Battle Royale

[baumer]

Discuss it.

[baumer]

A frightening look at how society is deterioratingMichael Douglas was a massive star in the 1990's. He had won an Oscar for Wall Street 1987 and he was the maverick and unpragmatic cop having kinky sex with Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct. He was on top of the world and could pretty much choose whatever script he wanted to. But in 1993, he chose a small film directed by Joel Schumacher about the decay of society called Falling Down. In it, he played a man who had lost pretty much everything from his wife, his job, his family and his dignity. One day while driving home in Los Angeles traffic, he just snaps and decides to walk home. Along the way he encounters racism, xenophobic, anti-Semetics and just plain jerks. He ends up starting a private war against society and those that exhibited these kind of traits. And so the line was drawn and then the question had to be asked. Who was the bad guy here? D-Fens (the Douglas character) or those that went about their business but practiced all kinds of malicious and sometimes Draconian behavior. Peccadilloes can start out harmlessly enough but soon they can turn into pernicious transgressions that have ramifications on everyone. Take away enough from one person, how can they not "fall down?" Falling Down is one of the most precocious films to come out and it is certainly a film that is timeless and can be shown now just as well as it could back in 1993.Why am I talking about Falling Down in a review about one of Japan's all time grossing films? Quite simply, they have a lot in common. Both films are scary in the sense that they see things that perhaps the rest of us don't. Society is built on anarchy. We aren't told that of course. We are led to believe that laws and morality are there to make this a better place to live in. But apparently in Japan, there is such a problem with their youth that many parents and law officials have complained very publicly about this impediment. And this impediment is growing exponentially. Laws are now created so that you cannot discipline your own kids. Lift a finger at a 10 year old and they'll threaten to call the police on you. Try to take something away from them and they throw tantrums. This may be a Japanese film but it speaks to all of us. And to 30 something guys like me who grew up when not only could your parents spank you, but so could teachers, although this film is clearly a purely fantasy type film where nothing like this could ever condoned in real life, this puritanical form of recourse must have come from someone who simply had enough. Enough of being told that you can't discipline your own kids anymore. Enough of being told where to go and how to get there from unruly kids who know too much of what the law can do to parents who step over the line.Battle Royale takes place in Japan where the government has decided that the kids are so much a problem now that once a year, they basically kidnap 40 or so school kids, ranging in age from 10 to 18, and then stick them on a deserted island and have them fight to the death. For those who choose not to fight, the incentive to do so is a collar made of explosives. Take it off, it explodes. Fiddle with it and you have no head. Not be the last one standing after the allotted time? Well, you die as well. There is to be one person standing at the end of the "game." If there is not, everyone dies.During the "competition" the young students still display emotions of teenage angst, young love and fear of the unknown. It is one of the strangest dichotomy of emotions as the students must kill one another but still have no control over their teen aged fears and concerns. Besides the violence in the film, this is where it excels the most. You get to know many of the students in the film and when they many of them inevitably die, its tough to watch.Battle Royale generated some very undeserved controversy. It's not so much the violence in the film, it's the ideas behind them. To imagine a government actually instituting such a law that punishes kids whose only real crime is adolescence, is quite disturbing. But as mentioned before, this is clearly fantasy and not a real idea. But I'm sure that the novelist, Koushun Takami must of had difficulty with his kids or seen others that did and this is his rebellion against them. No one is advocating or condoning this dystopian, tyrannical and intemperate solution the government has deemed acceptable. But if you get past all of the embellishment this film imbues, then what you are left with is a piece of art about the dysfunctional state that our world seems to be in. I guess it doesn't matter if it's North America or El Salvador and Japan. People have problems with their kids. This is not a solution. It's not even a band aid. If this were allowed to take place then you would have more problems than you started with. But at the same token, it is a plea. It will probably lost on today's youth, especially here in North America as many of them are too truculent to grasp what the film is trying to say.Battle Royale is highly impossible, wholly unrealistic but in terms of the idea behind it, it will be one that stirs the emotions and gives you plenty to talk about at the water cooler, or even better yet, with your kids.9/10

[FTF]

Awesome review B-man! I plan on picking up the blu-ray and watching this again soon. Haven't seen it in years and excited to watch it again.

[baumer]

Thanks FTF. It really is a powerful film.

[lab276]

I've only seen the first half an hour of this (on youtube, but I felt bad about it, so I'm going to try and get it on DVD), and I have to say it's kind of average. The idea behind it, in my head, was much more frightening than the execution. It was too silly and OTT to take seriously.

[baumer]

I've only seen the first half an hour of this (on youtube, but I felt bad about it, so I'm going to try and get it on DVD), and I have to say it's kind of average. The idea behind it, in my head, was much more frightening than the execution. It was too silly and OTT to take seriously.

And you love THG....right?

[lab276]

Well, the build up to the actual games was done much better. Jennifer Lawrence looks damn scared when she enters the games and I felt that. It could just be that since THG is more understated it's more frightening, for me anyway.Of course BR is at a disadvantage seeing as I have an hour and a half to go, but I can't see the tone of the film changing much.

[baumer]

Well, the build up to the actual games was done much better. Jennifer Lawrence looks damn scared when she enters the games and I felt that. It could just be that since THG is more understated it's more frightening, for me anyway.Of course BR is at a disadvantage seeing as I have an hour and a half to go, but I can't see the tone of the film changing much.

Okay, I'm not going to make anymore comments. You think THG looks realistic and BR doesn't? If you want to that's fine. But BR is much more realistic, gritty, well written, acted and directed than THGF is....imo of course.

[lab276]

You think THG looks realistic and BR doesn't?

Not necessarily, it's just the OTT nature of BR takes away from it. It should be scary, not silly.

[lab276]

Also, I should say, I think this would work much better as an anime.

[acsc1312]

Ummmm pretty good, not as good as I was hoping. Some of it is laughable. B+

[mattmav45]

Let's get one thing outta the way first: Battle Royale is simply better than The Hunger Games, and it's really not very close. I do think it's laughable after seeing the film that some actual were praising The Hunger Game for not holding back on the teenage violence. Damn, sometimes it sucks ass living in America.....

It's not a masterpiece, but it basically does everything pretty damn well. Balances moments of depth and awesomeness for the most part, while actually providing relateable characters and most importantly, more realistic behavior from the kids, IMO. Of course, gotta love the score.

B+/B

[baumer]

This is one of Taratino's favourite movies as well.

[Michael Gary Scott]

love this movie i hope the planned tv show doesnt happen

[Lordmandeep]

Watched the show as this movie is infamous.

 

 

However unlike THG I did not understand the purpose of the Battle Royale?

 

If the kids had no idea about it, what the point of having it? 

[Blankments]

I loved it. Loved how all the characters were fleshed out. It was a sweet movie. Awesome fights, with a great underlying theme. A+

[CloneWars]

Simply put, one of the best foreign films ever made. A+ However, don't ever, ever watch the sequel under any circumstances. 

Edited November 14, 2014 by CloneWars

[CloneWars]

Watched the show as this movie is infamous.

 

 

However unlike THG I did not understand the purpose of the Battle Royale?

 

If the kids had no idea about it, what the point of having it? 

This isn't based off THG. The book came out years before THG was ever written. Hell, the movie came out years before THG was ever written.

[Lordmandeep]

I know I am saying it as a comparison.

 

The games in THG seemed to have some clear purpose behind them

 

 

However the games in this movie do not. 

[ZappBrannigan]

I feel bad for people who like THG and have never seen this film.  This movie is how the games in the THG movies should have played out.  And I don't mean the bloody violence.