Battle Royale (2000) [Film Review]

Battle Royale; or, The Ultimate Survival Programme

     Life is a game. So fight for survival...and find out if you're worth it.

Battle Royale is the movie that needs no introduction. Based on a novel by Koshun Takami and directed by veteran filmmaker Kinji Fukasaku, the film made its way to the silver screen on December 16, 2000 and it took the popular culture by the storm. Apart from a sequel, there was also a manga adaptation and tie-in books. In addition, lots of video games, visual novels, and anime used the phrase “battle royale” as an umbrella term to describe the new genre (the last man standing challenges). The harrowing story about 42 students forced to fight each other to the death is a modern morality tale that criticises authoritarian regimes and degradation of our society
Release Info

Directed by: Kinji Fukasaku Starring: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Aki Maeda, Taro Yamamoto
Language: Japanese Original Title: バトル・ロワイアル Runtime: 110 min

 

Synopsis

Due to economic recession, Japan has fallen into chaos. As a result, many of the youngsters rebelled against authorities. In order to discipline the unruly youth, the government has passed the Battle Royale Act. Each year, one grade 9 class is selected at random and sent on a remote island. They are given instructions, survival gear, and weapons. They are ordered to kill each other. Any sort of rebellion will be punished by death. Any escape attempt will also be punished by death. The only winner of the game is the one student left alive after the time period of three days. This is the story of Class 3-B and their teacher, Kitano (Takeshi Kitano).

 

The Last Class

Probably, every enthusiast of Japanese cinema has heard about Battle Royale. I was absolutely stunned when I saw this movie for the first time, roughly a decade ago. Of course, this is a top-class action survival horror, but I believe that its shock value was not emphasised merely to satisfy the vanity of some less-than-normal viewers. I believe that the violence of Battle Royale is not meaningless. In fact, it serves to make a point.

 

Kinji Fukasaku signed on to direct the picture because the story reminded him about his own experiences during World War II. Koshun Takami explained in the afterword of the 2009 edition of the novel, that the story is about fear and betrayal (He got an inspiration for the novel after having a hallucinatory dream). In my opinion, Battle Royale is an outcry about how broken our world is. Evidently, we do not kill students for sport, but maniacs do commit horrible crimes and ordinary people are constantly betrayed by authority figures (politicians, parents, teachers). Not all of the students participating in the game are bad by default: some were made crazy, some act out of fear, and some refuse to participate in this madness (but still, all of their actions are monitored by Kitano and the military). The students of Class 3-B reflect different kinds of people and different approaches to life (all within the grasp of mighty government).

 

Thought-provoking script and gruesome action set pieces are not the only advantages of Battle Royale. Powerful visuals are accompanied by a magnificent music score composed by Masamichi Amano. Apart from the usage of classical music, I particularly liked Amano’s “Winner of Sorrow” track.

 

From the making of featurette, one can clearly see that Kinji Fukasaku, while directing on the set, was like a warrior on a battlefield. Getting each shot right was extremely important to him. In addition, it is striking that in his time off, Fukasaku would drink beer and drive Skyline R32 like a totally laid back guy.

Teenagers playing high school kids approached the matter very seriously, even though some of their roles were small. Nevertheless, the chaos of the motion picture was not reflected on the set. Everyone was in good spirits and ready to work, but the boys and the girls tended to stay away from each other. Takeshi Kitano himself seemed very timid during the shooting, but the director managed to bring the badass out of him we all know and love. Interestingly, Kitano drew by himself the famous painting which is featured at the end of the movie and in the sequel.

In fact, there are two versions of Battle Royale available. The theatrical cut runs at 110 minutes and the Special Edition cut which is approximately 10 minutes longer. It features additional scenes that were shot after the original release of the movie, including basketball game flashbacks, Mitsuko Souma’s backstory, and an extended scene between Kitano and Noriko. I personally prefer the theatrical cut because it has better pacing.

 

Speaking about performances, literally everyone gave their best in the movie. Of course performances of the three main leads: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Aki Maeda, and Taro Yamamoto will remain unforgettable. I also enjoyed small parts done by (now legendary) Chiaki Kuriyama and Kou Shibasaki. Takeshi Kitano was great as the teacher. Additionally, we cannot forget about Yuko Miyamura (that crazy awesome voice actress) who played the host of the Battle Royale Video Guide!

 

Recommendations

All things considered, Battle Royale is a movie that does not need any remake in this day and age. There is constant talk about it in Hollywood, but I hope that nothing will come to fruition. (Besides, the Americans made a shameless rip-off already!) Kinji Fukasaku’s Battle Royale is a timeless cult film that will certainly continue to inspire new generations of fans of Japanese pop-culture. In the meantime, all of us run, no matter how far, run for all we're worth!

Overall score: 8/10