Battle Royale

[dreamer_easy]

Finally made time to watch the Japanese movie "Battle Royale" (2000). You might assume a movie about frightened teens spurting blood would be cheap nonsense, but in fact it's based on a thought-provoking novel which I'd read earlier in the year. IMHO the film gets across the chaos and panic of the battlefield even more effectively than the book. There's a huge dose of black humour (omg, the training film!), and the use of classical music was particularly effective. If you don't mind a few axes in heads I'd definitely give this a watch. (It does have to cram in an awful lot of action, to the detriment of developing the future it's set in - for that, and more character background, check out Koushun Takami's novel.)

At the opposite end of the action movie spectrum: the Korean film "Volcano High" (2001). Where the participants in the Battle Royale mostly flail and fumble like the ordinary teenagers they are, the students sent to Volcano High engage in outrageous martial arts battles. Of all things, it reminded me of "St Trinian's II: The Legend of Fitton's Gold" because of its strong, slick style and general air of engaging silliness.

Comments

[drhoz.livejournal.com]

I think I saw Volcano High last weekend. That was a very silly movie, but fun

[dreamer-easy.livejournal.com]

... you think you saw it? That was one hell of a weekend! XD