Review: School and fighting. These two topics go together like a smooth chocolate-vanilla swirl. Before Battle Royale came out, I was experiencing some serious school/fighting withdrawal. Sure, playing Rival Schools satisfied my appetite for awhile, but what I really needed was a kick ass movie to fulfill my wishes. So of course I was excited to hear about My Schoolmate the Barbarian. The title alone says it all. I made sure to pop the disc in with low expectations,though, and I ended up more satisfied than I ever expected.

First things first, wipe my Battle Royale reference from your memory. That was purely for the sake of an introduction. BR is in a league all it’s own and deals with actual subject matter. Mixing up the two movies in your mind before viewing is the ultimate recipe for an unhappy customer. The only real subjects at hand in My Schoolmate are fun and fighting. The premise of the movie may seem a little stupid, but such is the style of this movie. It never takes itself too seriously. If it had tried to, it would have fallen flat on it’s face.

I think that’s where the beef of this movie is, and ultimately why I enjoy watching it. I’ve seen so many movies and played so many games lately that are overly melodramatic, or try and answer all the great questions of the world. It’s a relief to take a break from half-baked philosophy and just enjoy a stupid fight flick.

Which brings us to the fight sequences. I actually found these pretty intriguing myself. The fight choreographer for the film was Ching Siu Tung, and I think he did a pretty decent job of transferring the film’s odd style to the action scenes. The fights are set up in a classroom, and take place along the top of 50 adjoined desks. The rules are simple, the first to hit the floor loses the fight (and some face of course). The previous “King of Fight” was Stone, played by Nicholas Tse, but he refuses to fight anymore for reasons that are explained in the movie, and I don’t feel like going into here. After a little loosening up, Stone befriends the new student Edward and becomes a sort of protector to him.

Rounding out the main cast ensemble is the super-annoying, Edward-infatuated Phoenix (played by the equally super-annoying Joey Yung) and her obese pal Pork Chop (played by Missy Hyperbitch, who’s name I would definitely take if someone drugged me and we got married). The cast is decent. They don’t amaze but they get the job done. I’d have to say I enjoyed Nicholas Tse’s performance as Stone the most. He does a pretty good job of opening up and being friendly and sort of emotional in the movie, while still maintaining the hard ass “If I was still a fighter I’d beat you all up” attitude.