(2000)

review by:

12-19-03

Written by: Kenta Fukasaku Original Novel by: Koshun Takami Directed by: Kinji Fukasaku Starring: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Aki Maeda, Taro Yamamoto

Battle Royale was one of those films that I heard about from time to time but never really knew what it was about. Geeks on message boards would laud the film, much like they would for any lesser known movie like Equilibrium or Boondock Saints, so it was a pleasant surprise when Honumon approached me with the chance to review Battle Royale. The story involves an alternate world where the Japanese government has passed a law in which once a year, a random 9th grade class is taken to a deserted island and forced to kill each other until there is only one survivor. Maybe my abilities of perception are failing me, but I couldn’t ascertain why they enacted this law. I think there is some explanation given but I don’t think it was very definitive, otherwise I would probably have remembered it. Nonetheless, a new 9th class is chosen, filled with the assortment of standard-issue characters you’d expect (the nerd, the over-achiever, the glamour girl, the quiet girl). Among these are Shuya Nanahara (Tatsuya Fujiwara) and Noriko Nakagawa (Aki Maeda), who are the main characters in that we see most of the movie from their point-of-view. There’s not much to say about them since they’re your standard young lovers caught in a game of survival of the fittest. The rules of the game are pretty simple: each classmate has a collar around his/her neck. If at the end of three days there is more than just one survivor, the collars will explode, killing everyone. Each classmate is given a duffle bag at the beginning of the game, which contains supplies for three days and a weapon. Of course, some weapons are better than others, so one person could get a shotgun and another person could get a cooking pot lid. The dynamic of the movie revolves around schoolmates being forced to kill each other and the emotional baggage that goes along with it. Certain classmates immediately give into their “dark side,” killing anyone they encounter, others try to find a peaceful solution, and still others try to find a way to get off the island. Most, however, just try to survive, killing whomever poses a threat. Interestingly, there are a surprising number of love confessions that take place in the movie. It makes it seem like everyone had a secret crush on someone else and decided to take the opportunity to confess (even if the person who’s confessing just got shot a bajillion times by the person he loves). Needless-to-say, it seemed out of place to me, but I guess when you’re in a life-and-death situation, you don’t think very rationally. Now, when I first started watching the movie, I thought to myself, “Wow, this is the kind of movie that Stanley Kubrick would have made if he was Japanese!” After finishing the film, however, I found this to not be true. You see, if Kubrick had made a film about Japanese junior high-ers killing each other, he would have made it into an allegory or metaphor for some kind of social issue. Maybe it’s because I’m not Japanese, but I couldn’t find any underlying meaning in Battle Royale. As far as I can tell, the movie is about kids killing each other, and that’s about it. Oh ok, it might also be about friendship, loyalty, the frailty of human nature, etc. That’s all well and good, but it seems strange to me that this particularly violent film which contains some very brutal imagery would concern itself only with these common themes. I read one review of Battle Royale in which the reviewer praised the film for having no subtext, for being simply what it is. I don’t think I agree with that sentiment, but then again, some people like a little of the ol’ ultra-violence. I guess I can’t do a Battle Royale review without mentioning Chiaki Kuriyama, the girl would later go on to wow us in Kill Bill – Vol. 1 as the school-girl bodyguard Go-Go Yubari. But if you’re seeing this movie just for her, however, I’d recommend just waiting until Kill Bill comes out on DVD. Her scenes total up to about 10 – 15 minutes of actual screen time in Battle Royale, although those 10 – 15 minutes are pretty interesting. She plays Takako Chigusa, a girl who’s not quite well in the head, if you get my drift. Overall, Battle Royale was an OK movie. It wasn’t terrible, like some of the dreck we here at Phantom Films watch weekly, but it wasn’t particularly good either. Without any meaning underneath the film, I can’t really connect to it or find reason to watch it more than once. It might have meaning for some people out there, but this reviewer was just left scratching his head.

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