Battle Royale (2000)

"The Right Way To Fight a Battle Royale" by the BR Act Committee. Hello, everyone in Class B! You are the lucky class chosen for this year's Battle Royale. Congratulations! Now, I'm going to explain the rules for you! Listen well to fight right and with gusto. You are on a deserted island that looks like this! Its about 10 kilometers around, but we evacuated everyone, so it's empty!"


Director: Kinji Fukusaku
Studio: Toei
Genre: Action/Drama/Thriller
Country of Release: Japan
Language: Japanese
Year of Release: 2000

Wow sometimes is all you have to say after certain films, just wow. So the Japanese government decides that society is going downhill and decides the best way to fix this is to use the ones they view most responsible for it, the youth. A high school class is selected by random lottery every year to be placed on a deserted island where they're given a random weapon and forced to kill each other until only one is standing. This movie is a masterpiece but gets a bad rep by some as a senseless gorefest. This movie is incredibly violent yet it's somewhat over the top but the violence is used to make the acts more disturbing as you realize these are still just kids being forced to kill their friends and crushes for their own survival.

In a sense, it's a modern day Lord of the Flies meets The Most Dangerous Game. It's a film about the human instinct of survival and preserving one's own life even if it means tainting their innocence forever. It also is a social commentary about how adults can come to fear the youth. However, this is one of its few flaws. The sociopolitical content is made obvious at the beginning of the film but soon disappears and is never really brought up again while this doesn't take away too much from the film it does remove a layer that could have been explained far more and seemed like it had a purpose.

The only other real problem I felt with this film is the pacing is a bit hectic at some points but since this film does have such a large cast of characters (many of who unfortunately never get much development but again, it's understandable) it's a bit more forgivable than some other films for the same thing. The score of the film creates a truly interesting mood as it goes from a classical epic feeling in some scenes to a classical romance feeling in some other scenes which juxtapose nicely with the carnage on screen. The acting is just right where you can believe that these really are high school students (largely because most of the individuals cast are actually around the age of the characters they're portraying).

Overall, Battle Royale is a highly enjoyable film that can be viewed as just an action film but that is completely taking away the philosophical depth and human nature that it presents. It is one of the few times where I've seen violence in a movie that manages to come across as truly entertaining and yet truly saddening at the very same time. Brilliant film from start to finish and highly recommended that it been seen once. Oh also, Quentin Tarantino named it as one of his favorite films in the last 17 years awhile ago. I have to second him on the quality of this one.

Rating: 9/10