BATTLE ROYALE II I watched Battle Royale II last night in Japanese and with no subtitles. It still blew me away. I'll rewatch it again in the next few days (I have a new copy now with English subtitles) and probably rave about it some more then. Let me just mention the opening. The survivors of the first movie now run a terrorist cell and pull a 9-11 style attack. Just about ever tall building in the city comes down in the film's first minute. This may be the first movie to use 9-11 in such a way. It was released in Japan last year, still has no UK release date (as far as I know) and there are no plans to release it in the US because of the opening sequence. The premise is simple (maybe not quite as good as the original). A new classfull of kids are 'recruited' into the survival programme but this time to fight the terrorists. There is a fun retake of the Saving Private Ryan beach landings but this time with teenagers. And exploding collars. Takeshi Kitano pops up in some flashbacks (his daughter is leading the assault on the terrorist kids' hideout) but his shoes are mostly filled by one of the leads from Dead or Alive. I'll fill in more of the details when I've watched the new disc but if you've seen the original you need to see this one. If you haven't seen either then I'll be hosting a double bill as soon as we get back to the UK so drop me a line if you want to come over for popcorn and teenage landmine kicks. Mike is blogging to: nothing