Today’s quick review: Battlefield Baseball. Principal Kocho of Seido High has high hopes for his school’s baseball team. But his playoff ambitions are dashed when Seido is scheduled to play Gedo High, a team of sadistic murderers, in the first round. Seido’s only hope of making it through the game alive is for Four Eyes (Atsushi Ito), the team’s worst player, to recruit Jubeh (Tak Sakaguchi), a talented but troubled new student, to join them.
Battlefield Baseball is a Japanese sports horror comedy about a brutal baseball team that uses the game as an excuse to kill its foes. In spite of its name, Battlefield Baseball has very little to do with baseball at all. The sport is reimagined as a no-holds-barred death match where bats are weapons, violence is encouraged, and the winner is whichever team is left standing. Battlefield Baseball is a gory, cartoonish romp with considerable niche appeal.
Battlefield Baseball tackles its premise with joyful abandon. The plot, such as it is, centers around the reluctant hero Jubeh and his return to the sport he swore off long ago. The movie plays fast and loose with its story, its world, the lives of its characters, and basic common sense, yielding a surreal, enthusiastic comedy that’s peppered with schlocky violence. The movie isn’t clever or artful, but it earns its laughs by swinging for the fences.
Half of the film’s charm comes from its low production values. The film has almost no polish. Empty sets, overblown acting, and transparently fake special effects all contribute to the absurd atmosphere and blur the line between the deliberate comedy and the comedy that’s unintentional. If Battlefield Baseball succeeds at all, it’s because its heart is in the right place, not out of any sort of precision in its writing or execution.
Battlefield Baseball is not for everyone, or even most people. Its ridiculous plot and low budget will turn off most viewers, while its horror elements, however unbelievable, make it even more of a niche pick. But for the right viewer, one who appreciates schlock and absurdity, Battlefield Baseball is a diamond in the rough.
For a surreal Japanese horror movie from the same director, try Versus. For a sports comedy with a similar sense of humor and more polish, try Shaolin Soccer. For a martial arts comedy with the same sort of absurdity, try Kung Fu Hustle or Kung Pow: Enter the First. For a horror comedy with a similar attitude and less energetic delivery, try Bubba Ho-Tep.
5.8 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 6.5 to 7.0 as a balance between its outrageous comedy, an absurd plot, and bottom-of-the-barrel production quality; your score will vary wildly depending on how you weight these factors.