Battle Royale ☆☆

Continuing along a theme then, I decided to finally watch Battle Royale after numerous comparisons with The Hunger Games.

Its the story of Japan in turmoil: the youth have revolted, there is record levels of unemployment and zero respect. So the government have passed the Battle Royale law where each year a class of 14/15 year olds are put on a deserted island to do battle until one is left.

The film displays all the typical elements of Japanese filmmaking: crazy fight scenes, over excited girls maniacally giggling, overacting and a lot of bloody violence. In films like these you see where Tarantino gets his inspiration for his own movies.

You are thrown into this film with little preparation or build up. After a glimpse of the past where schools are overrun with disobedient and violent children you see the same school kids on a bus happy and laughing, cut to them passed out and two sinister figures in gas masks, and when they wake up in a dreary classroom with metal chokers the atmosphere is positively charged with fear and confusion.

The story plays out almost exactly to the blurb on the back of the DVD. It is a bloodbath of accidental death, desperation, psychotic tendencies, suicide, and fear. Where in western cinema once machine gunned down a person will not get back up again, the Japanese don't work that way. Death is over-exaggerated and almost comical.

There is a love story among the school children, an almost triangle had the third component not been killed by his metal choker, which is designed to explode if the player is not 'behaving'. This is a sweet element to a vicious film, the boy who has lost everybody dear to him will now do anything for the girl he has a crush on. Other romances within the film are crushed by suicide pacts or fear; not knowing the boy coming for her is actually wanting to protect her is the cause of one death.

It's sad, and gruesome. An utter failing in humanity but told in such an extreme and exaggerated way that it becomes unreal. This is where The Hunger Games triumphs over Battle Royale, though the build up is slower it creates a world and characters you can believe in. Battle Royale is a caricature of violence and dystopia.

I gave it 2 stars when it probably deserves more, but that is personal taste taking over. I can see which elements influenced Suzanne Collins for her trilogy, but the two are not comparable in terms of filmmaking.
Battle Royale is 114 minutes of confusion and terror, for both audience and actor. I got mixed up along the way which battle was which, and the purpose of the games didn't hold because though almost 40 died no one was there to watch, removing the idea of a totalitarian state keeping you under their control because the opportunities to rebel were more frequent.

It's bloody and violent and more than a little crazy. Worth a watch if you like Japanese cinema or want to see other interpretations of a death arena, but it isn't the best example of either that I have seen.


RETRACTION: I have been informed that Battle Royale is in fact televised, something I clearly missed whilst watching the movie. I know at the beginning the winner of the most recent battle was revealed in a swarm of television crews and photographers, however they did not know who won - I distinctly remember the TV presenter saying "and the winner of this years Battle is....a girl!" just as the girl appears. So I still fail to see exactly how these are supposed to be 'televised' games. But again, I'll just have to point out the superiority of Hunger Games in this respect because you are never allowed to forget that it is a form of entertainment. For a more succinct review of Battle Royale I suggest you check out http://www.cultflicks.net/