Battle Royale (2000) User Reviews

Disturbing

[Pmust-3 · 8/10 · 28 December 2000]

Battle Royale is based on the shockwave novel by Koushun Takami, which is a bestseller in Japan, and which has become very controversial in a very short time (and it is really easy to understand why). The plot is relatively simple (a class of junior high school students are forced to kill each other on a desert island, the last survivor wins and can go back home), but it is this simplicity that makes its strength. No need for a very long prologue before we enter the main act. Each of the 42 pupils involved in this "game" are not volunteers (no one would be..,), and of course they are forced to kill their best friends /girlfriends in order to survive this horror. The personalities and characteristics of each of the participants are of course very contrasted and even if there are some cliches, well, the worst has been avoided. There are even quite "realistic" (even if it is very difficult to judge what can be realistic with such a plot) moments. The transcription of the inner thoughts of the characters, which is one of the strengths of the book, is averagely well retranscripted. Takeshi Kitano plays a "teacher" (whose name is ...Kitano), leading the operation of surveilliance of this "game". It is very difficult to give an objective comment on this movie. Violent. Ultra-Violent. And bloody. This is for sure. The book has to be read for a more complete description of the hesitations and fears, but the movie restranscripts very well the book is the sense that it is all "absurd". There is no real meaning to this violence. The students know this, but it can not be avoided. It is quite sad that the movie dropped an essential background element of the book (the story in the book takes place in an imaginery Japan which would have not lost WWII, and the movie takes place in a slightly modified modern Japan), but I guess that making this happen in the "real-world" shows that there is no need to go to an imaginary world to see to what extreme behaviors humans are capable of.

Highly disturbing. Rated R-15 (forbidden to under 15), very, very violent, but nonetheless interesting.

Quite brilliant

[gunzar · 9/10 · 4 January 2008]

There have been contrasting cries of "greatest film ever made" and "pointless gore fest" made about BR, and neither are accurate in my opinion. What it is, is a commentary about "perceived" (real or otherwise) problems among Japanese teens in the late 90's.

In one review, someone basically likened it to a movie involving young Japanese girls running around in school uniforms acting violent....DUH, thats the whole point. A lot of peoples only knowledge of Japan is Manga and Hentai.

If people bothered to watch the news once in awhile, they may know that the establishment in Japan were VERY worried about young people getting out of control, and BR portrays all this perfectly.

Its NOT ultra violent, although the fact that they are supposed to be teens makes it disturbing. Battle Royale is no worse than Lord of the flies, but for some reason that has been deified as a work of art, and BR is classed as trash. I'd say its more about cultural snobbery than actual appreciation of a truly magnificent film.

A film that the US, would never, could never make...

[Stupid-7 · 9/10 · 15 September 2001]

This film is film that I believed had to be made, and it was only a matter of time before it was. Yet it was a film that the US mainstream could never have conceived making.

Firstly to get it out of the way I will say that I loved this movie, although at no point did I feel comfortable while watching it. It had the power and emotional content, that while not necessarily apparent in the dialogue was visible on screen at all times.

I am truly glad that this film has come out of mainstream Japanese cinema. It would have only been made in the US by independent film-makers who would have basked in the glory of its controversy and felt oh-so-smug that they had created it, while shoving a moral in your face. While I actually have no problem with US Indie film I do feel that a Western background would have comprised on visceral content, and upped the content of cheap moral points.

For those who say the violence was "cartoon-style" and laughable must have been watching a different film. Whilst this film is heavy in black humour I can clearly say that the deaths are shocking in the extreme, and there is no relenting from the beginning to the end. Only occasionally does the camera pan away from the final deed. The only deaths that have a dark humour content to them, are those involving Kitano (Beat Takeshi) and the "lone" vigilante (those who have seen the film will know what I am talking about). Other sections, such as the "Training Video" are equally comedic, and absurd. Yet other deaths are shocking in the extreme, and show how the slightest suspicion can have disastrous consequences for groups that only have trust to keep them together, a truly shocking scene in the Lighthouse reinforces this.

The fact that this film employs Children as the main protagonists of the story is the key to the whole impact of the film. We have all seen films like The Running Man where adults fight adults for survival and it seems that much less shocking, albeit that film was handled in a completely different manner. Children have the innocence that makes the brutality of this film that much more shocking, adults in the same situation would have had the reaction from audiences of cheering at the screen as the hero dispatches yet another victim. This could never and would never have been the case with this film.

To another commentator who felt that this film sticks with you less than Scream, I simply fail to find this to be anywhere close to the truth. The deaths in Scream although bloody are nothing but pastiche of those films that Scream is mimicking, ultimately throwaway deaths that up in brutality in order to out-do the last one that have one or two psychotic perpetrators, who eventually get their comeuppance. In this film their are no victims and besides one exception there are no villains amongst the children. They simply HAVE to play the game or die.

Well I encourage all those who feel they can stomach it to go and see this film or find it available somewhere (as I believe it has been banned in the US). It is not truly a film denouncing the evils of Reality TV or showing us the future of that trend of Broadcasting, that is merely a plot device to place the children in this situation. The nature of the film lies in its deconstruction of Friendships, Trust and our views on Innocence. Go and see it not as a spectator of this BR spectacle but as one of the participants and remember what was important to you when you were at school, and whether any of those rivalries, hatreds and friendships would have been enough for you to decide who deserves to die and who deserves to live.

You'll get it if you know modern Japan

[tkuhns · 14 May 2004]

Most of the reviewers here speak from their own viewpoints, i.e. non-Japanese westerners, and they praise/knock the movie based on its violence, plot, etc. That's fine. But through their ignorance of the culture this film springs from, they are missing its subtleties.

I've been teaching in a Japanese high school for three years now. Once I saw this movie, I could instantly appreciate its skill and surprising frankness at commenting on some of the sad and strange realities of Japan's modern youth.

Japan is a culture obsessed with youth. Almost everything here is tailored to the under-30 (and much younger, actually) crowd. For example, most westerners watching Japanese TV will be surprised at how childish it seems. The things that seem childish to your average American junior-high student are very appealing for a Japanese high-school student. Girls in their 30s desperately try to be "cute" to attract guys. Adults and children alike read comics by the droves, and sometimes pops up a strange, not-too-well-hidden undercurrent of pedophilia.

