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ghevans at the KFCCinema forums wrote the following review. It's negative, but it's an articulate assessment of what appears to be BRII's flaws and problems:

www.kfccinema.com/temple/...php?t=5552

I feel my review needs some sort of disclaimer, so that people know where I'm coming
from. For one thing, I'm probably made more of an investment than most in this
movie and its predecessor, in money, in time, in thought, and in effort, so I'm well
aware that I'm going into the movie in an odd and rare position: since it's the
culmination of everything I've put into it as a fan, I'm going to try to like it as much as
I can, and I'm going to wind up sounding like an apologist for the movie at times. Not
that one has to like BRII to be a hardcore fan, but one can understand how a hardcore
fan can love a movie that a casual fan/casual viewer may think is garbage--and we
know that a lot of the reviews of the movie haven't been kind.

Also, I've already seen the movie in bootleg form (with its missing bits, poor image,
and poor audio) months ago; it's pretty handy when watching the sub-less DVD, but it
also means I've already formed some impressions of the film, and the DVD only serves
to augment/revise those impressions.

All that said, I'll restate what I've said about BRII before: definitely inferior to BR1,
deeply flawed, but it does have its good points, and the DVD only served to reinforce
that. One also needs to take the first BR down off its pedestal; yes, BRII has some
logical leaps (why does the government send a bunch of kids to the terrorist island,
when they could always have wiped the terrorists out with an assault with their own
forces and with a bunch of bombs, as they do later on?), but BR the movie, without the
novel to back it up, also has plot holes that require lengthy explanation to fill in.
Perhaps the BRII novelization (which may never see English publication) provides as
much of a more solid foundation for the sequel as the original BR novel does for the
first film (I know that at the very least, the novelization details exactly what happens
after Nanahara and Aoi pull their Butch Cassidy and Sundance routine).

I'm no good at reviewing, so let's just break it down:

The Good:
- Ai Maeda as Shiori Kitano. One of the things that all but escaped me in the bootleg
is just how badass she is in this film, and the DVD makes it even more clear (pun
intended).
- The briefing scene. It's obviously the one part of the movie that can be directly
compared to something in BR1, and it succeeds in topping the first movie's briefing
scene (even without the help of Oneesan) and distinguishing the Shikanotoride kids
from the Shiroiwa kids; when the soldiers bark at the kids to sit down, the
Shikanotoride kids DON'T, and actually struggle with the soldiers before they're all
wrestled into a heap in the center of the room. Riki Takeuchi's performance may be
over the top, but keep in mind that like Kitano in the original, he was encouraged to
play the role as a caricature of their onscreen persona; one needs to get that joke to
get why Riki all but tears down the tent with his giggly, eyes-rolling-to-the-top-of-
his-head act. I didn't mind his insanity at all, and his subplot plays out well; there's a
shot of him, looking at his dead daughter's picture, that I found rather moving.
Major kudos, too, to the two casualties of the scene--Masaya Kikawada as Boy #15
and Aja as Girl #15; they milked their brief appearances as much as they could, and
their deaths are just as heartwrenching as any in the first BR, and certainly more
memorable than many that followed them. You wish they'd stuck around longer, but
that's exactly why their quick exits seem more tragic.
- The battle scenes. Yeah, it's no Minas Trith, but the first and last 40 minutes of the
film are some of the most effective war scenes I've ever seen, and considering that
BRII's $10 million budget is smaller than most American movies' *on-set catering*
budgets, that's an impressive feat indeed. None of BR1's "cut, dab on fake blood,
action" stuff either--plenty of bloody squibs galore.

The Bad
- Shugo Oshinari as Takuma Aoi. Loved this guy in "All About Lily Chou-Chou," so I'm
not sure if his acting is to blame. The weakest link in the film is that so much screen
time is devoted to this one note character. He's angry. Period. To enjoy the film, you
kinda have to tune him out.
- The middle. If there was ever a movie that bogged down in the middle, it's this one.
Rather than play out some of the subplots--and from the character profiles that were
issued when the movie was being promoted, there were quite a few interesting
ones--we get treated to flashback upon flashback, politics, angst, and the least
interesting subplot of Asakura's baffling devotion to Aoi. I could see why the Kitano
flashback would be necessary, but they could've at least made it interesting, and the
flashbacks of Aoi's mother and Mimura's uncle were superfluous (even though they
made for great cameos by Japanese cinema veterans Yoshiko Mita and Sonny Chiba).
- The silly battle lulls. While the final showdown is good to watch, it bugged me to no
end that the hordes of marauding soldiers would (offscreen) inexplicably pause so
that a mortally injured major character can have their dramatic last words. I kid you
not, the shooting in the background fades out and fades back in in one instance.
They could've figured a way to do this in a way that makes sense, the heroes dealing
the bad guys a major blow or creating a major obstacle for them or something.
- The survivors. It's a little irksome that many of the students who make it are the
least memorable of the bunch, complete enigmas. The ones who aren't--Asakura and
Aoi--are the ones you'd rather forget. Well, not Asakura...but only because she's hot.

