Modern Cult Classics: Battle Royale

 

Directed by Kinji Fukasaku, 2000, 113 minutes, Unrated
“Life is a game. So fight for survival and see if you’re worth it.”

 

Battle Royale is about bunch of teenagers are forced to kill each other off until only one remains. Sound like The Hunger Games? That’s okay, because when The Hunger Games was released there were a heap of cinephiles saying “Hey, that sounds just like Battle Royale!” That’s also the main thing keeping Hollywood from cranking out an American version of Battle Royale and, honestly, I’m grateful for it.

Anyway, comparing the two is really a bit of a disservice to both films, even if it’s ultimately a single story element that separates the two: In The Hunger Games, participants are pulled from throughout the country by regional lottery. In Battle Royale, participants are all classmates. As a result, The Hunger Games is far more interested in politics, class divide and reality TV, and Battle Royale is far more devastating.

Battle Royale opens with a blurt of exposition: Japan’s economy has collapsed, unemployment is through the roof, and the country’s youth is revolting. Fearful of the younger generation, the government passed the “BR Act” as a means to… uh… randomly thin the herd?

We meet orphaned Shuya, his bestie Yoshitoki, and Shuya’s crush Noriko on a year-end class trip. The trip goes badly, by which I mean the bus driver gasses them and everyone comes to on a remote island with strange collars around their necks. One of their former teachers (played by renaissance man “Beat” Takeshi Kitano – seriously, there’s nothing the man can’t do) arrives with a bevy of soldiers and plays them an overly perky video. Turns out their class has been selected as part of the BR Act to fight each other to the death. The students are each given provisions, a map and a random weapon – anything from an uzi to a paper fan – and have three days to fight until only one teen remains. 

 

Oh, and if they refuse to fight or there isn’t a sole survivor, those strange collars are bombs. The teacher is more than happy to demonstrate with Yoshitoki.

And that’s the film: 42 15-year-olds scrambling around an island, fighting to the death. As you might imagine, Battle Royale was juuust a bit controversial when it came out. Just prior to the initial theatrical release of Battle Royale, the Japanese National Diet denounced the film as “crude and tasteless,” kicking off an extended debate over government action on media violence. It turns out the U.S. doesn’t have a monopoly on moral panic (though it did take 11 years for the film to be officially released in the U.S.).

Rather than try to take you through a bunch of the story beats, I’m going to call out the things that jumped out at me in this viewing that I think make Battle Royale so much more than murderporn:

Nearly everyone gets their due

This is a big cast, and somehow the film finds a way to make the students more than anonymous cannon fodder. Flashbacks and back stories aren’t just for the main characters, and most of the characters have at least one scene to show who they are before their demise.

Nearly everyone is really bad at murder

If you’re expecting some John Wick-style action, you’re going to be very disappointed. These are 15-year-old kids, not trained assassins, and even the ones who are actively trying to kill other classmates are just as likely to fumble, bumble or accidentally get killed in the process. The two surprise “transfer” students, the sadistic Kiryama and the battle-tested Kawada, may be the only exceptions. Maybe.

Nearly everyone knows each other

Remember how I said Battle Royale is far more devastating than The Hunger Games? This is why. They’re not asked to go kill some randos – they’re asked to kill people they’ve grown up with. The students all have very well-established friendships, crushes and grudges, adding an extra layer of tragedy to every death. The Special Edition even includes numerous flashbacks to a school basketball game with all of the students playing and cheering together, just to drive home how unified they were at one point.

This is a sweeping melodrama

Sometimes while watching a foreign film, I get the feeling that I’m missing something in translation. I kind of felt that way during my first viewing of Battle Royale. The acting is on the verge of hysterics, small moments are built up to comical proportions, and cartoonish arterial spray… but this is absolutely by design. With its use of classical music, existential musings, serial-style score and (let’s be honest) ridiculous set-up, Battle Royale is presented as a melodramatic epic. And it’s fitting. After all, isn’t everything melodramatic when at 15?

 

Sorry that this review is light on the wisecracks, but Battle Royale is seriously a perfect example of a Modern Cult Classic.

 

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