This movie takes the heavily cliquish, often childish, and often incomprehensible (to me) social system of young Japanese boys and girls and gives them guns. This is the natural result. Take it from me, the characters and situations are very realistic.

This gets mixed with the growing anxiety among the older generation at the rising rudeness and rebellion of the new generation in a culture that values politeness above all else. From a frustrated and humiliated teacher; to students killing each other over seemingly unimportant squabbles; to the overly-cutesy, peppy training video that perfectly mimics nearly any show on NHK these days -- this film subtly and brilliantly comments on half-a-dozen issues that weigh heavily on the minds of Japanese people today. That's why it was such a big hit in Japan.

Maybe you just have to live here to get it. I give it 5 stars.

It's been two years since I saw this flick. What do I think?

[Manji · 10/10 · 15 January 2003]

Kinji Fukasaku made a film called Battle Royale back in 2000. He's made plenty of films in the past. I've seen very few of them, apart from Battle Royale but I'm always searching for more.

Battle Royale is a film that has affected many, many people. There are rabid fans of Battle Royale and there are even more people that hate it. Let me tell you why. Battle Royale is a film that exercises its right to explore an idea. Many films have great ideas but most are poorly realized. Battle Royale is simply an awesome movie about one of the most hypothetically traumatic things that could ever happen to teenagers. For those that don't know, the film focuses on what happens when a group of high school students are sent to an abandoned island to kill each other. What brings such a bizarre idea to fruition includes civil unrest, teenage anxiety, and a nation literally terrorized by their youth. It's set in Japan and though it is just a movie it still hit pretty close to reality due to current problems with Japanese youth. In fact, the film was poorly received by the government who feared that the release of the film would incite riots and other such acts of mayhem by the same youth which it focused on. The problem is the same the world around. Young people are much more volatile than they ever were say 20-30 years ago and Battle Royale captures the essence of the horror that today's youth would face going into such a circumstance. Friends kill other friends and bullies all to survive. At the same time they get to live out those videogames that they loved to play at home.

[SIDE NOTE: Counter-Strike, a Half-Life (popular videogame) mod for example, easily prepares young people for the reality of weapons. How many bullets are in a clip of an MP5? What does an assault rifle sound like? Questions like these are easily answered by the videogames of today. Sure, these weapons are also on the streets and in some parts of the world they are even in the hands of children as young as five years-old but the videogame set up creates a comfortable experience with such weapons. It's not that videogames necessarily make people want to get guns rather it gives familiarity to guns. I should mention that I love to play Counter-Strike myself and will continue to play it in the future. I don't hate the game, I'm just pointing out that it does present a fairly realistic portrayal of weapons.]

The problem is that there can be only one survivor of this island massacre, this only adds extra pressure to the already unprepared children who have to fight for their lives. What is truly shocking is that the actors and actresses who have been selected to portray these teens are around the same ages of their characters. They aren't the aging 20-30 somethings that just happen to look young; they are literally teenagers. This flick has some serious bite! It's such a great comment on how we are living in the 21st century in a time when frequently the fear for a country comes from within rather than outside forces.

Certainly, terrorism is at the forefront of the average North American's mind due to the World Trade Center attacks and CNN's endless coverage of the horrors of said event have easily made the problem an international event. But before that the biggest headline grabbers focused on young people, filled with `rage', unleashing their anger on their helpless peers using an array of weapons (mainly guns). School shootings shocked the world when children started killing their peers.

Battle Royale is not meant to trivialize school shootings and youth violence. Rather, it's an examination of the lengths which a government will go in order to discipline the youth. It's such a ludicrous idea. But the characters stay true to form as they profess long held crushes with their dying breath all the way down to naively trusting others who they've always admired as the popular kids. It's sick. Strange. Beautiful. Familiar. Different. And completely engaging. Most people are against the film because they feel that the plot is simply silly or because the dialogue is too hammy or some such nonsense. At the same time, those naysayers will praise films like Braveheart for its honest portrayal of Scotland's only historical hero. I loved Braveheart. I thought it was great too but it's bogus, for the most part. Certain battles and events really did happen. But William Wallace was no man to look up to. He raped and killed women and small children but none of that made it into the film because it was not that kind of "feel good" thing that would sell Wallace as a hero. Battle Royale, since it draws on fictitious characters and plot is far more interesting because it really makes you think about your own life. Could you kill your best friend from high school if the two of you are stuck on an island of death? To this day I refuse to answer that question. It sickens me to think of such a thing and so I felt disturbed by what those 42 kids had to do in Battle Royale. What's even worse is that they were picked by lottery to end up on the island. In the Japan that exists in Battle Royale, each year a random high school class is picked for the event. We are led to believe that all youth in Japan are bad seeds in this film but that really doesn't seem to apply to the class which the film follows. For all intents and purposes, they were innocent. The dialogue between characters is poignant, real, and totally innocent. You can literally see how limited their vocabulary and understanding of the world around them is. Furthermore, as I mentioned earlier, some of the characters even profess love for their classmates without even knowing what love is all about. High school is a weird time for anybody. It's an awkward time that is all about experience and misunderstandings. So many people AFTER high school really learn the truth about who liked them and what people really thought of them. During high school there's always some social wall that stops any REAL open communication between two people. Being on the island forces unchecked emotions and feelings to flow out of the characters because death is on the horizon. Can you really label the dialogue as lousy in those circumstances?

Obviously, there are intelligent and well-organized people in the world. Some exist in high school but for the most part teenagers are brash, foolish, and irresponsibly reckless because they've yet to learn from experience. They rarely have any experience. Teenagers put on an island to kill themselves will certainly not learn anything new and if they do it won't matter considering that they'll soon be dead.

Naturally, some go insane and mutter those math equations that their teachers promised them would be valuable in the real world. Others feel the need to fulfill their sexual desires, who wants to die as a virgin, right? Still others try to make the best of the situation by spending their last few hours alive as civilized as possible. But the purpose of the game affects all of these teenagers. They have to hurry. If the battle isn't finished in 3 days they all must die which is easy for the people in charge who have low-jacked each teenager with collars that explode. Not enough to take the head clean off, by default, but rather just enough of an explosion to open up the jugular. They bleed out until they die.their hopes and dreams for the future go with them. This is a grisly film that doesn't specifically cater to gore hounds. Certainly there are some really disturbing death scenes and moments but nothing TOO over the top. The idea is shocking enough, there's no need to be excessive. At first this fact upset me. I wanted this film to be a bloody parade of carnage because I reasoned that it's just a movie. Just some form of entertainment that existed to please me. But the whole idea is sickening and compelling enough to satisfy on more layers than just the visual.

