It's set in Japan and though it is just a movie it still hit pretty close to reality due to current problems with Japanese youth. I was immersed into this crazy scenario that may seem absolutely ridiculous at first, but once you look at it, it almost turns into a not so outlandish thought. Adults and children alike read comics by the droves, and sometimes pops up a strange, not-too-well-hidden undercurrent of pedophilia. This film sent shock waves across Japan when it burst onto the scene. We are led to believe that all youth in Japan are bad seeds in this film but that really doesn't seem to apply to the class which the film follows. Everything is recycled over and over. The country is in chaos.
The nature of the film lies in its deconstruction of Friendships, Trust and our views on Innocence. Some exist in high school but for the most part teenagers are brash, foolish, and irresponsibly reckless because they've yet to learn from experience. But the characters stay true to form as they profess long held crushes with their dying breath all the way down to naively trusting others who they've always admired as the popular kids. The rest of the cast is comprised of Japanese teen pop idols. Most of the reviewers here speak from their own viewpoints, i. It's an awkward time that is all about experience and misunderstandings.
Many films have great ideas but most are poorly realized. The cast in this film is chock full of Japanese Stars. From what I have read, since the author Kinji Fukasaku of the original book directed the film, everything is kept true to the book as close as possible. At the same time they get to live out those videogames that they loved to play at home. The things that seem childish to your average American junior-high student are very appealing for a Japanese high-school student. I wish it could but the damage has already been done and now there is no place for a film that challenges socio-political norms or has subtitles. To this day I refuse to answer that question.
Could you kill your best friend from high school if the two of you are stuck on an island of death? That's why it was such a big hit in Japan. That is damn good editing right there. There is no real meaning to this violence. At first this fact upset me. However, as the numbers dwell down lower and lower on an hourly basis, is there any way for Shuya and his classmates to survive? In fact, the film was poorly received by the government who feared that the release of the film would incite riots and other such acts of mayhem by the same youth which it focused on.
The dialogue between characters is poignant, real, and totally innocent. I've been teaching in a Japanese high school for three years now. In the Japan that exists in Battle Royale, each year a random high school class is picked for the event. Kitano Takeshi Kitano plays the teacher that basically plays the ringleader. The transcription of the inner thoughts of the characters, which is one of the strengths of the book, is averagely well retranscripted. Being on the island forces unchecked emotions and feelings to flow out of the characters because death is on the horizon.
I am truly glad that this film has come out of mainstream Japanese cinema. It's repackaged, re-sold, re-distributed to the point that people can hardly accept something new and radical and different. Teenagers put on an island to kill themselves will certainly not learn anything new and if they do it won't matter considering that they'll soon be dead. Some decide to play the game like the psychotic Kiriyama or the sexual Mitsuko, while others like the heroes of the movie--Shuya, Noriko, and Kawada--are trying to find a way to get off the Island without violence. It is just too damn funny to watch Takeshi Kitano sit on a couch and eat cookies while at the same time watching his former pupils kill each other.
For too long, Hollywood has been the dominant authority on filmmaking in the world. This flick has some serious bite! A group of ninth-grade students from a Japanese high school have been forced by legislation to compete in a Battle Royale. I should mention that I love to play Counter-Strike myself and will continue to play it in the future. If you enjoy Battle Royale then Kinji Fukasaku, who directed and adapted the film for the screen along with his son Kenta, will be able to rest in peace. Sure, these weapons are also on the streets and in some parts of the world they are even in the hands of children as young as five years-old but the videogame set up creates a comfortable experience with such weapons. Yet other deaths are shocking in the extreme, and show how the slightest suspicion can have disastrous consequences for groups that only have trust to keep them together, a truly shocking scene in the Lighthouse reinforces this.
A class is selected by impartial lottery and the grades seem totally random, as indicated by the shot of the 1st or 2nd grader in the opening sequence and sent to an undisclosed, evacuated location. There are so many sceptics and people who are unable to maturely grasp the concept of the film. I had to look twice to realize that. Friends kill other friends and bullies all to survive. But the whole idea is sickening and compelling enough to satisfy on more layers than just the visual.
These are the people that really hate it and you can't really blame them. If the battle isn't finished in 3 days they all must die which is easy for the people in charge who have low-jacked each teenager with collars that explode. They are sent to an island, given weapons, and fight to survive. It is there that she must pretend to be a powerful psychic and challenge the other psychics to a battle royale. What is truly shocking is that the actors and actresses who have been selected to portray these teens are around the same ages of their characters.