Riki comments on his role in Battle Royale II.

Last edited by Sour Puss on Wed May 25, 2022 12:54 pm; edited 3 times in total

Riki comments on his role in Battle Royale II. External-content-duckduckgo-comr

In an interview for the extras of the Dead or alive Hd (blu-ray) version, riki comments on his role in Battle Royale II.

I've transcribed that section of his interview below

(Riki )
“In Kinji Fukasakus last work, we were filming and, well, he died very suddenly.
And for some reason his son ended up taking on the directing business.

That movie was Battle Royale II.

I was in the role that Takeshi Kitano had played in the first film.

That was now being played by me.

That character was really myself.
That’s why they asked me to do it.
I asked the director, “why choose me?”
That’s what I asked Mr Fukasaku.

He said that the last scene in Dead or alive had left an impression.
Miike became pretty famous for that scene.
And Fukasaku thought he should watch some of miike’s work and think about what kind of projects he could do.
So he saw me in that scene. He said “You were great in that, I want you to be in my next work”.

That’s why! I felt very honored.

I made many suggestions for scenes
I could see myself in the character, I had my opinions.
So he asked me to come to rehearsals too, and I worked with the director at the rehearsals, However, before we could start filming, he fell ill, and his son took over the project in his place.

There were a lot of gun scenes, so the budget was used mostly on that.
He had to use the money there.
It’d be unfortunate when editing to cut those expensive action scenes.

“(Authors note)
What riki is implying here is: So much of the budget was spent on action scenes, that there wasn't much choice but to use them, even if they didn’t add anything to the story.”

(Riki )
So talk shifted to cutting the non-action scenes.
In my opinion, as an actor, the acting is much more important.
Honestly, with my character, When I read the script, there were a lot of aspects where I was like, “How did he end up like this?”
Anyway, I took the role.

But the part where I went crazy was totally cut out in the editing.
(Authors note)
“Here riki is talking about the back story being cut to why he lost his mind and why his character acts strange.”

(Riki )
When I saw the preview screening, I was really disappointed.
Something that should be there wasn’t, and I got really upset about that.
It just made me look like a crap actor, and that was very frustrating for me.
The audience saw it, and there was a reaction from overseas.
Since it was Fukasaku’s work, it was premiered overseas.
The overseas reaction was like.

“Takeuchi’s acting like he’s trying to be a comic character”.

We got a lot of feedback from Europe.

Things like I should retire.

I saw those comments and I was in shock.
I was frustrated, and I just decided to stop reading them.
I can’t make any excuses.
But after that, in the special edition, made just for the DVD release, those opinions were factored in.

(Authors note)
Riki is referring to
(Battle Royale II: Revenge 2004 )

(Riki )
So im happier with that one.
It shows the parts of the actors, I mean, it’s edited as the script called for.
Of course, that means it’s a little bit too long, but it’s made as a proper movie.
It’s not just a “kill-fest”, or a terrorist story.
It actually explains the reasons why these people became the way they are.
So it would’ve been better if that had been the original movie.

But if a movie is longer than two hours, Japanese people won’t watch it at the cinema.
When the work is commercial. Some things don’t work. Anyway, it got cut from the original release.

If the director Fukasaku had been alive, I think it would’ve turned out differently, but it was his son.
There wasn’t much I could do about it.

Kenta Fukasaku (son) was very humble and he apologized to me.
After seeing the premiere, he knew I was frustrated, and he apologized for the scenes he couldn’t leave in.
He apologized to me. That’s why I don’t have disdain for directors.
I don’t have any disdain for Kenta Fukasaku as a director.
We got along after that too.

But as for the people at the top of the production, Im not so sure about them.
The movie left some issues open-ended.

Author: SourPuss

When I watched this interview, I was really surprised to hear this.
Like most that saw Battle Royale II, I too thought his acting was strange, over the top.
Myself and many others never considered the possibility that something was off, that they had more in the script for his character. That they cut part’s of his story, as well as other too.

But!!!! I still don’t think having extra acting scenes would make the film a better Battle Royale film. There was so many other story options to take Battle Royale down.

The premise of the film isn’t bad, reviewers are ignorant to that, only focusing on the name Battle Royale. Expecting to revive the same feelings that the first created.
Which ultimately creates disappointment, I too experienced disappointment when I first watched.

But if you take a look at foundation of the film, taking into consideration that it happens in the same universe as the first but only slightly keeps the original concept (The collars) it makes sense.

The government sent children to an island to kill each other because they felt disdain for the younger generation’s ignorance, whether that’s makes sense and what outcome they were after is for another topic.

But remembering that, it makes perfect sense why they would send another class to fight shuya’s group in their hideout. People seem to have an issue with that and think it’s stupid “why not just bomb the island” they say “why not use the military”. Thinking that way they are not remembering what universe it’s set in. It’s set in a place were parents are forced to let their children be taken to secret locations to kill each other. Why would you use and loose money or personnel fighting what they call terrorist.
When you have a free constant supply of high schoolers that you can use, it makes perfect sense for that universe.

For the scenario they chose to go with it all fit’s together, and personally, as soon as they chose the terrorist route that was the only path they could go down to link the first and second, which is a weak connection, the collars and shuya are that link things together. But the terrorist path completely ruined any chance to create a film with suspense, building your connection to characters and then ripping them from you like the first. The first catapulted you to a completely different reality, you lost all connection to the thing you call earth, reality connection to earth.

That created a sense of mystery, bewilderment, the characters felt very real, it wasn’t just a gore-fest, rambling killings repeating over and over. They had purpose, you can understand, but it also creates a sense of confusion.

Battle Royale’s story is a piece of art, and the only way to have a successful follow on film would be to follow the premise as closely as possible adding new elements to it. At the heart it is a story following confused, angry, lonely, abused teenagers experience of life and how they face this new reality that has been thrust upon them.

The film doesn’t have enough time to really show you their lives and deep feelings, grounding them into even more “real things” not Just bags of meat that get hacked, stabbed and shot. The directors cut adds a little more to the backstories. But not much, nothing compared to the book, which brings up a thought on how the film was made as a stand alone one shot film.

For me the film should have been in two parts. 1Hr 30 minutes each part. That would of given more time for character development, including kitano. Many more scenes from the book could of been included.
I just don’t think that concept was a thing in japan back in the early 2000’s.

As soon as the writers for second chose their story path, they lost everything that makes Battle Royale...Battle Royale!

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