In the end, this is not a film for just anyone off the street. There are so many sceptics and people who are unable to maturely grasp the concept of the film. These are the people that really hate it and you can't really blame them. For too long, Hollywood has been the dominant authority on filmmaking in the world. What was once a greatly expressive and thought-provoking medium has now simply become a trite and boring thing. Everything is recycled over and over. It's repackaged, re-sold, re-distributed to the point that people can hardly accept something new and radical and different. If it's not safe, generic, or commercial than the reason for a film's existence appears to be highly questionable. Battle Royale isn't going to change the world. I wish it could but the damage has already been done and now there is no place for a film that challenges socio-political norms or has subtitles. But that's alright. Films that matter are still being made even if they don't get the same amount of press or attention that the next Leonardo DiCaprio movie will get. If you enjoy Battle Royale then Kinji Fukasaku, who directed and adapted the film for the screen along with his son Kenta, will be able to rest in peace. The man died on January 12th, 2003. He was 72 years-old and all he wanted to do was make movies until he died. He got his wish.

I am a fan.

"Don't Hate Yourself... because no matter how hard you try there's always someone that does it better." - J.Symister 2002

The Best Japanese film I have laid my eyes on

[cwd9000 · 10/10 · 13 July 2005]

I couldn't believe my eyes. Out of all of the horror/survival films I have ever seen, this is definitely on top of the list. I don't just mean that in terms of foreign films, I mean in terms of film. I was immersed into this crazy scenario that may seem absolutely ridiculous at first, but once you look at it, it almost turns into a not so outlandish thought.

The story is laid out like this: Japan has is going down the proverbial crapper. Unemployment is at an all time high and kids everywhere are boycotting school. The country is in chaos. The government decides to pass a law that is basically aimed at scaring the country into order. The Law is called the BR Act. Heres the crazy part. A class is selected by impartial lottery (and the grades seem totally random, as indicated by the shot of the 1st or 2nd grader in the opening sequence) and sent to an undisclosed, evacuated location. The classmates then have 3 days to kill each other off until there is only one student left. This year, it is a class of 9th graders (keep in mind that Japanese kids go to school year round. in our school years, these kids would be seniors). They are sent to an island, given weapons, and fight to survive.

The cast in this film is chock full of Japanese Stars. Kitano Takeshi (Kitano) plays the teacher that basically plays the ringleader. If you have watched spike TV, you have seen him before. This is the actor that plays as "Vic Ramono" on MXC. The rest of the cast is comprised of Japanese teen pop idols. Most notably, the gorgeous Chiaki Kuriyama (Chigusa). You probably know her too. She was Gogo Yubari in Kill Bill Vol 1. Ando Masanobu (Kiriyama) plays the most menacing villain I have ever seen.

Asside from the classic Japanese blood sprays and the amount of ammo some of the guns put out, there is great attention to detail in this film. From what I have read, since the author (Kinji Fukasaku) of the original book directed the film, everything is kept true to the book as close as possible. Every time a student dies, their names appear on the screen in the order they died. Inside the main building, there is huge system of screens that show who is dead and what not. Anyway, that screen is exact on the names as well as the 'danger zone' map. I had to look twice to realize that. That is damn good editing right there.

The characters in the film, though Japanese, can be related right back to the kids you knew in high school. I joke around with my friends all of the time saying, "Oh thats so and so" and, "oh man, that is definitely so and so." This brings so much depth into the film. It is simply amazing to watch how everything plays out. This is like Darwinism in the 21st century. I watch this film just saying, "this is what would happen." That is what the entire film is based on, the crazy idea of 'this could happen.' The whole tag line of the movie is, "could you kill your best friend?" The question is so spooky, I don't even know if I could answer it. It taps into something so deep that you really have to think about it.

This film does have some comical moments. It is just too damn funny to watch Takeshi Kitano sit on a couch and eat cookies while at the same time watching his former pupils kill each other. There is just everything in this movie. There are those love stories that you saw all too often in school as well as those feuds between certain cliques and egos.

If you want a superb psychological thriller, this is the movie. This film sent shock waves across Japan when it burst onto the scene. Intelligent writing, great acting, beautiful locations, and decent effects bring this film together. Its Lord of the Flies with High School Kids. Its just great.

10 out of 10

Not as good as the Book

[Fbh91 · 6/10 · 8 July 2012]

This movie was recommended to me some time ago by a friend. So I decided to check out what it was all about and found out it's based on a Book. I always like to read/see the source material first so I bought the book over amazon and I have to say I loved it. It was a good story, with great characters and great writing that gave a lot of psychological insight on the characters.

Based on how popular and loved this movie is, I was expecting it to be a great adaptation but after watching it, I can't help but feel a bit disappointed with it all. They take the concept, some characters and some major events from the book but there are A LOT of changes and, IMO, most of them didn't do the story any favor. It all feels a bit underdeveloped and the acting wasn't very strong either. There are also several changes in the motivation of some characters and the whole concept of battle royale shifts from an oppressive government to some sort of "adult vs kids" thing which, despite the fact that I'm aware of the problems japan has with the youth, doesen't make a whole lot of sense-

Anyway, not a bad movie. But I'd recommend you read the book which in my opinion is far superior

A Haunting Film That Demands Repeated Viewing

[deadlypen · 10/10 · 15 March 2006]

The Place: Japan. The Time: The not-so-distant-future. Faced with the prospect of losing control over the nation's young people, a totalitarian government decides upon a ruthless demonstration of power. The Battle Royale Act annually sends a randomly-selected class of high school students to an uninhabited island where they are compelled to kill each other until only one of their number survives.

The reasoning behind this bizarre piece of legislation is perhaps the weakest part of the plot - but the Director deftly causes us to suspend disbelief by drawing us surely and touchingly into the feelings of the young cast. Unlike many western movies which trot out a body count of simplistic characters who are only there to die horribly for our entertainment, Battle Royale somehow manages to rapidly introduce us to the story's potential victims and make us care about them.

