Battle Royale

[DocWolfe]

Just watched an awesome film on Film4 tonight... wow... has to be one of the best films I have ever watched. It was called Battle Royale.

At the dawn of the new millennium, Japan is ina a state of near-collapse. Unemployment is at an all-time high, and violence amongst the nations youth is spiralling out of control. With school children boycotting their lessons and physically abusing their teachers, a beleaguered and near-defeated government decides to introduce a radical new measure: the Battle Royale Act Overseen by their former teacher, Kitano ('Beat' Takeshi) and requiring that a randomly chosen school class be taken to a deserted island and forced to fight each other to the death, the Act dictates that only one pupil be allowed to survive the punishment. He or she will return, not as the victor, but as the ultimate proof of the lengths to which the government are prepared to go to curb the tide of juvenile disobedience.

Although the premise of the film may seem a bit shit, set in a dystopia, the storyline is really involving as you see friends turn on each other, lovers die, suicides, paranoia and teamwork. Wow... I mean it just blew me away. I definately recommend people to see it. Bit gorrey, but I like that sort of thing. Real emotional too

Its a Japanese film, english subbed.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0266308/

Anyone else seen it before, and what did they think?

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.

I have to say, there is a bit at the beginning with the training video, and thats pretty surreal. But it all adds up to a fucking great film.

 

[Boni]

Great cult film, funny and kinda sick all at the same time. Theres a sequel as well, no where near as good imo, but if you really liked that then worth seeing maybe.

Fight Good!

 

[Amanita]

When one of my friends was trying to describe it to me I was just going "Oo wtf". Well, as close as you can get to that IRL ^^

Saw it though, and its great and went out to buy it too.

And the training video was fantastic.

"So fight with gusto! OK?! "

 

[Deepfried]

yeah its showing a few times on film 4 this week so anyone who hasn't seen it can see it
deepfried

 

[Kagato]

I have the DVD, its good, the sequel to it, Battle Royale : Requiem is a bit shit though in my opinion.

In the sequel Shuya has set up a anarchy style terrorist group to fight the japanese government that made all the children kill each other, so the government sends yet another group of class mates to hunt him and his group down, if they fail, they die.

Sounds quite promising but I found it very dissapointing.

To me the thing that made the original so good was the whole 'trust' moral dilema, could you honestly trust your best friends with your life if their own lives depended on it to?
Thats one big mind-fuck to deal with, and thats lacking in the sequal which simply relies on kids killing each other with rifles to shock.

However, quite frankly, between the book, the film and the manga, the film is the most poor incarnation.

The manga is far far better as you get much greater depth in the characters, more back ground to explain why they acted like they did and you can at least tell the characters apart (not being racist but the jap kids did all look identical for the most part).

Sadly I havent read the book yet which is the original format this story came in, but im up to the 12th Manga now, going to order the next few when I cba to do it.

I'd highly recomend the manga, if you liked the film you'll simply love the manga, its far more brutal, honest and in many ways more disturbing, and has a horrid habit of making you really really like a character just before they die horribly.

As the blurb says, if your life depended on it, could you kill your best friend?

 

[Heta]

It's a hughe cult movie, so it be strange if alot of people shouldnt have seen it, unless most are like 14 or something then that might be a excuses

 

[Bahumat]

Its got the Legend Beat Takeshi, he is in so many good films!

 

[Sparx]

('Beat' Takeshi)

LIES no-one beat Takeshis castle. Ever.

 

[Mojo]

It is indeed a great film, the follow up "Battle Royal" is probably just as good but what u don't get with the follow up is the initial shock at what's going on because u already know. So dont expect the holyshuitwtftheycantdothatomg!!!! kinda buzz

 

[Calaen]

Coll should be on again this Week ill watch it.

 

[Basic_X]

Seen the movie and read the manga, (actually the manga - that the movie is based on - was more different then i thought, and every time someone was shot - either in the face or the head. they just HAD to have brain goo all over the place ;p) but personaly i dont like movies like that. im just glad im not in their shoes

 

[Thadius]

Saw it shortly after it was released

Fucking awesome film, just hope the yanks dont go fucking it up by making a yank version of it :<

 

[Chronictank]

1st one was great, second one really sucked

 

[Mikah75]

its so funny! i love it

 

[cHodAX]

Watched it years ago, was a good laugh.

 

[Eva]

Watched it around midsummer when I was in Luleå. Might have had something to do with it being 3 am and me being half asleep, but didn't like it that much.

 

[Coldbeard]

Very decent movie, the sequel wasn't that bad either imo.

 

[liloe]

That is one of the worst movies ever ^^ Imho it's just a splatter movie, nothing more =) Yes, maybe you could start interpreting some stuff, but it's one of the movies I watch once for a laugh, but that's it

 

[haarewin]

i loved battle royale since i saw it a few years back.