Battle Royale

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Batoru Rowaiaru (Battle Royale)

August 16th 2012 01:39

15% unemployment, 10 million out of work, 800,000 students boycotting schools, juvenile crime rates soaring.

It’s time for the Millennium Educational Reform Act.

Otherwise known as … Battle Royale.

Director Kinji Fukasaku’s pitch-black satire has become a cult classic. Based on the novel by Koushun Takami and scripted by Fukasaku’s son Kenta, Battle Royale (2000) is the plight of teenaged students in a near future where the Japanese government has taken extreme measures, battling for sole survivor position in the revolutionary BR Act.

The ill-fated Class B

The 9th Graders of Class B are sent on a bus ride, but are drugged unconscious. When they awake they are on a small, uninhabited island. Their teacher Kitano (cult crime director Takeshi Kitano) announces they are about to embark on a ruthless game of survival against each other. They are given a random “weapon” and no rules, and in three days if there is not a sole survivor remaining all students still alive will be annihilated via the explosive tracking device locked around their necks.

Game on.

Battle Royale Taro Yamamoto, Aki Maeda, Tatsuya Fujiwara

Shogo (Taro Yamamoto), Noriko (Aki Maeda) and Shuya (Tatsuya Fujiwara)

Shuya (Tatsuya Fukiwara), Noriko (Aki Maeda) and Shogo (Taro Yamamoto) become the central protagonists as they roam the island with little more than a saucepan lid and a pair of binoculars as protection (some administered “weapons” are less effective than others). Can they last the distance? Will they be forced to murder their friends? Kitano announces the escalating death toll over loudspeaker as the hours roll by …

Beat Takeshi Kitano as Kitano, the teacher

Battle Royale is a curious movie. On one hand it works brilliantly as a savage comedy of morals and ethics, and on the other it’s almost soap opera-esque with its tight visual narrative, intensely melodramatic acting and characterisations (apart from Kitano’s uniform deadpan performance), and stylised violence (of which has been stylised even more with the Director’s Cut DVD release, adding graphic CGI bloodletting)

Ko Shibasaki as Mitsuko

Fukasaku was a movie veteran with over sixty features to his name. He died shortly after completing the sequel, Battle Royale II: Requiem (2003) at age 72. Apparently he used his experiences during WWII as inspiration for Battle Royale, as he worked in a factory that was regularly bombed and as such had numerous colleagues killed whom he’d barely got to know.

Anna Nagata as Hirono

The Japanese Government attempted to have Takami’s novel banned. When that didn’t succeed they tried to ban the movie. It went on to become one of the top ten highest-grossing movies in Japan, and is often the case had much bigger audiences because of the controversy surrounding it. It has never been given a theatrical release in America, partly due to no US distributor wanting to touch the movie following the Colombine High School mass murder.

The nocturnal scenes of Battle Royale are shot day-for-night which heightens the unreality, and the bloodletting is given the OTT geyser treatment that is part-and-parcel with the J-horror exploitation titles that have exploded in the last decade. Battle Royale is very much a perverse pantomime. An Asian Grand Guiginol of the adolescent wild. However, it doesn’t deserve the Australian R18 certificate, considering some of the far more brutal – and more importantly, humourless - MA releases out there.

I’ve not seen The Hunger Games (2012), which apparently bears a strong similarity, despite being based on its own series of original novels, but there are many movies that use the hunter and the hunted theme; human endurance and death as ritual and sport, with obvious examples being The Most Dangerous Game (1932), The Naked Prey (1966), Death Race 2000 (1975), Logan’s Run (1976), and The Running Man (1987).

Mai, the televised winner of the previous Battle Royale

As opposed as I am to remakes as a rule, I’m interested by the Hollywood remake set for release in 2015. In Tinseltown terms its modestly budgeted at an estimated $13m. If they make it no-holds-barred, concentrate on a stronger dramatic narrative arc, and release it as a hard-R, or better still an NC-17 (or unrated) with mostly unknowns, we could have a modern exploitation gem on our hands. But chances are it will be released as a PG-13 with the cast of Glee trying to shed their goodie-two shoes image. Still, that’s a class I’d happily see being slaughtered!

Battle Royale DVD/Blu-ray (Director’s Cut) is courtesy of Madman Entertainment – Asian Eye, many thanks!

Here’s the trailer:

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews

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Comments

4 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by The Rusty Can

August 18th 2012 11:25

Everything

I don't think I've seen this but I've read the Battle Royale manga. Disturbing! The collars and moving boundaries amped up the tension in this kill-fest.

The first time I heard about The Hunger Games, I thought "Battle Royale rip-off!". I went to see it anyway, and it was actually quite good. Probably why Hollywood has decided to do a remake of Battle Royale. Pfft.

Comment by JMD

August 22nd 2012 03:59

Hey Bryn,
I read your review but I can't tell if you really liked the movie or not.

Comment by Bryn

August 22nd 2012 05:52

Horrorphile

Me neither.

Comment by JohnDoe

September 29th 2012 19:13

Film & TV on DVD

I love this film. saw it 4 times when it was in cinemas. Possibly the best modern day, cult comedy for carnage.

Didn't it already get remade as a soft, toothless conspiracy called "The Hunger games"?

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