You will read reviews that describe this film as excessively violent. I believe that this is a gross overstatement. Though there are many deaths and not a little blood, the main emphasis is upon simple human values - issues such as trust, friendship, love and hate - which the competition tests to their very limits. Children who have little genuine experience of living are forced to evaluate their relationships with each other if they want to stay alive. Alliances are formed and broken; long suppressed crushes and barely buried antagonisms influence their decisions.

There are no easy or mindless deaths in Battle Royale. The violent scenes make the point that violence and death are not cool or funny. This is not Kill Bill; every character in Battle Royale has value as a living, breathing human being. It may sound corny to say that the movie is an emotional roller-coaster ride, but it truly is - having dared to give us three dimensional people who bleed when they are cut, the Director sometimes further dares to cruelly follow scenes of tragedy with jarring moments of biting, dark and sarcastic wit.

If this was an American movie, the class would be played by people in their twenties and thirties. Two or three of the students would be given a lot of screen time and the rest would be faceless cannon fodder. Five seconds after the opening titles, you would know who was going to survive. Despite its odd premise, Battle Royale seems closer to reality because its teenagers really are teenagers and it allows no comforting certainties about who lives or dies.

The true genius of Battle Royale lies in the talented playing of the entire cast. Although young, not one of them strikes a dud note and the script gives almost all of the students a chance to shine at some point. The fight scenes are not staged in the style of 'Enter The Dragon' - the kids are not weapons experts or Karate champions. We see them kill each other but we are not invited to hate them - they are, after all, children and they are scared and desperate. Even a student who takes to killing with apparent relish deserves our sympathy.

Some reviewers have criticised aspects of the dialogue as unrealistic. There are certainly times when the script seems stagy - but it is important to remember that these Japanese children are products of a national culture which often finds the expression of passionate emotions problematical. If anything, the formal phrasing and awkwardness of their most heartfelt expressions only serves to make them more meaningful.

The Special Edition ends (quite literally) with a question. You will find yourself going back to this movie time and time again to answer it. Each viewing is rewarded with details that you probably missed previously - the depth of characterisation and the layers of hidden-in-plain-sight clues continually allow you to understand the story from fresh perspectives.

Way overestimated.

[binmaze · 6/10 · 16 September 2002]

Gods, 7.8 rating score for this movie?

You all are deceived by the stereotypic japanese style - pretending something important here.

1. The starting concept is a bit bold, but not that new if you've read any jap ani or manga.

2. The gore scenes are not impressive but hilarious sometimes with some awful writings and actings.

3. Some important meaning hidden behind gores? No. Absolutely not. Actually, by pretending as if there were some important meaning behind, it is masking your conscience so letting the director nor watchers not feeling guilt for such meaningless killing spree.

Conclusion: This movie is just for fun. That's all. And it's a bit wicked and shameless in the meaning that it's pretending as a serious movie and hiding its true intent. Don't let this movie ridicule you.

But still, i must admit it's not a boring movie.

My Rating: 6/10

A compelling & haunting masterpiece.

[stoned_bunnies · 8/10 · 10 June 2006]

Based on a Japanese novel by Koushun Takami, "Battle Royale" is the story of a group of ninth graders who are transported to a small isolated island with a map, food and different arms. They are told to fight each other for three consecutive days until there remains but one student, who will then be named the 'winner'. All students are forced to wear a metal collar with a radar so that their teacher is aware when a rule is being broken.

The film is set in Japan and is in Japanese (and if you do come across a dubbed version, dispose of it immediately because it's only worth it to watch the original). It's hard to classify this film, as despite the extreme violence in it, it isn't action and despite its nightmarish feel, it isn't horror. It's just in between. There are many themes to this story; from to trust to complete selfishness (killing your best friend to save your own life) to suicide to disloyalty, and the list goes on.

The actors in Battle Royale were amazing. It is rare to find young talents like these, for instance, in Hollywood. These actors were by far the best young actors I have seen in all my life (though most of them weren't as young as their characters were). Tatsuya Fujiwara plays the main character, Shuya, a young man who is struck by tragedy when he becomes an orphan. All he has now is his best friend and the girl with whom he is madly in love. Fujiwara did a great job of transmitting the feel of despair that one would probably feel if he/she were to see his best friend die before their eyes, or to have to see classmates killing each other and then to portray that never-ending trust that two lovers share. The other actors all did a generally good job as well.

The first actor I'd like to criticize is Taro Yamamoto, who played the compassionate Shougo Kawada, who helps the protagonist and his girlfriend as the game of Battle Royale goes on. I thought that Yamamoto overplayed the character's casualty and I didn't feel as attached to him watching the movie as I did reading the comic book. The other actor I thought did a terrible job relative to the other actors was Masanobu Ando, who played the haunting character Kazuo Kiriyama, who basically seemed immune to everything. While reading the book, that guy really creeped the sh*t out of me. But in the movie, he just basically did the "undercover" thing and sort of leaped from place to place and tortured and killed people and that was it. You didn't feel anything, and in my opinion, that character was one of the most important so it was pretty disappointing. But putting those two aside, the acting WAS splendid, just as the directing of (sci-fi/Japanese gangster movie director) Kinji Fukasaku was.

I thought that the story was very haunting and compelling, and that you should read the novel or the comic book before watching the movie because just the use of your imagination and attachment to the characters while reading the books is so much more real. I really enjoyed the movie too, though, and would recommend it to anyone who has the stomach for constant shootings, hangings, blowing-up, abandoned corpses and a lot of blood squirting everywhere.

And so if it fits the shoe, rent it out. You probably won't regret it.

Ultra-violent film about adolescents fitted with explosive necklace and abandoned in a desert island

[ma-cortes · 6/10 · 2 July 2007]

A future Japanese fascist government has forged a new program for dangerous students,broadcasting live like a reality television movie .In this fictional universe,a class of junior-high school of 42 students is randomly selected and sent a bleak island during three days.There a former professor(Takeshi Kitano)rules a revolutionary survival game called Battle Royale.The abducted class are given a bag with different arms,a map and a few rations of food and tied a collar explodes when they break the rules.They're dispatched to the inhospitable island and sent off to murder each other into a survival game .Someone decide to play the game to death like the psycho assassin teen,while others commit suicide themselves and another are attempting to encounter a way out to get off the empty island where exist a special danger zones.The violent death match game originating an authentic body count to be continued until solely one single winner remain.

