HONEST Thoughts on Ryotaro's New Restaurant | *FILM FRIDAY* "Battle Royale" (2000)

Good news!
Ryotaro’s restaurant wasn’t just good - it was rather spectacular.

Though to be fair, it’s not as if he runs it himself or cooks the food.
- If that were the case, I’m not sure I’d have gotten out of there alive.

We filmed our meal and a tour of the restaurant - of which he is a stakeholder - and the video will be out on his channel in a couple of weeks! As you can see in the photo (above), the building has a traditional aesthetic dating back 150 years, and it's a fantastic setting for lunch.

In case you want to check it out online before the official video, this is the place!
https://g.page/akiusha

Unfortunately, as impressive as the menu and the dishes were, admittedly there was a distinct absence of risottoro.

That being said, if enough people tell him to sell risotto on the menu, in the comment section of the video, hopefully he’ll give into the peer pressure!

Amusingly though, one of his dishes did come with a shovel (genuinely) and the dessert came with an actual hammer. It was all rather alarming being served lunch alongside a plethora of murder weapons.

To be fair, they were the sort of weapons you’d find in this week’s film Friday!

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Battle Royale (2000)

Official Synopsis: A group of ninth-grade students from a Japanese high school have been forced by legislation to compete in a Battle Royale. The students are sent off to kill each other in a no-holds-barred game to the death, until one survives -- or they all die.

Abroad in Japan: There’s a scene early on in Battle Royale which I’ve always found both hilarious and chilling for its satirical nature and realistic portrayal. An upbeat female TV presenter is gleefully explaining the rules of Battle Royale and the horrors that await the class of 42 students, as they’re strapped into explosive neck braces and given three days to fight to the death on a small island - last student standing.

As the TV presenter excitedly explains how the student’s heads will be blown clean off with a disturbingly theatrical level of enthusiasm, Beat Takeshi cheers her on sarcastically, before suddenly throwing a knife through the face of a teenage student before the class. She slumps to the floor and the class begins to scream and run around, before soldiers firing rifles bring them to heel, so they can finish watching the instruction video.

And that’s just the uplifting opening.

Criticised heavily at the time of its release, but nevertheless critically acclaimed worldwide, Battle Royale is a simple, yet brutally and brilliantly executed concept, with dark humour and political statements about Japan’s economy, education system and social structure thrown in for good measure.

The first time I watched it, the film was excellent entertainment, but having lived in Japan for 8 years and seen the hell students go through in high school firsthand, and the pressures that go with graduation and finding work, I appreciate the theme of the movie all the more. In many ways the film is a metaphor for the pressures Japanese adolescents go through, as they’re robbed of their innocence and thrust into the real world, often unprepared for the brutal realities of the workplace.

But if watching 42 high school students battle to the death in increasingly creative and violent ways isn’t enough to lure you in, Beat Takeshi is the icing on the cake.

Brilliantly cast as the teacher and facilitator of the mayhem, his background in hosting real life TV panel shows, adds a layer of credibility and realism to the proceedings; his deadpan style only amplifying the sheer onscreen absurdity.

Even though the characters of the students themselves are often wafer thin, each one is still acted well enough and richly drawn to make the many, many, MANY onscreen deaths seem significant.

Above all perhaps, if Quentin Tarantino refers to a film as his “favourite movie in the last 20 years”, you know it's going to be rather good.

Battle Royale is an ultra-violent, satirical and ingenious movie and a must watch film for the weekend.

The same can’t be said for the sequel. Best avoided.
A bit like Ryotaro clutching a shovel over lunch.