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Written by: Koushun Takami (novel), Kenta Fukasaku (screenplay)
Directed by: Kinji Fukasaku
Starring: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Aki Maeda, Tarô Yamamoto, Chiaki Kuriyama, Kou Shibasaki, Masanobu Andō, Beat Takeshi
Rated: NR [R]
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Plot
In the future, the Japanese government captures a class of ninth-grade students and forces them to kill one another under the revolutionary "Battle Royale" act.
Verdict
This was one of the first battle royale movies, and it's certainly bleaker than many that have come after. It's not only one of the first, it's the darkest. This system is population control. What happens when you pit kids against each other? What follows is tragic, unnerving, and scary. While high school often feels like life and death, in this case it is.
Watch It.
Review
This film became a cult classic as it was banned or excluded from being released in many countries. The lack of access drove demand. It is the main proponent of popularizing the battle royale genre.
There's very little setup, not that this needs it. The nation is collapsing with unemployment rising and crime soaring. The government devises a way to curb juvenile delinquency, but population control would make a better excuse. The plot would be stronger if this happened with numerous classes, not just one a year.
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| Beat Takeshi, Tarō Yamamoto play Kitano, Shogo Kawada |
A group of ninth graders goes on a field trip and wake up with explosive collars, trapped in a classroom. They're informed of the stakes and the game. They don't have an option. It's quickly made clear that if you don't play you die. Even if you play you'll likely die. While the music is cheesy, the subject is anything but. They get three days to eliminate each other. The last one standing, and only one of them, gets to live.
Mindless violence in movies is common, but it feels very different when it's children killing children. I'm not sure this is meant to make the comparison, but it does so effectively. It's difficult to call the kid that kills everyone else a winner. You get why the subject matter scared distributors. This isn't quite depraved, but it's close. We watch kids getting picked off one by one. Some of these kids take to it better than others while some are still incredulous that this game is real, making them easy targets for the more ruthless.
The underlying question is, what would you do in this situation? A lot of people would imagine themselves the victors, but many of them would be wrong. This does tension so well. You never feel safe. At any moment you could run into a classmate that's desperate and frightened. Now you don't know if they're an ally or an enemy. While the sociopaths do well in this game, fear can be just as dangerous and deadly.
This movie is almost a rite of passage as a lot of movies have followed in the footsteps of this one. Most of them feel like a fairy tale in comparison. This is harsh, but that makes it feel realistic. The violence feels very different when it's a bunch of ninth graders instead of a typical action movie where it's a hero against a faceless evil army. In this one, none of these kids are villains. My only fault of this movie is the reason behind the culling. Population control makes a lot more sense.
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