Reviews of Battle Royale

Masterful and disturbing

Posted : 2 weeks, 6 days ago on 5 December 2009 07:32 (A review of Battle Royale)

"Life is a game. So fight for survival and see if you're worth it."

At its most basic level, Battle Royale is a combination of Lord of the Flies and The Running Man; utilising the time-worn concept of a group of people who are conscripted, equipped with weapons and forced to kill or be killed until only one contestant remains. It's an idea which dates back to the days of the Roman empire, and has become so beloved by filmmakers that it has been employed for various movies of various genres (from historical epic to futuristic fantasy).

Kinji Fukasaku's Battle Royale (aka Batoru rowaiaru) offers a new twist on this premise. The story is set in the near future when the economy of Japan is on the verge of collapse. Unemployment rates are up, children are boycotting school, and juvenile delinquency is at an all-time high. Fed up with the unruly and disobedient student population, the Japanese government passes the Battle Royale act. In accordance with this act, a school class is selected at random every year and shipped to a remote island to play the game. The rules are simple, as explained on a video by an exuberant Japanese girl: the contest lasts 3 days, and each student has been fitted with an explosive tracking collar that will explode if removed, or if they stray into a "danger zone", or if there's more than one contestant left standing after the 3 days. Each contestant is provided with a bag containing food, water, a compass, a map and a random weapon. Logically, the film focuses on a particular class of teens who are kidnapped and forced to participate. Friendship, love and pacifism all fall by the wayside as the students are presented with the choice of kill or be killed.

One of the greatest strengths of Battle Royale is the realistic portrayal of the adolescent characters who, when placed in a life-threatening situation, still obsess over unrequited love and are unable to let go of their old attachments. The characters serve as a microcosm of any high school class - there's the fat kid, the shy kid, the misfit, the clique of girls, the techno geeks, the young lovers, the kid with a secret, etc - and they all react in varying ways. Some immediately go on a killing rampage (either out of fear or because they are innate assassins). Meanwhile some take the weekend as an opportunity to dish out some payback, and have no scruples about killing those who've bullied them. The protagonists of the film, on the other hand, decide to stick together and avoid killing if possible. Added into the mix are two recent transfer students, who naturally turn out to be the biggest badasses of the bunch. Each death is documented on-screen like a scorecard during a sport event; providing the deceased player's number and name, along with the number of students remaining. However the Battle Royale Act concept is flawed, mainly because there are no spectators. No-one is filming or watching the action, so what's the point of being so elaborate?

Battle Royale is based on the popular novel of the same name by Koushun Takami, and acts as a terrific allegory about the Japanese school system. Japan is well known for its Study-Work-and-Die ethics with rigorous demands within the education and business system. Battle Royale takes this climate and amplifies it, placing the children in a far more desperate situation than working to receive an A-Plus. The targets of satire are numerous, such as the cruel over-expectations of achievements at school (as previously mentioned), as well as the Japanese obsession with authority and obedience, and the obsession with violent anime. The film's soundtrack (largely consisting of booming classical music) affords an epic, Kubrickian scale to the proceedings. However there's one considerable flaw with Battle Royale: the dialogue borders on banal. For instance, there's the overused cliché of characters pledging their undying love to a classmate right before kicking the bucket without a sound or a gurgle...

Veteran director Kinji Fukasaku was 70 years old when he crafted this fine motion picture. Fukasaku previously directed the Japanese scenes in Tora, Tora, Tora on top of a number of Sonny Chiba films, and the rough and tumble series The Yakuza Papers. Battle Royale is proof the director still had a deft hand in the late years of his career. While the violence is over-the-top in its amusing cartoonishness, it's also viscerally disturbing. After all, the only thing more unsettling than watching adolescents die is watching them kill each other. The bar for Battle Royale is set early into the runtime; pulling no punches and keeping the violence coming in a steady flurry. There are two key things that set this film apart from other blood-drenched action offerings: the girls are offed as badly as the boys (action films generally reserve the most horrific death scenes for the males), and the characters are undeniably girls and boys. While Hollywood films try to pass off 30-year-old actors as teenagers, the performers in Battle Royale actually look like adolescents.

Chief among the film's most compelling moments is the closing credits. As the final theme music plays, we are shown a black & white school photograph of the class which has just fought to the death. The various faces of the doomed contestants are focused on; providing a subtle but powerful reminder that these characters weren't mere statistics for an entertaining bloodbath, but in fact normal children who should have had their entire lives ahead of them. This gives the movie a crowning, humanistic touch.

