Review:
If you’re a fan of The Hunger Games, this is definitely a movie for you.
Based on the book by Koshun Takami, Battle Royale has a premise similar to Suzanne Collins’ story – an autocratic government forces kids to fight or die and only the winner will survive. The twist in Battle Royale is that the kids killing each other are all from the same class; they know each other. Could you kill your friends to survive?
There is brilliant character work throughout this movie – and of course, plenty of violence. Beneath the obvious brutality, this movie is all about the different choices the kids make as they decide what kind of person they want to be and if it’s worth living at such a cost. Throughout the movie there are flashbacks to the students’ past, making it all too easy to understand and sympathize with even the most savage among them.
There are friends who band together, friends who turn on each other, paranoia, rebellion, those who run away and hide, those who fight because they’re cornered, those who kill ruthlessly because they want to survive at any cost. This movie is all about humanity, or the lack thereof.
My one quibble with this movie – and I think it’s a culture clash, as this is a Japanese movie – is that there’s a lot of high decibel wailing to express emotional duress. I’m all for a heartfelt scream if that’s what the situation calls for, but this just seemed to be a bit unnecessary and painfully shrill at times. Still, it’s only a momentary discomfort and doesn’t hurt the story – though sometimes it can be disturbingly satisfying if the wailer ends up getting killed.
Battle Royale is a bloody, brutal, fascinating, thought-provoking movie. Check it out.
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