Recently Seen, Part 29 (July 2019)

[sitenoise]

I'm not quite sure from this comment. Did your distaste for the genre prevent you from ever seeing it? Or did you watch it and just not like it?

I haven't watched it. Most of these things are low budget debut indie look-how-smart-I-am unpleasant. I see that this one is by a semi-established film maker and, honestly, I pretty much trust your judgement about mysteries and worthwhile thrillers. And the fact that @plsletitrain found it suggests it's not one of these nobody films. Maybe I'll give it a shot.

 

[divemaster13]

If you do watch it, try to flush this entire discussion from your memory banks LOL. Much of the film's effectiveness depends on you not knowing what's really going on. Is it this? Or maybe that? Aha, that's what's going on. (20 minutes later)...well, no, it can't be that. Etc. It's still a good and effective movie either way, but it will lose a lot of the punch if you go into it spoiled.

 

[sitenoise]

I watched Battle Royale (2000) last week

I haven't ever re-watched this (I don't think), but I get the feeling that it may not have aged well. Global Cinema has moved on and now we look through jaded shades. I gave this 5 stars back when I watched it, probably 15 years ago. Hard to believe time goes by so fast. It was at the top of my list when I started my Asian Immersion. So back then, it was probably like: "OOooh ... those wacky Asians doing extreme stuff, oh wow this is so cool!" I don't know if that would still work today.

It's interesting to me to think about how I would experience a LOT of films if I were to start my Asian Immersion today. Or how much watching a "Classic" like Battle Royale for the first time would be affected by the hundreds of other Asian/Japanese films I've already seen now.

 

[clayton-12]

I get the feeling that it may not have aged well. Global Cinema has moved on and now we look through jaded shades. I gave this 5 stars back when I watched it, probably 15 years ago. Hard to believe time goes by so fast. It was at the top of my list when I started my Asian Immersion. So back then, it was probably like: "OOooh ... those wacky Asians doing extreme stuff, oh wow this is so cool!"

I also wondered how Battle Royale would fare through the ravages of time, although I think that your assessment of your previous assessment might be a little unkind. What impressed me 15 or so years ago was the approach to genre - put a bunch of kids in a horror movie where they're isolated (as Hollywood loves to do) and how do they behave? Fundamentally, the same as they behave in a John Hughes movie, like The Breakfast Club. That was ... different.