Battle Royale: book vs. film (spoilers within)

[Mantis421]

Parts of it are right on. Sci Fi acually did two mini series for the Dune series. The one that was self titled "Dune" that came out in 2000 and is 265 min long and "Children Of Dune" which came out in 2003 and is 266 min long. I would said if you havent read the books read all 4 of the series, you will get so much more out of the mini series

[rarnom]

That is cool. I need to read the books all the way through though... I have read DUNE, but I have forgotten a lot of it. (It was like 15 years ago...)

[Mantis421]

Dune is much like the Lord of The Rings series or The Riverwold book series by Farmer their is so much info it is easy to forget certain things after a while

[yukimoritenchen]

books are always better then the movies. that might just be because i love reading but im pretty sure that theyre just plain better.

[Mantis421]

Why books are always going to be better is if a book goes on and on to describe something as small as how she felt after something happens, if the book is good people are not going to mind. Movies on the other hand suffer from the hour and a half, two hour cap problem where they have to fit everything into that amount of time. LOTR,Titanic and Braveheart were exceptions to the rule. Best example I can think of was the book and movie Solaris. The book is excellent, made me look forward to the movie, big mistake. Entire chapters of the book are skipped in the movie

[Robojack]

I just bought the book yesterday at an anime convention. I'm up to chapter 5, and it's turning out much more differently than the movie had portrayed. Nevertheless, I really am enjoying the detail that's been put into various events and descriptions. I know for a fact that I'll have friends begging me to lend them this book, being the Battle Royale fans they are.

[grendelsage]

I read the book last week, and I just watched the director's cut of the movie this weekend. I preferred the book so much more. The book was just amazing. I started reading at 9 pm and stayed up till 4 in the morning untill I finished it. I have not done that in years.

The movie as a whole was pretty good, though. I try not to compare the two outright, since they are completely differant mediums, and there is only so much you can do in a two hour movie compared to a 600 page book. I felt like the storyline was rushed in the movie and some of the character development suffered, especially Shogo's. I also did not like what they did to Kazuo. It made him out to be a one dimensional villain, but hey, it was only two hours.

I've met a lot of people who saw the movie, and then wanted to read the book. Those people ended up liking both, so in the end if a movie about high school students killing each other promotes literacy than I'm for it.

[WandererX12]

The movie was lots of fun, and that's what it should be. Two hours of simple entertainment. Now I loved the book and there were things I would have done differently with the movie if I directed it, but nothing that ruined the movie as a whole. When one decides to watch a movie about a class of 14 year olds killing each other, they shouldn't expect Citizen Kane; they should expect children killing lots of other children, which is just what we got.

[rarnom]

Robojack and Grendelsage you have made me very happy... It is always nice to have people read it and then to hear them follow up on the absolute greatness of the book. And grendelsage, I totally agree about Kazou's character. Another character I was just irritated with was the 'teacher' character that was created for the film. I think out of anything that was my biggest problem with the movie. Especially when the Sakamochi character from the book was perfect as it was. I don't get why they had to change him into a disgruntled former teacher and then that whole crap with him painting that picture at the end and ugh, it makes me want to go die.

Either way, I admit I have been a little rough on the film and even though I don't like it nearly as much as the book, I agree with Wanderer that it is fun and that is what it really is all supposed to be. I just take every opportunity to tell people about how great the book is, because, like you guys have shown, the book is a completely different and very satisifying expereince.

Anyone here into the manga version by chance?? I have been reading that as well and I think it is good, but you know, it really takes the sex and violence to a new extreme, which is cool sometimes and sometimes not so cool.

[grendelsage]

I totally agree with you rarnom on the teacher character. They should have just left the original charcter the way it was, and the painting & umbrella/nuriko scene was odd as well.

I have not picked up the comic, but I have been thinking about it. I have heard that they go really overboard and add pyscho-sex-frenzy to the killings...enforcing the orgy of violence link that I did not see in the book.

Actually, I have been meaning to thank you for mentioning this book. I picked it up after reading your rant. I would not have known it was translated in English otherwise. thanks

[rarnom]

I totally agree with you rarnom on the teacher character. They should have just left the original charcter the way it was, and the painting & umbrella/nuriko scene was odd as well.

I have not picked up the comic, but I have been thinking about it. I have heard that they go really overboard and add pyscho-sex-frenzy to the killings...enforcing the orgy of violence link that I did not see in the book.

Actually, I have been meaning to thank you for mentioning this book. I picked it up after reading your rant. I would not have known it was translated in English otherwise. thanks

Hey, no prob.
In regards to the manga, I have been pretty happy with it because it does stay very true to the book. One thing is that they do add quite a bit of created 'back-story' about a lot of the characters, kind of creating more relationships and showing more of where they are coming from. What is good is that the created 'back-story' is quite good and adds a lot to the story and it perfectly fits in with the characters. I enjoyed the first 7 volumes quite a bit, the 8th volume does take several liberties and that is really the only example so far of what I would call a 'psyco-sex-frenzy'. Just to give some very mild spoilers about it, it details the scene from the book where Mitsouko Souma kills those two guys (the baseball player and the nerdy otaku kid). I loved that scene in the book and just found it so amazing and viceral, but in the manga it gets really really bizzare and psycho, but you know, it doesn't ruin the manga at all. I am very interested to see how they wrap it all up in the manga. I am especially interested to see how they present the end of the book.