Tokyo 10+01

Battle Royale fans should get a good kick out of this movie.

Basically a group of people are forced into playing a deadly game. They have to be the first to reach a mansion where a lot of money awaits the winner. The catch is that a group of machine gun carrying thugs get to chase after them and to make sure that they don't get that far. That's the best summary I can give without spoiling anything about the movie.

The characters are really interesting and the movie was made to look as unrealistic as possible, but that's what makes the whole thing so funny. Some things Battle Royale fans would get a kick out of are the many traits they take from the movie like a girl on a video screen explaining the rules and the poison filled bracelets the contestants wear. They even admit straight out in the beginning of the movie that they stole all of the ideas.

But the thing I loved the most was Masanobu Ando the actor who played Kazuo Kiriyama! is in the movie once again as the crazed player looking to win and yes, he gets to kill people.

So in my opinion Tokyo 10+01 makes a lovely addition to your movie collection.

This was a good movie. It was clearly low budget and not well made. BUT as bad as it would look, it is hilarious. This whole movie HAS to be taken as a joke otherwise it is no good.

It has a lame story, mostly pretty bad actors, and bas special effects. It was filmed poorly and its whole gun pointing at camera things wasn't that cool.

It of course is a spoof of Battle Royale. Which is a good movie and you can tell it is joking on BR from the beginning. A bunch of criminals wake up in a wear house and are forced to play a game to win 300 million yen and a clean slate. But they quickly learn that only one of them will make it out alive.

It is just a joke. That is what it is. If you take it that way, it is a laugh out loud funny.

Having no previous knowledge of the directory Higuchinsky or his history, I didn't expect much from this movie judging by Netflix's rating. What I found however was a pretty hip piece of independent youthful film-making that kind of blends the 80's, 90's and the future.

It reminded me of a hard core version of Takeshi's Castle (AKA Most Extreme Elimination Challenge).

Eleven unwitting participants are thrown together into a city wide game in which they must split up into teams and make it across the finish line before their time expires. Each is fitted with a wrist band that reveals their location and time remaining. Removal of the wristband results in a lethal injection. Groups are intercepted along their route by henchmen. Proximity of henchmen is detected and signaled by the wristbands.

A kind of real life D&D, treasure hunt, survivor, laser tag, reality TV spoof.

This movie has the appearance of a student film or home made movie. It looks like it was shot on video tape and transferred to film, however the acting, special effects and gags are just as good as any American teenage slasher comedy, except is has the coolness of a video game, urban anime and Japanese game show all rolled into one.

I really liked it.

=Game Over=

Personally, I found Tokyo 10+01 to be a funny, cartoony, lightweight, cute and trashy bit of fluffy nonsense. As cheaply made as it undoubtedly is (and looks it, much like most of his other movies such as Nagai Yume (Long Dream) which was still very much a triumph despite its costing limitations), Higuchinsky is fast proving himself to be the master of how to take a 100-yen budget and stretch it to its absolute limit whilst still maintaining a stylish aesthetic, in keeping with the character of the stories he is handling.

The acting quality is utterly over-the-top, mischievous and silly - Masanobu Ando in particular appears to be having great fun messing with the role of Fake, a master fine-art forger whose portraits unfortunately look like they were painted by a monkey with two left hands. This is *clearly* not a movie made to be taken in the slightest bit seriously, referencing with a knowing wink many contemporary classics, including Ando's most Western-mainstream movie Battle Royale, and taking the mickey out of them quite mercilessly.

I enjoyed this movie greatly, but don't watch it thinking you're going to be getting anything as unique or profound as Uzumaki or Long Dream, otherwise you *will* be disappointed. Just enjoy it for what it is: a silly, lightweight spoof with no money behind it, but a great sense of humour.

'Tokyo 10+01' has a promising start, introducing colorful characters who will be involved in a game of death. The soundtrack was decent too. However, the film goes downhill due to poor special effects and poor spoof jokes. The title of the film is a spoof of Ocean's Eleven (2001) and there were some references to Brad Pitt in the beginning of the film. Overall, it was unbearable to watch even though the runtime is only 70 minutes.

If you are looking for good spoof films, I recommend Spaceballs (1987) and Kung Pow (2002). Please stay away from 'Tokyo 10+01'.

Mao points: 2/10