I won't go too much into the politics of the film--while I certainly understand
Fukasaku's point that one person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter, and
while I'm not exactly a major supporter of Bush and his foreign policy, I think
Fukasaku's argument is a little dubious when the terrorists kill 8,000 innocents.
Personally, I think that the real U.S.A. wouldn't tolerate a Japan that had a BR program,
and would side with people trying to fight such an oppressive government. Fukasaku
also makes a point about America muscling its way around the world (while some
critics of BRII seem to be making a big deal about how the U.S. is cryptically referred
to as "that country" in a conversation between Riki and the Japanese prime minister,
they seem to forget that Riki specifically mentions America in his introductory
speech), but seems to conveniently forget that the real-life "broad smiles" of the
Afghani kids that are shown to us in a haunting montage are due to the fact that the
Americans and their allies got rid of the oppressive Taliban. But let's just chalk it up
to BR taking place in an alternate universe, with BR's America being a twisted
reflection of itself--a jab at the real USA's policies, to be sure, but without the viewer
necessarily inferring that it's one and the same as the America in the film.

Those little things:
- if you didn't know, Mitsuko is in BRII! Really! Well, the young actress who played
young Mitsuko in the Special Version appears in BRII in a different but pretty
memorable role.
- you don't need to bother distinguishing between the core "Wild Seven" members and
the other terrorists--only Maki the hacker and Saki the sniper really stand out.
- there's an ironic moment as Nanahara faces off one-on-one against the leader of
the ATAT team--who's played by Takashi Taniguchi, the same guy who played his
father in the first film.


Okay, onto a review/description of the Mission Box set itself.

Go here for images of the set:
gan.musical.to/BRBOX.htm

The Mission Box set comes in an outer corrugated cardboard box pocked with "bullet
holes." Inside is the green tin we've all seen in the pictures, topped by one of the
confusingly many BRII logos designed for the movie (this one resembles the old BR
laurel leaves logo, except it says "BRII" within the circle of leaves)

Open the tin up and on the inside lid you get a picture of Santa Claus announcing
whether you've got a hit (AK-47 airsoft model or Casio G-Shock watch), miss (BRII
toilet paper), or just "ganbare" (nothing). This relates to the movie, where the ammo
boxes dropped to the BRII kids had similar contents and stickers.

The goodies: an engraved BRII bangle (seen worn by the students in the movie), and a
BRII pendant (the rectangular black-and-silver BRII Survival Program logo, on a
beaded chain). Two sets of BRII logo stickers: Set A, which also comes with the
regular edition, is a single original BR laurel leaves logo in black with "Battle Royale II:
Requiem" in red kana below; Set B, found only in the Mission Box Set, has something
similar to the rectangular BRII logo, but in red, with "Survival Program" and "Battle
Royale" in different fonts, plus four old-school BR laurel leaves logos, two in red, two
in black. And last but not least, a 5 x 7 class photo--not the one in the combat
uniforms, but the cast in their school uniforms with Riki Takeuchi in weary teacher
mode, taken "before" their fateful trip. This image was only seen before torn up and
in black and white on the back of the "Shuya Nanahara x Shikanotoride 3-B White
Paper" tie-in photobook, and covered up with icons as a background in the character
profiles DVD that came with said photobook--now we get it in hard copy, full color
(I've scanned and uploaded it to the Battle Royale Yahoo! Group, natch).

The DVD cases within are Amaray cases, the covers printed with a foil look. Disc 1
(the feature film and some extras, identical to the "regular edition") has the class-in-
combat-uniforms pic prominent in the cover, while Disc 2 (more extras, only in the
Mission Box set) has Shuya Nanahara.

The film itself--16:9 LB, two audio tracks--2.0 stereo surround, Dolby 5.1.