The film contains action,thrills,rare black humour,blood and is plenty of graphical violence.Excellent action sequences with bloody attacks and violent and blistering fights.The movie displays strong exploitation elements with realistic battles and some characters aren't well defined or one-dimensional but the grisly violence is continuous .It turn out to be a blending about a teens group on abandoned island such as¨Lord of flies¨,the game to death from ¨Running man¨and the tyrannical control by the government of ¨1984¨.Takeshi Kitano or Beat Takeshi is an appropriate villainous teacher in a powerful performance,he's splendid as actor(Gohetto)as director or both(Hanna-Bi,Sonatine,Kikujiro,Brother,Zaitochi).Little known actors ,exception of Chaki Kuriyama(Azumi 2,Ju-on),she's especially famous for his role the teenager killer in ¨Kill Bill vol. I¨.The motion picture is rightly directed by Kinji Fukasaku, an expert Sci-fi and action movies(The green slime,ToraToraTora,Virus).It's followed in 2003 by the second part,an inferior sequel, concerning a new class is sent an island with one aim,the killing of international terrorists.But the director died during the shooting and went on his son,Kenta Fukasaku.

Incredible masterpiece made by Kinji Fukasaku.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 10/10 · 10 February 2004]

"Battle Royale" is one of the most controversial and challenging movies ever made.The film is very gory and violent,but it's also witty,satirical and thought provoking.The concept of "Battle Royale" is pretty simple.The act of Battle Royale decrees that once a year a class of 9th graders is chosen at random,stranded on a small island,and armed with random weapons.The kids are also outfitted with strange necklaces that monitor their locations and life functions,and explode if more than one student is alive at the end of 72 hours.The kids are forced to become savage killers,and the movie provides them with interesting personalities and human reactions to the horrible situation in which they find themselves.The acting is brilliant and the violence is horrific and merciless.The film is very exciting and well-photographed.A masterpiece that needs to be seen by every fan of wonderful Japanese cinema!

Ignorance is bliss

[t-ferdy · 6/10 · 10 January 2012]

If you think Japanese things are cool then you'll like this film. You'll probably enjoy the black and white acting, the ridiculous premise and the joke-like special effects.

If you've never encountered Japanese films before, then start elsewhere. Try "Departures".

What is interesting about this film is what it says about Japanese society. There is an underlying fear of the younger generation that this film cleverly exploits, tapping into the anxiety of the older generations. And there is the creepy love of high school students, as shown by our high school teacher and his unfounded love of one of his students. It features in Manga and Anime across the culture so it would have been nice if writer Koushun Takami came up with something a little more original.

Many readers may think such criticisms are unfair, regarding Japanese culture to be too different for us to be able to judge. But there are basic principles in film-making which are broken at almost every stage here, and a general misunderstanding with Japanese culture across the world that allows a film like this to get an inexplicable 8/10 rating on the IMDb.

The spraying blood and comical death scenes are not intended to be comical. Director Kinji Fukasaku experienced atrocities himself as a child, not dissimilar from some of the violence on display in Battle Royale, so it would be bizarre if he were to then parody such violence.

When Japanese people watch this film (that is people who have been educated in the system and have not left the country), they experience something very different than that of most Westerners. To them, the acting-by-numbers is something they encounter in most TV dramas and movies.

The misunderstandings of Japanese culture that renders this film to get an 8/10 score can be summed-up with the teacher exercising to the radio scene. To most Western viewers, this is a quirky, slightly surreal scene, which blends in with the surrealness of the whole film. But such a thing was (and getting less so now) common place in Japanese cities - morning exercise for the salarymen in their financial collectives. But there is a depth here; stabbings, suicides (of which Japan has one of the highest rates in the developed world) and the all-encumbering importance of high school are real elements of Japanese society.

But there are one too many ridiculous notions in the film that ruin this depth: the internet access on the island, the cheap use of classical music to paint scenes, the one-dimensional characters and the way almost everyone gunned down, regardless of how many bullet wounds they receive, has enough energy for another bout of fury, or even to calmly make a phone call.

So you'll like this if you don't understand much about Japanese society.

But hey! It's just entertainment!

10 Rules for Survival

[davegering · 3/10 · 12 April 2005]

Having just seen the movie Battle Royale, I have come up with a few rules for survival that 9th grade Japanese students might find useful:

1. If your class goes on a field trip requiring a bus ride, carry a gas mask. If there is room in you pack, you might also bring along some extra blood plasma, which will come in handy if you can't get off the bus using the gas mask.

2. Don't shout at your teacher. Remember that all 9th grade teachers are able to hit a moving student between the eyes at 20 paces with a throwing knife.

3. If you wind up on the Island, pick the heavy survival bag. One of the bags will have an automatic submachine gun, along with about 2000 rounds of ammunition. Figuring 1.5 ounces per round, the ammunition will weigh 187 pounds. Along with the extra clips, gun and food, the bag will weigh about 210 pounds. Just watch for the bag it takes three soldiers to carry in, and claim it as yours.

4. If you don't wind up with the submachine gun, keep whatever weapon they issue you. Even if it is nothing more than an ebony swizzle stick, there will come a point during the campaign where nothing but an ebony swizzle stick can save your life.

5. If you manage to overcome someone with a gun, pick up the gun before you leave. Duh.

6. If you get shot, play dead. It takes at least 20 direct hits to kill anyone, so if you lie still, your attacker may move on and look for new conquests. Just make sure he or she has left before you get up and start shouting about your brilliance.

7. If your weapon is nail clippers, and you see the person with the submachine gun, don't charge. Look for a deep hole.

8. Avoid even inconspicuous buildings such as lighthouses. For some reason, people seem to congregate in them just before going berserk.

9. As soon as possible, take a course in computer hacking, so you can turn off your death necklace and crash the adults' monitoring system. Don't worry, despite its having been evacuated, there will be computers with internet capability readily available on the island.

10. Take a course in maritime navigation so you will know how to pilot the yacht, unattended but fully provisioned, which you will find waiting for you on the island. When you get on the yacht, set your course to Hawaii, not back to Japan where you will be wanted for murder.

