大象传媒

A disappointingly amateurish follow-up to the murderous original, Battle Royale II: Requiem scrapes by on the strength of its startlingly subversive political commentary. Three years after the first film, a class of high school kids (led by Sh没go Oshinari) are ordered to hunt down the survivors of the earlier teenage bloodbath. "This time it's war," promises the tagline, and you'd better believe it. Taking bold jabs at George Bush's foreign policy and the events of 9/11, this is incendiary exploitation filmmaking.

Uncompromisingly provocative, Battle Royale II wears its anti-American sentiments on its sleeve: the opening image shows skyscrapers being reduced to rubble in a huge explosion that explicitly echoes the World Trade Center attacks. It turns out that Shuya Nanahara (Tatsuya Fujiwara), a survivor of the original massacre, has become an international terrorist operating out of Afghanistan. So much for subtlety, then.

"CONTRIVED AND UNCONVINCING STUFF"

Legendary Japanese director Kinji Fukasaku died during production, handing over the reins to his son Kenta. That may explain why so much of this outing is muddled and shockingly dull. Ditching the reality TV feel of the original - and those distinctive school uniforms - Battle Royale II plays like a bargain basement rip-off. As the kids storm to the deserted island where Nanahara's terrorists are holed up, Fukasaku pounds the screen with endless bursts of automatic gunfire, exploding heads and an overbearing, Wagnerian soundtrack. It's contrived and unconvincing stuff - and a million miles away from the slick, sick polish of the original.

Still, there's no getting away from the sheer outrageousness of its politics. Battle Royale II may be torturously overlong, resoundingly clunky and full of a bloated sense of its own importance, but its decision to cast its heroes as teenage Al Qaeda-style terrorists fighting against a fascistic adult America is staggeringly bold. Chances of a US remake are very slim indeed.

In Japanese with English subtitles.

Battle Royale II: Requiem is released in UK cinemas on Friday 9th July 2004.