Extras on Disc 1
- Footage from the movie's gala premiere, complete with orchestra performing some
familiar classical pieces before the show, and the "stage greeting" with the cast and
director getting to say something about the film. We also glimpse the post-show
bows, with Aki Maeda (Noriko) joining the cast at this point (she wasn't in the opening
stage greeting).
- Alternate "Farewell to the Piano" scene, where Shiori Kitano (Aki Maeda) finds a
piano at the Wild Seven lair and plays the "Farewell to the Piano" piece (allegedly
composed by Beethoven and popularized after his death). We cut to a flashback (not
seen in BRII) of Shiori's end of the phone conversation with her father at the end of the
first movie, and we see what the birthday present her father gave to her is (we see him
leaving it for her in BRII, wrapped, but don't see it opened in the theatrical cut of the
film).
- Warsaw Orchestra scene - as in the R2 Japan BR and BR:SV releases before it, BRII
includes a featurette about the soundtrack recording sessions.
- Trailers and TV spots
- Photo Gallery - 100 stills from the production.
- Fukasaku filmogaphy/biography - text screens.
- Character profiles - each kid and terrorist has their own screen of stats and info,
much like the Japanese R2 BR original version release. Plus a clickable feature about
the equipment the kids are carrying, similar to a feature on the official BRII website.
- Behind the scenes featurettes - 1) the brief piece that was put on the internet early
in the production, showing Kinji Fukasaku directing the kids during rehearsals. 2)
Auditions and readings 3) A fast-paced interview piece with most of the cast
members--it sounds like they're giving their takes of what they would do if they were
in a war/a BRII-type situation.
- Text screens about the "BRII Act".
- Easter Egg--on the special features menu, jump to the right and down to the "back
to Main Menu" link, then press up--a "9" that's part of the camo background will light
up. It's a nice montage of Kinji Fukasaku visiting the derelict island Gunkanjima (used
in the exterior shots for BRII) and working on the production; it's then followed by the
DVD credits over a set of production stills.

Disc 2
-Theatrical premiere stage greeting - more cast introductions and mini-speeches. 12
minutes.
-Kinji Fukasaku birthday stage greeting - two days before the theatrical premiere the
movie was screened in honor of Kinji's birthday. More speeches, and the cast sings
happy birthday. Aja, the ganguro Girl #15, really shines in this one. 14 minutes.
-ANB special volume 1: Largely duplicated in BRII Gaiden, this was a TV special that
aired shortly after Kinji's death, covering the open casting all, auditions, and
rehearsals. There's also a bonus/deleted scene here where we flash back to Shiori's
end of the conversation during her *first* phone call to Kitano in the first movie, and
we spend a little time on Shiori and her motivation to join BRII. 24 minutes.
-ANB special volume 2: Partly duplicated in the extensive BR/BRII documentaries
"Eiga wa Senjo da" and "Saigo no Senjo", a TV special that covers the BR movie
phenomenon and Kinji Fukasaku's involvement. Cast interviews with members of the
BRII cast. 45 minutes.
-WOWOW BRII Special - another special promoting the film, akin to the WOWOW
special found in the R2J, Korean, and Tartan Special Editions of the first movie--lots
of hype, cast interviews, and English words flying around. 24 minutes.
-Press kit promotional featurette--a pretty well-put together 7-minute "trailer" with
lots of background music as opposed to dialogue. It makes the film look good; I
wouldn't be surprised if this was the footage that drew a SRO crowd at the Cannes
Film Market.
-Test footage--camera tests for the combat footage, some of the cast members
running around in generic camo uniforms and their working props. BR fans will
recognize that they're fighting in the abandoned building used by Mimura the hacker
in the first movie.
-more freaking featurettes: 1) Kinji Fukasaku filming the helicopter and classroom
scenes for BR1; Yukihiro Kotani (Nobu) visiting the auditions for BRII; Kinji Fukasaku
blowing out his birthday cake. (7 minutes) 2) Kinji Fukusaku working with some girls
rehearsing a scene for BRII (if there was any doubt that despite his death, Kinji was
still all over this movie, this should put that to rest) (17 minutes) 3) Gag reel--13
minutes of the cast goofing off, a real fun watch. Keep your eyes and ears peeled for
an "Andromedia" gag (one of the students was the male lead in that movie).
- Different Toei logo montages over the years, leading to--
- trailers for many of Kinji Fukasaku's films over the years! A goldmine.
- Multiple angle tent scene - the scene in which the students are dragged into the
cage and briefed, with two sets of shot angles to choose from--the final theatrical
cut, and an alternate cut.
- Photo Gallery 2 - 100 more pictures!
- Easter Egg-- click on the BRII kana title to go into a featurette with an odd mix of
cast members paying respect to Kinji Fukasaku after his death, and parodies and
goofing off by cast and crew (perhaps the solemn bell-ringing at Kinji's shrine is
supposed to be in apology for the parodies, or the lightheartedness is customary after
the ending of the mourning period?), then Tatsuya Fujiwara gets his two cents in, then
more DVD credits and some nice cast/crew pictures.