Batoru rowaiaru II: Chinkonka

Unlike the first installment of this franchise, whose captivating storyline enthralled the audience from beginning to end, even after watching it several times, this movie soon loses its grasp and slides itself into a decently made piece of nonsense, the outcome of which will not be of any interest in the least. The actors’ performances are unbelievably bad, they spew out vacuous meaningless monologues full of pathos, and the audience is not able to form any relationship with their characters at all. There are loads of action scenes here, however, compared to the first Battle Royale, they are far less dynamic, and what is worse, they are not very imaginative or aesthetically pleasing at all. In addition, in the key scenes, the makers were obviously inspired by the movies Saving Private Ryan and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, because there is blatant copying of some of their classic scenes and almost constitutes a parody. As a continuation of the now cult violent Japanese movie, BR2 is a complete misstep and a poor imitation of the first installment, as a stand-alone movie, it is just a nonsense action movie with wannabe political overtones. Disappointing. (2019.06.20)

The Japanese disappointed in this case. The film is well shot, the Japanese are great professionals at that, especially when it comes to bigger productions, but you expect something more from the movie, and all you get is shooting. Yes, there is still a story that could further develop, but fortunately, this is not an endless manga. That's good. If it had stayed with just the first film, it would probably be the best, the second one didn't bring anything significant. (2013.11.03)