Battle Royale

Starring: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Aki Maeda, Taro Yamamoto, Takeshi Kitano, Chiaki Kuriyama
Directed by: Kinji Fukasaku
Rating: Not rated
Genre: Adventure, Thriller
2000

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A classroom of 9th grade Japanese students is abducted and forced to fight to the death in a "Battle Royale".

Review:

Tim: Quite a few years before The Hunger Games captured the world's attention, Japan gave us Battle Royale. While it was very difficult to see this movie in the United States until only recently, it's amazing the similarities between these two stories. This film is one of the all time highest-grossing movies in Japan, and is quite a controversial film. Kids killing kids always gets people up in arms, especially when they do it as violently and bloody as they do here. I felt like this was a good movie, but it could have been better.

My biggest complaint with the film is that I never really understood the reason for the events of the film. I understand it stems from a "Battle Royale" act, but why go through all this trouble? What is the point of it all? Perhaps the explanation was there, but it was lost on me. I got that we're supposed to root for certain characters to live, but I never felt clear on why they were on this island in the first place. We needed to be told the bigger picture. This uncertainty on why this is all important greatly undermines almost every aspect of the film. This was the biggest oversight.

I was impressed with how big the cast was. The 9th grade class has 42 students in it. That's pretty amazing, because the vast majority of them are going to die in 114 minutes. The deaths come quick and frequently throughout the film. I was also surprised at how bloody and gory this film was. It makes sense that because we're dealing with children killing each other, we should shield the audience from the more gruesome aspects. That does not happen here. We see characters stabbed, shot, fall to their death, blown up, poisoned, maimed, and all other kinds of carnage. The film is pretty brutal in its depiction of violence, which only gives its critics more ammunition. I will say that I believe the blood and gore served a purpose- this was not a fun adventure for the characters, and that gruesome depiction of their deaths serves as a reminder of that.

The cast was pretty good. I liked Tatsuya Fujiwara as Shuya. He might not be the strongest or the smartest, but he has an everyman quality that makes us want to root for him. Aki Maeda was good as his love interest. She gave an innocent performance, but clearly showed an underlying strength to her character. Takeshi Kitano was good as the man responsible for all the carnage in the film. Taro Yamamoto gave perhaps the best performance of the film. I really enjoyed his mysterious, brave, and possibly kind character. In a huge cast, Yamamoto managed to stand out from the rest. As a whole, though, the cast is quite impressive.

While the film itself was impressive, I had a few complaints about the story. Besides the initial confusion over why this was happening, I didn't love how the story unfolded. Our protagonists are two people with no survival skills and they don't even get any real weapons. It is only their alliance with an experienced, "transfer" student that allows them to survive. I felt like their alliance was a bit forced. It did not seem overly believable to me. It is explained in more detail later in the film, but it never really sat right with me. Plus, we don't really get enough time with our main protagonists. There's such a huge cast and most of the killing happens away from them, so we don't get a sufficient amount of time with them. That felt a bit weak to me. There was also a few odd moments throughout the film. I still have no idea why Takeshi Kitano showed up with an umbrella (why or how are both confusing to me). It seemed like such a random, unconnected event. There was also a number of plot holes throughout the film, but I can't go into the main ones for fear of spoiling the movie.

While this movie certainly has its flaws, the overall story is impressive and in the midst of all this death and destruction, we do eventually care about certain characters and hope that they survive. The film is interesting because it asks us- "Could you kill your best friend?" and "Could you kill that boy/girl you have a crush on?" Classmates forced to kill each other is a tough but interesting topic. The story is presented in a graphic way, which really makes you connect with the events of the film. While I personally believe The Hunger Games did a much better job with this topic, this is still a solid film and a worthwhile endeavor. Battle Royale is a film I will not soon forget.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Battle Royale II, The Hunger Games