Pmust-3 Reviews

Battle Royale (2000)

Disturbing

[8/10 · 28 December 2000]

Battle Royale is based on the shockwave novel by Koushun Takami, which is a bestseller in Japan, and which has become very controversial in a very short time (and it is really easy to understand why). The plot is relatively simple (a class of junior high school students are forced to kill each other on a desert island, the last survivor wins and can go back home), but it is this simplicity that makes its strength. No need for a very long prologue before we enter the main act. Each of the 42 pupils involved in this "game" are not volunteers (no one would be..,), and of course they are forced to kill their best friends /girlfriends in order to survive this horror. The personalities and characteristics of each of the participants are of course very contrasted and even if there are some cliches, well, the worst has been avoided. There are even quite "realistic" (even if it is very difficult to judge what can be realistic with such a plot) moments. The transcription of the inner thoughts of the characters, which is one of the strengths of the book, is averagely well retranscripted. Takeshi Kitano plays a "teacher" (whose name is ...Kitano), leading the operation of surveilliance of this "game". It is very difficult to give an objective comment on this movie. Violent. Ultra-Violent. And bloody. This is for sure. The book has to be read for a more complete description of the hesitations and fears, but the movie restranscripts very well the book is the sense that it is all "absurd". There is no real meaning to this violence. The students know this, but it can not be avoided. It is quite sad that the movie dropped an essential background element of the book (the story in the book takes place in an imaginery Japan which would have not lost WWII, and the movie takes place in a slightly modified modern Japan), but I guess that making this happen in the "real-world" shows that there is no need to go to an imaginary world to see to what extreme behaviors humans are capable of.

Highly disturbing. Rated R-15 (forbidden to under 15), very, very violent, but nonetheless interesting.

Ring 0: Birthday (2000)

quite a deception

[25 May 2000]

I expected a lot, probably too much, from Ring 0. I was eager to follow Sadako as she was still alive, and I wanted to recover from the semi-deception of Ring 2.

There are good moments in Ring 0 (the finale is pretty spooky), but on the whole it lacks the weirdness and atmosphere of Ring. The story is also quite deceiving, introducing a "second" Sadako was not necessary a good idea...

The overall concept of the movie is also a step beyond Ring. After watching Ring, I gave suspicious looks at my videodeck from time to time, whereas Ring 0 is "just" an entertaining horror movie that you forget as soon as you leave the theater.

It is far from being a bad movie, it simply does not reach the intensity of the original.

Ring has become a major horror blockbuster series (with TV dramas), so there is no doubt there will be a Ring 3 or a Ring -1....

Ring 2 (1999)

A bit deceiving, but still excellent.

[5/10 · 26 October 1999]

After Ring, I was expecting a lot for this sequel.

The story this time focuses on the emerging "powers" of Yuuichi (the son of Asakawa), and tries to give an explanation for the cursed video. All the (surviving or not) characters from Ring are here, the directing is still excellent, but the simplicity of the plot and the slow progress to a climax that made the charm of the first episode are not as brilliantly mastered. Nevertheless, it is still an excellent horror movie, rather based on ambiance than on gore. The music is still chilly and creepy.... Each appearance of Sadako on the screen will make you jump from your seat !

A last warning: watching this movie without seeing Ring is a nonsense.

My Neighbors the Yamadas (1999)

Brilliant...As usual....

[9/10 · 20 July 1999]

The new Ghibli Studio production, Tonari no Yamadakun, is two years after "Mononoke" a new masterpiece of animation. The story... Well, there is no story. Just a superposition of sequences, each being more hilarating than the preceding. Director Takahata, using computers generated "hand-like" drawings, wanted the result to be as close as possible to the original newspapers comic, and he fully suceeded. In spite of the apparent graphic simplicity, the astounding quality of the animation makes the characters so lively that it seems sometimes more "real" than conventional cell animation.

The yamadas are a typical japanese family, living in the Kansai area (Osaka). They do not speak standard japanese, especially the Granma, so as almost all of the gags are not visual, so if you plan to see it in Japanese, you should have very strong basis of the language. This is one of the most inventive animation movies I've seen since a very long time...

Spiral (1998)

Somewhat deceiving after Ring

[5/10 · 23 June 1999]

I liked Ring a lot, so I watched "Rasen" with much attention when it was broadcasted on TV. This movie is one of the two sequels proposed for Ring (with Ring 2). The directing and acting are basically as good as in "Ring", but it seemed to me that the plot tries to give explanation when there is no need for it, sometimes coming close to the nonsense. Another (big) disappointment is the development of the character of Sadako. The fact that we did not know much about her in "Ring", for instance not even her face was shown, added much to the fear she inspired. I think that "Ring 2", although quite deceiving too, was much closer to the original spirit of "Ring" than this "Rasen". Anyway it is still an enjoyable movie. For those who liked Ring, I would definitively recommend "Shikoku", which was released simultaneously with "Ring 2". To finish with, I don't know if any of the movies presented here have been released / will be released in a dubbed/subtitled version.

Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris (1999)

Interesting

[28 March 1999]

Gamera is back... For those of you who liked the US version of Godzilla (I hope there aren't too many), this is a movie that you definitively won't like. It is indeed way closer to the original monster movie Spirit than the Emmerich superproduction is. A young girl, whose parents where killed by Gamera when he first fought Gyaos in 1995, finds an egg of a creature (which she names "iris", therefore the title) and raises it in order to kill Gamera. Although nice-looking, Iris is a blood fed creature, and quickly turns to be a danger for Humanity. Fortunately Gamera is still here... I was fascinated by this new Gamera. The special effects are impressive, the destruction scenes are astonishing (the first fight in Shibuya is incredible, but wait to see the Kyoto Station sequence), but in spite of this, the special effects are not the core of the movie (contrary to Emmerich's Godzilla). The human characters are as important as the monsters themselves. Although some are really "cliche" (especially the Dreamcast programmer, though funny, is pretty "useless"), the 2 heroines are well developed. The directing is quite common, nevertheless the flying sequences look very good. If you see it with the eyes of a common US movie goer, you'll hate this movie, as it may look ridiculous in a first viewing. However, the importance of the characters (the "fusion" of the girl with Iris appears to me as the discovery of her own sexuality) and the fact that the monsters are so closed to the natural calamities that strike Japan regularly (just like during the Kobe earthquake, it takes a quite long time for the Japanese government to react, and it's even more striking in Gamera 2) is more relevant that the rubber suit aspect of some closeups. Although it is not a new idea, this new Gamera flick deserves to be seen if you like monster movies and if you have not seen any, it's a good starting point.

Ringu (1998)

Good Japanese horror movie.

[7/10 · 4 March 1999]

First of all, I am quite surprised that this movie did not get more votes than this, as it is quite popular here. I don't know if it has been released somewhere else in the world, neither do I know if it has been released on video in other countries than Japan. The plot is quite common, it's a very "Japanese" style horror movie (curses, ghost of a young girl, but no gore...), nevertheless what strikes from the very beginning is the excellence of the directing. The set/lights are quite astonishing, the soundtrack is also very good, with a lot of "scratchy sounds" that make you jump from your seat. In my opinion, there are some few scenes that are close to the perfection (the sequence of the cursed video on which the story is based has to be seen, it makes you feel sooo uncomfortable). To sum it up, although the plot would have deserved more development, it's a good Japanese movie, if you have the chance to find it somewhere, don't hesitate, it gives another vision of "horror". By the way, I've only seen Japanese versions on sale, I don't know if there is an English dubbed/subtitled version.