Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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43 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
We, who are about to die..., September 21, 2005
"Battle Royale" is a superb film, subtle and sad and over-the-top and loud all at the same time. The story is often compared to "Lord of the Flies," but that is a bit of a misnomer. "Lord of the Flies" was about reverting to primitivism, whereas "Battle Royale" is a futuristic cautionary tale in the tune of "1984" and "Brave New World." The caution at work here is the threat of absolute bureaucracy, and the dangers of the loss of the value of life and respect in a rules-dominated society. This is a threat quite apparent in modern Japan.
The actors in "Battle Royale" all deliver excellent performances, including the amazing talent "Beat" Takeshi Kitano playing the appropriately named "Kitano." The film was not directed by Takeshi however, so it lacks his beautiful visual style. It does however feature one of his riveting paintings. There is a good range of responses from the various actors playing the students, from outright suicide, to panic, to a drive to win to a drive to help. Unfortunately, the character of Kazuo Kiriyama (the machine gun boy) is woefully underdeveloped, and instead of the fierce, cold genius of the book he is a somewhat characterless villain.
While a violent film, I wouldn't characterize "Battle Royale" as an action film per se. Anyone looking for a Hong Kong-style action film should realize that Japan and China are quite different countries with different approach to movies.. "Battle Royale" retains the quietude and patient pacing that is the hallmark of Japanese cinema, and which leaves some viewers bored, who are used to a quicker pacing. The bloodshed, while in great quantity, is also more cartoony in nature, which is also more typical of Japanese films, which does not favor a naturalistic approach.
I think some familiarity with problems in modern Japan (ie: school violence, overwhelming bureaucracy) gives some necessary perspective to this controversial movie, and helps frame it as more than exploitation. It is a political statement, with a subtle message underlying the overt violence. Along with this, knowledge of Japanese culture deepens the understandings of certain scenes, such as when Kitano performs the prescribed exercises, and the training video shown at the beginning. Without understanding, these scenes might come off as merely quaint or odd.
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Everyone Smile for One Sick Class Photo, February 7, 2006
Battle Royale is a movie based on new age problems, such as teen suicide, school murders, and the lack of respect that today's youth has or has had for superiors. It's a surreal response to all of these elements of modern society (and despite being a Japanese film, this is especially true for the United States). In the near future, teenagers have decided that they don't want to follow the same rules they've been following for ages. Teachers now fear for their lives, and students boycott the system. In order to put a stop to this, the BR Act was instituted, yet none of the students have no idea about this... until they are apart of the Act. Basically, the BR Act allows the adults to send children and students off to a secluded island to kill each other off.
That's just what happens to a class of forty-two students, with two mysterious transfer students included in that. Once introduced to their class, and given the rules of game, they are sent off with a bag of provisions and a randomly chosen weapon. Sometimes, the weapons can as useless as a pair of binoculars, or as effective as grenades. It's all the luck of the draw, and whether or not the student is able to adapt to the game and earn the weapons on their own. Some students do just that, while others choose different ways of escaping the game. And then there are those who choose instead not to fight at all, but to unite and try to figure out a way to save themselves. Yet the rules of the game may force even those of a more peaceful ilk to kill the ones they trust.
What's good about Battle Royale is that, though there are numerous characters and plenty of sub-plots, it never gets bogged-down with an over-populated cast. There are heroes, neutral forces, as well as those who are pure evil. Another good part of this movie is the constantly rising tension, and how the characters react to this. As the game gets deeper, the characters emotions begin to fray. Though surely a fantasy, it seems that everything that happens to these students because of the BR Act could be possible, should our world ever reach the point it does in Battle Royale.
The one problem I had with Battle Royale, though, was the subtitles. At times they ran out of the edge of the screen, making it impossible to read, and at other times they just weren't grammatical. The wrong words were used in many places, and sometimes the subtitles made no sense at all, whether they were written grammatically or not. Though the acting makes a lot of what's being said clear, there are times when this still gets frustrating.
Despite that, though, the movie is excellent. It has plenty of surprises, a good ending, and a lot of great action. Plus, it has the common Japanese elements, like the super-violence and gore. To add, the story is great, and the characters are well-acted. I'd recommend this movie to any fan of Asian cinema, especially Japanese horror fans. Battle Royale is one of the better movies to come out of Japan.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
today's lesson is... you kill each other off, June 2, 2006
The 61st film of 70-year old director Kinji Fukasaku, BATTLE ROYALE begins with a prologue:
"At the dawn of the millennium the nation collapsed. At 15% unemployment, 10 million were out of work. 800,000 students boycotted school. The adults lost confidence and, fearing the youth, eventually passed the Millennium Educational Reform Act AKA the BR Act."
While the logic of instating the BR Act due to the downturn of the Japanese economy is tenuous at best, BATTLE ROYALE screams into action and doesn't allow time to ponder such issues. After a few scenes setting up core characters--Shuya (Tatsuya Fujiwara) and Noriko (Aki Maeda)--the forty-two high schoolers become trapped on a remote island where they're reintroduced to their seventh grade teacher, Kitano (brilliantly played by "Beat" Takeshi Kitano).
"This country's become no good," Kitano says. "The bigwigs got together and passed [the BR Act]. So today's lesson is... you kill each other off. `Till there's only one left. There's nothing against the rules."
Armed with a random "weapon" (some get semi-automatic guns, some get less lethal implements like cookwear), each student has three days to dispatch his or her classmates in hope of being the last one standing. Again, there is little time for logic and no room for pacifism. Playing like a high-stakes version of Martin Campbell's island prison adventure NO ESCAPE, BATTLE ROYALE finds fuel in the heightened melodrama of adolescence. As these kids struggle to stay alive, classroom rivalries skyrocket and doe-eyed crushes become heavyweight love affairs.
Shuya, whose father abandoned him by taking his own life, becomes the stand-in for the audience as well as the prototypical Japanese. Struggling in this microcosm of Japan, Shuya is a young man without a father as Japan is a country without a strong leader. Meanwhile, the only male role model for Shuya appears to be Kitano, the slump-shouldered former teacher plagued with family problems of his own.
BATTLE ROYALE has its moments of "score-keeping" via graphics that appear, tallying the names of those who have died as well as how many students are left. As the body count goes higher, director Fukasaku keeps raising the stakes, never relenting in this dogged contest. Cleverly, BATTLE ROYALE doesn't appear as an outright parody. Rather, it takes melodrama to the nth degree. The film's score booms with emotionally riveting classical pieces, giving the proceedings an operatic tinge.
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