battleroyale

This film has been one of the box office smashes of 2001 in Japan. Originally a novel, written by Koshun Takami, that reached cult status among Japanese kiddies in 1999, it was made into a multi-part manga comic book series called 'Battle Royale' and more recently into this gorishly brilliant film.
Superbly directed by Kinji Fukasaku (whos like 70!) with a cast of unknowns, to me anyways, except the perky girl (i explain that later on this page) who has done the voice of Chun-Li for a number of the Street Fighter series games, gotta love that style of old school gaming ; )
The storyline is quite simple. Every so often a delinquent class is placed on a remote island where each class member is given a survival pack whic includes food, maps, a weapon etc. and given three days in which to kill off their class mates and be the remaining survivor, therefore getting the chance to return home. Such is the Battle Royale act. There are many subplots to the film, which do add some depth and doesn't just make this a fun 113 mins of watching teenagers go head-to-head against each other with stun guns, rubbish bin lids and crossbows.

Battle Royale is meant to shock you, alot. Apart from the whole peeps getting decapitated & their heads being used as an explosive device by shoving a grenade in the mouth (oh yes! You better believe it!). There are a great number of issues bought to light in this film. But the Battle Royale act itself, although it's fictional, is quite fascinating but appears to have a fair few problems. The whole ideology behind the Battle Royale act is that its been passed, supposedly, to reduce violence in schools & an increase in obedience, yet its not used as a deterrent within schools, the class we follow through this film have never even heard of the act. The act is purely there to rid troublesome classes from society & they don't seem to mind how old the kiddies are who partake in this Battle Royale. At the start of the film we see the winner of the previous Battle Royale, a young girl covered in blood who is at least a few years away from her teens clutching an equally blood stained doll. Such events raise numerous questions, for example, what sort of effect is a Battle Royale going to have on the winner?
The film really takes a brilliant look at how quickly and easily peoples behaviour changes when their surrounding situation changes. The best example of this is probably the lighthouse scene where a group of girls have set up base. One of them is accidentally poisoned & when the realisation that she's been poisoned hits the others all trust flys out the window. Old arguements & anything that they can possibly think of as an excuse not to trust each other is bought to the surface, until they finally all snap & start killing each other. Its quite a moving scene in that you have this group of girls who under 'normal' circumstances are best friends, but the moment an event comes along that gives them reason to distrust each other they all take the opportunity. You can only watch in awe & wonder whether everyone in the world including yourself is really that shallow and superficial.

I think thats one of the strengths of this film, as well as being a great film to watch because of the blood & horror elements, there are also a number of psychological & social aspects & a very realistic & truthful look at society and how false people really are. Plus there are some fantosstic humour moments thrown in to help relieve aspects of the film. The best example is probably the video the class is made to watch, that explains all about what a Battle Royale is. The lass that presents it is so chirpy & full of enthusiasm you cant help but laugh.
See this film if you get the chance! I wouldn't be suprised, knowning the Japanese film industry, if after the success Battle Royale has had that we see a multitude of sequels spawn from this, so keep a look out.