THE MOST DANGEROUS MOVIE EVER MADE?

[EL BUNCHO · 3 January 2002]

It is no secret that the Japanese regularly produce some of the most all-fired messed up movies ever made, but recently a film was released over there that tested even the normally bloodthirsty native film industry. That film is BATTLE ROYALE, and having finally seen it, I can see why it caused such uproar.

The setup in a nutshell: at the dawn of the millennia, students have taken to boycotting school and have become a bunch of indolent little turds. The teachers have virtually no control over them, and the kids have even begun to assault authority figures without fear of the consequences. As a result of this anarchy, the Millennium Educational Reform Act, a.k.a. the BR act, is passed into law. The BR act renders it legal for a student class chosen by lottery to be kidnapped and taken to an island in the middle of nowhere that is policed by armed troops. Once on the island, the students are informed that they are now unwilling participants in Battle Royale, a three-day, no rules, literal fight to the death to see which student deserves to return to society. All participants are issued a kit containing a map, a flashlight, food and water, "personal" items for the girls, and a weapon. They also find that they have been fitted with collars that will explode and kill them if they don't participate. Every six hours, the students are updated on the status of dead participants and which areas of the island are "danger zones"; if they don't steer clear of the danger zones, their collars will blow their heads off. As a result, there is no hope of holing up in one place for the whole three days. By the end of three days, there can only be one survivor; if there is more than one, all that remain will die.

The story follows an unlucky class of ninth graders who are gassed into unconsciousness and kidnapped during what they think is a school trip. Upon waking, they are presented with the previously outlined situation and turned loose, one by one, onto the island. Since this is a do-or-die scenario, the kids take drastic measures; some become vicious predators while others, realizing that they are in no way cut out for this, commit suicide. Former members of the same clique betray their superficial bond and turn on their friends, formerly put-upon kids feel the power that a weapon grants them, and virtually no one can be trusted.

The three main protagonists are Shuya (a sensitive kid who ends up in a foster home after his loser father hangs himself out of utter despair), Noriko (a sweet young thing who ends up being the "princess" that Shuya vows to protect), and Kawada (the mysterious, bandana-wearing tough guy), all of whom are forced to rely on each other during the three-day hell. Since their fellow participants are armed with weapons that run the gamut from grenades to pump-action street sweeper shotguns, mercy is a thing that is best forgotten, and Shuya and Noriko clearly undergo sweeping changes by the end of the story.

Two other characters of note are Mitsuko and Kirayama. Mitsuko is the class hottie, and once the deadly seriousness of their situation is apparent, she becomes a frighteningly efficient predator, dispatching her classmates with icy precision. If you see this sickle-wielding beauty coming, RUN. Kirayama is the other side of the Mitsuko coin; an exchange student who joined the class because he knew the Battle Royale was going to take place. Merrily blasting his way through the other participants with a machine gun, Kirayama is an unbridled psychopath whose total disregard for human life is truly numbing to behold.

The rest of the remaining 42 students serve as a cross-section of every student type you've ever known, and it is fascinating to see their approaches to their situation. Techno-nerds prove to be a force to be reckoned with, groups of girls try to be peacemakers with varying degrees of success, previously unexpressed love plays out with tragic results, and the whole group struggles with the fact that when the end comes there can only be one left.

When BATTLE ROYALE hit the Japanese theaters, it kicked box office ass, but was eventually removed from theaters by concerned parents groups and defenders of public decency. Needless to say, in the post-Columbine climate this movie doesn't stand a chance in hell of landing an American distribution deal, especially in its unedited form. We're talking instant NC-17 here, kids, which is sad because the violence and gore in this film would have passed with an R rating back in the mid-to-late seventies. However, bear in mind that this no mere exploitation movie; the director wanted kids the age of its protagonists to see it to remind them that authority over them does still exist, and to stop acting like a bunch of douchebags. Imagine if an American director went public with that sentiment!

BATTLE ROYALE is easily the most thought-provoking film I've seen in a long time, and I give it my highest recommendation. It is available in the states on an all-regions subtitled DVD and is well worth searching out. It's either BATTLE ROYALE or NOT ANOTHER TEEN MOVIE. How will you choose?

Awesome

[cannabinosa · 8/10 · 18 June 2022]

I saw on a youtube video that this was one of Quentin Tarantino favourite films and that he regreted not making it. He was right. It is one of the best asian films ever made.

Could you kill your best friend?

[The_Void · 8/10 · 21 October 2003]

Is the question put before 42 Japanese school children, minutes after waking up from being put to sleep and minutes before they will fight in a bloody battle to the death. Seconds after the children learn their probable fate, they are greeted with a video. An upbeat video, the sort of video you would expect at a McDonalds induction day, but this video explains the rules of the 'game'.

"No whispering" the sadistic teacher exclaims, before launching a flick knife into the forehead of one unlucky girl. As you would expect, the class react with shock, one child saying in surprise "It's really real", another child finds out first hand the use for the dog collars around their necks. After the video and the weapons are given out, there are many different reactions to the situation, as you might expect. Some of the youngsters try to become revolutionaries and stop the violence, others refuse to fight, choosing suicide over murder and some accept the situation and fight for their survival.

From here on out, the adrenaline fuelled violence is thick and fast, within the first minute of the game starting, one girl approaches the screen with an arrow through her neck, asking her former friend "What is this?" seconds after, her crossbow wielding attacker screams his way out of the bushes, only to be taken down less than a minute later by another class mate.

The build up to the Battle Royale is some of the best I've ever seen. The story is put up on the screen against a backdrop of computer animation and then it switches to a journalist reporting on a previous Battle Royale, "The winner is a girl" she exclaims, "She's smiling, she smiling" She continues as the girl in the back of the truck gives a sick smile, reminiscent of what she just went through. By this point I was wondering if the rest of the film would stand up to the intro, it sure did.

The plot, as you might expect is a little silly. The economy in Japan has gone down the pan, 15% of people are unemployed and many schoolchildren are boycotting their schools, as the message on the board reads "Not coming cos we don't feel like it". So what do Japan do to thwart this economic depression? Lower interest rates! No. Create more jobs! No. Make truancy against the law! no, no, no. This is Japan. Those crazy Japs decide to pass the new 'Battle Royale act'. An act in which a class of children, chosen by an impartial lottery is put on an island, to fight to the death. Of course, this is unrealistic but what it does do is show the authorities will to create law and order, and the younger generation's compulsion to rebel against it, which also brings in the philosophical argument of the alienation between older and younger people. It is this whole deepness to the film that a lot of people will unfortunately miss due to the large amounts of violence.

