*NOTE* This is a review of the extended director's cut of the movie.

I watched a movie called "Battle Royale" at about 5 in the afternoon. When it was over, at 7-ish. I was frozen in my seat, looking around unnerved. What the hell had happened here!? Had a movie really grabbed me like this did? Or had someone actually squeezed my balls for two hours. I will never know . . . Did you read that plot? Well, now tell me the truth. Isn't that absolutely and extrmely interesting? The tagline itself, "Would you kill your best friend?" is more thought provoking than 95% of movies today. Thank god for japanese people. I love them.

Everything surrounding "Battle Royale", from the opening "class shot" in the cover (in C's review above), through the actual "BR ACT" symbol to the shocking carnage that begins minutes later, has more emotional impact than anything I had ever seen before. Due to the movie's nature, it's obvious that you are going to relate, you'll relate to SOMEONE in this movie and I guarantee that. Imagine yourself in that situation. Forced to kill your friends, girl/boyfriends, enemies or be killed yourself. There's no way out. What will happen? Here, you find out. The story is so extremely well written that it sinks you in . . . and doesn't let go.

This "Special Version" is 2 hours long. I generally look around outside the screen with a long movie (there are few exceptions) but for some off reason, I couldn't unglue my eyes. I want to know why! Kids (played by kids and one or two young adults) getting shreded to bits is NOT by any means my idea of entertainment. What happened here is, I guess, that I was sucked in and I related. The characters should be a flaw (there's 45-ish of them) and I wouldn't mind much a lack of characterization but the movie is so well executed that it managed to make my heart move. This is some touching shit. And that's where the movie's heart and core lies. The extreme emotional impact (which was lost in the sequel) is what made this movie so powerful and controversial. I had a lumpy throat the entire way through and I'm not overhyping any of this. I won't add an extra secion for characters because simply put: they are amazing, you might mistake identities in your first watch but in the second watch (much needed) you'll know who is who perfectly. Add to that those characters you learn to adore from early on (Nanahara, Noriko, Risato, Kawada to name some) . . . wow.

The story is well written and that's not deniable. While the story should get old and chaff it's great lenght, it never happens. NEVER. Trust me, it isn't easy to kill 40 people and still make the story interesting, this movie never failed to do that. I loved also the rules they apply for the game itself. The collars are genius, the weapons are simply brilliant (you can get an uzi or a plastic hammer . . . good luck). The script never failed to create clever plot twists and turns with a fitting ending.

Again, the japanese can act. I haven't seen cheap japanese acting in my life, seriously (the best being the voice acting in anime finale "End of Evangelion"). This movie is no exception. All these kids show the emotions perfectly, from the fat kid's extreme face of fear, to the extremely desparated girls in the lighthouse, it's all amazing. Good acting put the impact up a notch because these act like real people.

The direction goes from standard to great. While at some parts is very basic, in other parts it's excellent (very fluid). The gritty look fit the story and he did a great job at emulating the character's feelings. He can create tension like a champ and builds momentum at all moments to give a final punch near the end. The added humor should be funny (training video?), it really should but the grizzly happenings didn't make me crack a smile. the classical score was downright perfect and fit the images well.