they die. and then they get killed in the process. it's a wild ride.
everyone seems to think that this movie was banned in the U.S. until now, but actually it's just that the Japanese production company kept denying American distribution companies the right to release it. i think Dave said that he had a pirated copy before it was recently released.
so i guess i didn't expect greatness from this film. it's like a train wreck. you hear about what happens and you can't not be interested in it. "kids in gladiatorial combat?!?!?" come on, you know that sounds interesting.