To date, Battle Royale has never received an official U.S. release, but it has become a deserved cult classic on DVD, and the Japanese Academy nominated the film for seven awards (including Best Picture). Quentin Tarantino is an enormous fan of the movie as well (even labelling it as his favourite film released since 1992), and paid tribute by casting Chiaki Kuriyama in Kill Bill: Vol 1. With the great production values, a savvy script and gut-wrenching action sequences that'll leave you in a state of breathless disbelief, Battle Royale is a terrific release, though repeated viewings may highlight the lack of substantial depth.

8.2/10

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Life is a game!

Posted : 1 year, 1 month ago on 19 November 2008 08:19 (A review of Battle Royale)

''Life is a game. So fight for survival and see if you're worth it.''


In future Japan, the government captures a class of ninth-grade students and forces them to kill each other under the revolutionary "Battle Royale" act.

Tatsuya Fujiwara: Shuya Nanahara - Boys #15

Aki Maeda: Noriko Nakagawa - Girls #15

Ah Battle Royale reminds me of my days at school....
Only joking, kind of! Royale tackles brain washing and youth in one foul swopp and i can see why it is compaered in certain ideas to Clockwork Orange. Even the music nods at Stanley Kubrick in places. Reminding me of Final Fantasy to music wise and that kid in the smart suit.

The killing is pretty good in this, meant to be disturbing but it caused me to laugh at times in it's approaches.

Could you kill your best friend? Does Battle Royale answer this. I know what i got. You can do anything with the right motivations.

Nice to see Chiaki Kuriyama from Kill Bill and after seeing this i can see why she got the part in that hack and slash.
Takeshi Kitano was deranged, loved his teaching.

The countdown aspect of the student dying, pure perfection. The ultimate game and something maybe we need in our education systems for all the chavs and townies and disrespecting youths in Society.

Battle Royale is a masterpiece that shows the limits and extremes of the human mind.

A masterpiece visually and musically.

''Life is a game. So fight for survival and see if you're worth it.''

''When we escape, it will be together.''

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A Brilliant Story.

Posted : 1 year, 8 months ago on 19 April 2008 05:48 (A review of Battle Royale)

I recommend this film to everyone who can handle subtitles and mild gore really, its a brilliant idea which im sure has been done before but there is so much to like about this particular story that it stands out as a classic straight away.

The Japanese government come up with the novel idea of combating unemployment and the increasing issue of youth crime, by sending the worse offending classes to a remote island where they are forced into collars capable of killing them and told they have 3 days to murder each other until 1 is left standing otherwise after 3 days they all die. Each youth is given a back pack of supplies, a map, and 1 secret weapon to aid them in their battle, ranging from machine guns, cross bows, right down to a fan and a bin lid. They are forced into moving constantly by fluctuating death zones which they avoid using their map. Some of them chose to work together, others go it alone. Obviously eventually the killing starts and everyone is forced to come up with a solution.

Most of this movie you will find yourself fantasizing about what YOU would do in this scenario, would you (being the first one out) hide behind the door and just kill everyone that came out after you? Would you jump to your death, or would you go out with a bang taking down as many others with you as possible?

It sounds like something you wouldn't like to consider, but it does make you feel like you have learned something new about yourself after watching it. The story isn't just one big kill fest there is a plot to it that is good enough to warrant a re-watch etc. I thoroughly enjoyed watching it and its always good to shove on if someone you know hasn't seen it and your stuck for something else to do etc. There are very surreal moments throughout the story, as if being shoved on an island to kill your class mates wasn't surreal enough, and that just adds to the fun of the film really. My only fear about this great story is that it will be remade in the West. This would be the worst possible thing to happen and would prove that Hollywood is just a massive pile of wank.

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Battle Royale review

Posted : 2 years, 1 month ago on 3 November 2007 07:27 (A review of Battle Royale)

A film that stands out from the rest of the Tartan Asia Extreme collection as one that is immensely thought provoking and profound. Although the plot is something that is not regarded as anything ground-breaking, the film manages to avoid tired old cliches that might have arisen in your own imagination if you were thrust into the same position as these unfortunate school children.

Essentially, an unruly class is shipped off to a desert island (under a new law in Japanese justice) where they then have to fight to the death. The ultimate survivor is promised salvation and an almost anti-hero like status amongst the Japanese public, though as the film progeresses you see that this isn't the case. With each child assigned a random weapon (ranging from guns and grenades to saucepan lids and fans) you see how previous friends turn against one another, while others manage to stick together before meeting grave endings. Throughout the whole film you can only begin to imagine what you'd do in the same situation, and that's what makes it such an interesting film.

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