But, the main aspect of Battle Royale is the will to survive, and also the will for the survival of your loved ones, which is personified through the character of one of the 'exchange' students (cant remember his name...the good one). A person who is on the island, after surviving a previous Battle Royale, and also being forced to kill his girlfriend, for his own survival (one of the rules - only one survivor). This character talks about the way his girlfriend smiled, and thanked him after he shot her, and how he thought they could both survive.

This film has lots of characters, 43 of them in fact. So, obviously not all of them are given a chance to develop, but the ones that are develop beautifully. The film uses flash backs for various characters, which helps the audience to see why certain characters act how they do. Such as the 'exchange' student who spares the life of our hero's, Nanahara and his girlfriend. At first this may seem silly, as anyone in the game can kill you, but it comes into perspective when we learn he himself survived a Battle Royale and the two reminded him of himself and his girlfriend.

This film only really has one other film which it can be compared to, and that film would be Stanley Rubric's, A Clockwork Orange. The most notable thing that has been borrowed from that film is the ultra violence which is set to a beautiful classical soundtrack. And secondly the whole moral debate which surrounds each one, the free will argument in Clockwork Orange and the will to survive in this film.

The ending is one of only two things that I would criticise this film on, the little twist at the end was nice and it showed where the characters went next, but the way they tacked on the 'requiem' sequences, I felt was unnecessary as they could have been put in the film elsewhere, or even better, not at all. The other criticism would be the way that some of the film was over dramatic, such as the part where the teacher showed the survivors the (sick) picture he drew of the Battle Royale.

Anyway, despite its minor imperfections this film receives top marks from me. There isn't many films that will over step the mark and go a little further, but Battle Royale does just that. A masterpiece

Pointless

[claudio_carvalho · 6/10 · 12 July 2007]

In the beginning of the Twentieth-First Century, the economy of Japan is near a total collapse, with high rates of unemployment and students boycotting their classes. The government approves the Battle Royale Act, where one class is randomly selected and the students are sent to an island wearing necklaces with few supplies and one weapon. After three days, they have to kill each other and the survivor wins his or her own life as a prize. The forty-two students of a ninth grade class are selected to participate in the survival game and abducted in their bus. Under the command of their former teacher Kitano (Takeshi Kitano), they have to eliminate each other following the rules of the sadistic game where only one wins.

The screenplay of "Batoru Rowaiaru" is badly developed regarding the explanation and advantages of such stupid act. It seems that the writer and the director were only interested in the action of the movie, which is great by the way, and forgot to justify how this survival game could improve a shattered economy or the control of masses, more specifically the students. The way this pointless story is disclosed, most of the students seem to be normal youths, while the government and their teacher seem to be the sadistic villain. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Batalha Real" ("Royal Battle")

One of the best n brutal survival thriller in the authoritarian government genre.

[Fella_shibby · 9/10 · 13 June 2021]

I first saw this in 2008 on a rented dvd.

Revisited it recently.

This movie truly inspired so many other movies and the biggest examples are the The Hunger Games n The Maze Runner.

But this one is brutal and very dark considering the movie has teenagers at peril n pitted against one another.

Lord of the Flies, The Most Dangerous Game, A Clockwork Orange n the 1979 Over The Edge will come to mind but this one ain't copy of any of the above mentioned movies.

In Over The Edge, there is only a single recreation center to distract bored kids n teenagers who later turn to drugs and delinquency once their recreation centre is threatened, the teenagers in Battle Royale, inspite of having lots of outdoor n indoor activities, become delinquents without any factors making it easier for an authoritarian government to enact a brutal law.

I liked it.

[Dccarter123 · 7/10 · 1 May 2014]

I really enjoyed this film. I found it suspenseful, and I found the characters interesting (at least the ones that the film focused on). However, the two film assassins, or the students who were actually enjoying it, were the characters that made the film. The main characters were also interesting. Especially a young man named Kowada, who actually won the Battle Royale in the past. I also particularly enjoyed the last ten minutes of the film.

I also really liked the heavy violence throughout the film. In a film that is mainly about people being killed, the violence allows the film to have a unique style, and, without the violence, the film would have felt fairly bland.

Despite my praise, I do have one issue with the film, and this is the fact that the film, in my opinion, tries to become more than just a film about killing people but ends up falling short. There are several scenes in the film that dive into what the characters are thinking, as well as many flashbacks. I thought towards the beginning that this film was going to be a social commentary of sorts about the human condition. However, it simply continued to be a film about survival. Now let me say that I would have been fine with a film about survival, if that was all that the film presented. However, I feel like the film was attempting to be more, and it fell short.

With that being said, I still enjoyed the film. I found it to be exciting and simply a fun time watching a movie. If violence isn't your cup of tea, then I would avoid this film. However, if you have no issue with violence, then you will have a great time with this movie, especially if you enjoy Quentin Tarantino films.

Kill for survival or be killed!

[lost-in-limbo · 9/10 · 30 January 2005]

40 Ninth grade students and two transfer students have 3 days on a island to wipe each other out, only one can survive and if not they shall all die.

This controversial Japanese film is a real favourite of mine, a fascinating tale of human instinct for survival… by any type of means. It has a really macabre atmosphere, where the tension and suspense never faults from the beginning to the end. While the pace of the film never lets up... well maybe there is two or three slow scenes of mushy melodrama- but that's when we learn what's going on in their heads and it doesn't disrupt the flow of sheer adrenaline that the film generates or even the sombre mood.

At times the dialogue is a bit corny and lame- but it didn't seem to bother me. The violence throughout is brutally shocking and adds in some funny black humour. You might enjoy the violence- but when you get to know the characters we then feel sorrow for the students as friendships are stretched, some going mad, some taking their own lives, some bonding & scheming and others out to kill- but nothing can stop the paranoia creeping into this game of survival.

