Battle Royale

I only rate things when I've truly truly loved a movie. I watched this movie, for the first time, a month ago and didn't rate. I enjoyed it, but didn't rate it. Well, for the past month it's all I've been able to think about! Today, I've decided to"heart" it; It's only a matter of time until I watch it again.

people who hate live actions is because they never saw BR

The real Hunger Games. Japanese flavour, no american sauce what-so-ever.

This film was recommended to me long ago during my video store running days by a customer of mine that shared the same tastes in flicks. I never got around to it though, so many movies, so little time. This past year I found myself at Ai-Kon and there was a ‘Battle Royale’ panel which, due to that long ago reccomendation I attended. After asking many questions, I decided I needed to read the book first and try this out. Just finished the book today and watched this film. The book, was probably petty original until Hunger Games stole its momentum (and questionably plagiarized this), felt a little young adultish, with some gore added. This movie was more adult with even more gore and lots of fun. An enjoyable ride... though I think without the book’s background on the characters this could be a bit of a mess as it jumps everywhere. Luckily the book readers can fill in the blanks. Glad I did it in this order!

Kinji Fukasaku has to have been a genius. Not only can he make something so profound as Battle Royale from such a relatively simple story, but he also makes you care for each and every character of a giant cast while doing so.

Battle Royale is a very good piece of cinema, and leaves a lasting impression. Recommended!!!

Rating: 4.5*/5* or 9/10

It's very Japanese, it's very Japanese, and I don't even know exactly how to explain it, but I'm sure there are people who will understand what I mean. Part of the reason it has the rating it has is because I think it's well done. Knowing the premise of the film, I honestly thought this was going to be just a senseless slaughter, and all in all, to a certain extent it is a senseless slaughter because the premise is very dystopian. It seems to me that, considering Japanese horror/thriller cinema, the film isn't as gory as I thought it would be. I think it has just the right amount of graphic and suggestive content, since there are scenes where they show you the outcome of an event and deliberately don't tell you what happened, but from certain things in the scene, you can already guess. On the other hand, I think it has just the right amount of story. Like I said, I thought it was going to be a pointless bloodbath, but they gave certain backstories and motives to several characters. Although, given the premise itself, it's more than obvious that they have to kill each other over time, as it becomes clear that one or the other intends to take advantage of the opportunity to kill a specific person.

I think the second hour of the film and how certain events unfold adds too much to the story. This film ended up being MUCH better than I thought it would be.

From here on out, proceed with caution, as I'm talking directly about scenes (Spoilers). Read only if you don't mind or if you've already seen the film.

The reasons it stayed at 9 and didn't go up to 9.5 were...

I'm not going to say I didn't like the final ending, but it doesn't convince me either. It gives off a vibe of "the real battle royale was the friends we made along the way," lol. The message is beautiful; it speaks of trust and being good people, because, in the end, the protagonists were refusing to kill as much as possible, but I don't know, it doesn't convince me.

The other exchange student was literally a Terminator. At the end, when they kill him, there's a detail: he's blinded by the explosion, and you can tell by the way his eyes are white. He was also able to fight Kawada based solely on sound—no kidding, the fucking John Wick. That's one thing I didn't like. I understand that, in a way, it was necessary to have this "relentless predator" figure in the film to maintain constant tension, but at the same time, it's like, damn, man, is this guy a Navy Seal or what?

1 / 2 directing & technical aspect
1 / 1 story
1 / 1 act I
1 / 1 act II
1 / 1 act III
0 / 1 acting
1 / 1 writing
1 / 1 originality
1 / 1 lasting ability to make you think

0 / 1 misc

8 out of 10

On one hand, it's a live action anime with all the cheese and melodrama and spikey hair villain and nonsensical action scenes and whatnot and a really misplaced classical soundtrack on top.

But then again, it has some genuine moments of actual characters and reflections and arty sequences that don't belong in the genre but that lifts the movie experience.

Quite often when I watch hyped up clever movies, I find them being simpletons dressed up in a suit. In this case, I feel like it's the other way around, though I struggle to put my finger on why.

Maybe it's just that Takeshi Kitano magic that got me wrapped around his finger.