Halloween Movie List 2 #6 (18+)
#6
Release Date: December 16th, 2000
Genre: Horror/Thriller/Drama
Language: Japanese
**WARNING: This movie contains language, blood, gore, light sexual content, violence, and depictions of teenagers murdering each other. Viewer discretion is advised.**
Summary:
In the beginning of the 21st 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 42 students of a ninth-grade class are selected to participate in the survival game and abducted while traveling in their bus. Under the command of their former teacher Kitano, they have to eliminate each other following the rules of the sadistic game where only one wins.
I originally discovered Battle Royale after hearing about the small dispute over copyright infringement between it and the Hunger Games. Interested in a “darker, more sadistic version of the Hunger Games” I couldn’t help but sit and watch this movie. I hadn’t really gotten into the whole hype over the Suzanne Collins novel/movie series, so I had high hopes for a more brutal version.
And it did not disappoint.
Set in the early 21st century, Japan has issued a new law – the Battle Royale Act. Once a year a class of students is selected to be taken to an island where they must compete for their lives. This is not a spectator sport. It’s a reminder to the people who is in charge. Given only a duffel bag with limited supplies and one weapon (the weapon can range from a fully loaded shotgun to a paper fan) the students are set loose onto an unfamiliar island and given three days to win the game, or else the band around their neck will kill them all.
The movie focuses loosely on all of the students, chronically how they react to their new predicament, how they cope, and how they fight to survive. Although following them all, the story favors students Shuya Nanahara (Tatsuya Fujiwara), Noriko Nakagawa (Aki Maeda), and Shogo Kawada (Taro Yamamoto). The three, armed with nothing more than a pot lid, binoculars, and a sawed off shotgun, fight their way through the island with the hope of escaping the cruel game intact.
Blunt and brutal, Battle Royale is an example of a government gone mad. You get a chance to connect with each and every one of these teens during their struggle to survive their harsh new reality. Friends become foes, and foes become allies. Mixed in is the typical high school drama you’d find in a non-horror film. These are just boys and girls here, and it’s difficult to push aside the hardcore crush you’ve been harboring for years when faced with mutilation. At least, that’s how the characters in this film perceive it.
At #6 on my Halloween Movie List 2, Battle Royale is a violent story of survival, sacrifice, and civil rights. These teenagers aren’t just going to roll over and accept their fate. They plan to fight.
-Michael
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