Excellent performances from Tatsuya Fujiwara and Aki Maeda as the two young lovers Shuya and Nuriko that stick together, Masanobu Ando the quiet cold blooded killer Kiriyama and Taro Yamamoto as the helpful but mysterious transfer student Kawada and there is Takeshi Kitanoas as Beat Takeshi their year 7 ex-school teacher that looks over them on the island.

The music played throughout the film is basically classical, so it gives it a disturbing vibe- as if it's in the spirit of the game.

This film could be classed as a bitter satire on today's Japanese society, but it's not to be taken too seriously, though there is more to it then students killing each other... could you kill your best friend?

5/5

Could be a great movie if it had a story

[mszargar · 6/10 · 15 December 2021]

First, I have to debunk the claim that the movie is gore or excessively violent. This is clearly satire and has been purposefully directed in a way that the images do not represent real violence. That's not to say you can watch it with your kids. But it won't deprive you from sleep either.

My beef with the movie is that it has no story line, and although it pretends to have some sort of meaning or a subliminal message about love or trust, it simply doesn't say enough to be worth two hours and two minutes of your time. So, major disappointment in that regard.

But I mainly watched the movie to see what has inspired hunger games and squid game, given how popular those series are, and given that I don't want to spend a whole lot of time watching the series. For that purpose the movie didn't disappoint. It is a well-directed movie and somehow entertaining, although pretty cheesy as well. I can understand why and how people get drawn into this kind of thriller. It can be mesmerizing, specially if the characters are well-developed (what Battle Royale pretty much fails to do). But again, the genre originally comes from here. So, worth a watch if you want to understand it.

Wicked Satire on (Japanese) Society

[dbborroughs · 8/10 · 16 July 2004]

This is the story of a Japan so out of control that in order to regain control (I think) they stage a survival game that makes TV's Survivor look like a walk in the park. One class of kids is dumped on an island and told that the last one alive wins.

This is a very very funny movie in a black comedy sort of way. Its very violent and bloody and makes you wonder about why you're laughing since its not all that far off from the way society operates, especially Japanese society, where kids regularly kill themselves for not getting into the right school.

Its not for all tastes. Some people will find the idea offensive, a fact that has kept the film from having an official US release. If you can take your comedy black as night, then see this movie.

8 out of 10

Over-Burdened By Its Own Sappiness.

[redrobin62-321-207311 · 6/10 · 6 September 2018]

One annoying characteristic you'll see in a lot of East Asian films is the actors' tendency to exaggerate every movement. You just don't simply fall limp and die from a bullet wound; you have to caterwaul like a chicken with its head lobbed off while screaming at the top of your lungs. That kind of performance is distracting, unrealistic and unnecessary, yet, Asian films utilize this trope time after time after time. There were plenty of examples of it on display in "Battle Royale" which, unfortunately, took its rating down for me a few notches.

I'd acquired this movie because I read the violence was so over the top in rivals other films such as "Ichi The Killer" or "Audition." It doesn't. Sure, there were a lot of kills but not necessarily any that would turn your stomach. Is this movie worth renting? Maybe, if staring at teenage Japanese kids is your thing, otherwise pass on it. The stringy, manipulative music in the background will irritate you anyway, so view at your own discretion.

Over-Hyped, Pretentious, And Riddled With Clichés

[badnewsjones · 4/10 · 8 October 2006]

Having nearly exhausted the catalog of "good" horror movies, I've turned to explore more "shock" cinema, of which Japan is currently forefront, mostly because of Takashi Miike's twisted brilliance. I've heard much about Battle Royale since its release in 2000, particularly in regard towards its shocking premise and excessive gore. I was excited to see this movie, but was sorely disappointed with the actual experience.

Obviously inspired by Richard Connell's short story "The Most Dangerous Game" and Golding's novel Lord of the Flies, Battle Royale puts a class of forty-some students on an island. Tracked with explosive collars, they must kill each other until only one survives; if they refuse, the collars explode and they all die.

This premise, however, is poorly executed. As a substitute for effective storytelling, the movie uses clichéd characters. They are cardboard cutouts easily recognizable by anyone who has ever seen/read any anime/manga. There's the "mysterious and dangerous transfer student" right beside the "crazy/psychotic student" that are sitting behind the "couple who hasn't confessed their love for each other." The real interesting characters are, of course, the ones that fall outside of these stereotypes. Those characters, however, have very little screen time—just a scene or two—before they are killed. The possible exception is Chiaki Kuriyama, who inspired Tarantino's Gogo in Kill Bill.

This brings me to the movie's fatal flaw. The movie shows every single student die. That's 42 deaths crammed into a 2 hour film, actually, more like an hour and a half considering the class isn't on the island for the first part of the movie. This creates many problems, cinematically. Half of the time, the movie basically follows the story of the four, rather uninteresting stereotypes, for most of the movie. The other half, you're introduced to a dozen other plot lines that are never fleshed-out. The main storyline is constantly interrupted by sequences of subplots. This ruins the movie's pacing—you can't help but notice that they're trying to cram too much into the movie. Since these subplots are glossed over instead of explored, they come off as basically excuses to show more students die. Now being a horror movie and shock movie fan, I don't have a problem with a lot of people dying, but when there are only 4 or 5 memorable deaths out of the 40-some, it's not a good sign.

Which brings me to another let-down of the film. I kept hearing that the movie was incredibly gory and violent. However, I'd be willing to say that the violence in this movie is on-par with US prime-time TV, say some of the CSIs or Nip/Tuck. There's a good amount of cheap looking CG as well, you know, the kind you get from crappy straight to video movies that Sci-Fi shows on Saturday nights: Killer Rats, or perhaps Python. Overall, this movie is no gorier or violent than the mid-Friday the 13th movies, it simply has a higher body count.

The movie fails to redeem itself with its ending as well. You'll be able to see the "twist" ending a mile away.

This over-the-top movie makes its social analysis hard to miss, but all of these problems simply work to undermine any kind of commentary the movie makes on contemporary Japan and its youth.

Although I've never read the novel or the manga, I'd say that this would have made a much better miniseries or TV show. That way, the clichéd, main characters' story would be somewhat marginalized, giving voice to the more unique characters and room to explore some of the more complicated social dynamics that were only glanced at in the movie.

As it stands, however—like many ambitious horror/shock films—Battle Royale has only a few notable elements buried in a mess of problems.