I’d heard about “Battle Royale” in the underground film circuit, and this Japanese thriller has become an instant cult classic amidst the masses of true movie fans. Violent, disturbing, and controversial, this is one hard to find movie, but it’s worth it once you find it. You can’t get it at a chain store. Adapted from the novel written by Koushon Takami, In the not too distant future, kids basically rule over the adults, terrorizing them and banding together to rebel against them. One day on a field trip, a group of students, oblivious to what is happening, awake in a classroom, when their teacher who quit after being cut by one of them appears. Confused and frightened, they’re surrounded by armed guards and soldiers and discover they’re being trapped in a game. The game is really a secret law that has 42 students captured and collared and they’re pitted against one another on an island where they must kill one another in three days.
The last person who survives, wins. They’re given weapons each lethal in its own way; some are very useful (crossbow, shotgun), and some basically useless (binoculars, pot lid), but the real weapons are the students. What we witness in the film is disturbing and frightening as we see the instant collapse of a band of students who basically stick together in their taunting of their teacher. While they are like a pact of 42, they also turn against each other instantly and the game triggers that; friends who vow to stick together, turn on each other within moments, loners and elitists become lethal psychopathic killers, and groups of friends who bond and form brotherhoods instantly collapse and turn on each other after paranoia strikes, all underlying sub-conscious impulses that were probably there from the get go, and it’s used against them in the worst ways, their own violent behavior is put upon one another.
The best plot devices in the film are two moles that are set to play in the game for their own reasons while their teacher watches, monitors them by the collars (which are weapons in themselves), and taunts them. This is probably one of the most disturbing films I’ve seen in years, but it’s also one of the most entertaining; this action thriller is very compelling and original with a cast of children brutally murdering one another, and the murders are very graphic and hard to watch. The action is actually very good as well with some exciting scenes that will have you on edge, like the sequences when the players confront one another friendly-like (did I just use that word?), and you’re tense, because you’re not sure if they’re really being friendly, or because they’re trying to slither their way to survival. One really great character is Mitsuko (Kou Shibaski), one of my favorites, a sexy elitist who manages to become the deadliest player in the game, and boy does she put up a fight, there is also Takako Chigusa, another very deadly female character, she’s played by Chiaki Kuriyami whom many Tarantino fans will remember from “Kill Bill” as the lethal Gogo Yubari.
The acting is very well done here by the cast all around; there are characters we root for, characters we sympathize for, characters we hate, and characters we laugh at, and they’re all given very heartbreaking back stories. There are the truly lethal moles in the game whom I just enjoyed watching as they hunted the players down with ease, and of course Teacher Kitano played by Takeshi Kitano (who starred in the latest incarnation of “Zatoichi: the blind swordsman”); here he’s a very lethal cold adversary to the students, and an unflinching menace, taunting them and pitting them against one another, there’s also of course, Kiriyama ( Masanobu Ando), my favorite character, is one of the best characters here and becomes a very lethal villain who I just dug. That dude was just a stone cold bad-ass. All the while, the film remains incomplete leading into the sequel, but I just loved this film, not only for its disturbing imagery, but the fact it takes a one note concept and makes a truly intricate symbolic and very entertaining thriller.
For all of its appeal and excitement, though, “Battle Royale” is pretty sloppy when it comes to the script. Some of the dialogue can be very corny. Though, it’s of the Asian sensibility, it’s understandable, I found much of the dialogue to be silly including one of the characters dying words: “I think you’re cool”. Yikes, that’s cheesy. Nonetheless, the dialogue is almost at rapid pace, and some of it is non-existent, but when it’s cheesy, it’s really cheesy. Not to mention, there are plenty of big plot holes here that I just did not understand for the life of me. For example the scene with the character Chigusa jogging in the woods, was that a dream? I was wondering, and then it seemed to be reality, but I was never sure. And then I realized Chigusa has a jogging suit. Where’d she get it? And why is she jogging so freely in the forest when there’s a hunt on?
Plus, there are two moles in the game, two of whom I won’t heavily hint at, but what I don’t understand is, how are they still in the game? The rules are the last person survives, there are two, so did they kill all the players before and get spared? Or are they meant to kill the players, and never really be touched? There’s not a lot of emphasis on the core characters. Though many are supposed to die, a little focus on them would have made their deaths harder to watch, but I felt, even with the bits of back story, so incomplete when it came to knowing which characters were the primary ones. I never felt really bad when one of the characters died, which would have had more of an impact, had the writers achieved the purpose for them.
Then there is also the teacher’s subplot which felt very tacked on and forced just for the purposes of eating time in the story, and for building a back story for the climax which I wasn’t pleased with. Great enemy, but shabby characterization all around. The ending was possibly the worst with the writers who seemed to have no idea how to end it. I was hoping they’d do like Monty Python and have the actors just walk off the scene, because the ending goes on too long as does the confrontation with the teacher which was unfortunately campy and very silly. Disturbing, gory, shocking, and very original, “Battle Royale” is one of the best films I’ve seen in years. With a plot out of “Lord of the Flies” and “The Most Dangerous Game”, “Battle Royale” is an exciting tense action thriller that you can’t miss.