LIMERICK REVIEW: There once were some Japanese schoolchildren
who were punished without committing a sin.
Forced to fight to the death–
until each one’s last breath.
Individual chances of survival were quite thin.
HAIKU REVIEW: Social cliques are death.
Government interference
demands this be true.
UNCOMFORTABLE PLOT SUMMARY (inspired by this): Government policy for allocation of child resources leads to complications.
PEOPLE: Japanese.
QUIRKS: Weapons. A game for survival. Almost like Lord Of The Flies meets Saw, but with a political angle. A class is randomly selected each year, and much fight each other to the death. Who will win?
Based on a book. Members of the Japanese parliament tried to get the novel this was based on banned.
One of the top 10 highest grossing films in Japan.
MORALS: If there can be only 0 or 1 survivors, then you really can’t trust anyone. Not your love interest; Not your classmates… And certainly not the popular girl!
Also: Never underestimate the power of a taser.
POLITICS: Perhaps this isn’t the best way to deal with the political ramifications of an unruly youth that causes condemnation by the older generation. Gee, you think?
BAD STUFF: Actually, this movie is pretty solid throughout. There’s really nothing bad that I can think of. No plot holes. No painful scenes. The game begins, and it goes until it ends.
CONCLUSION: Way better than Lord Of The Flies, which was still good. This was actually a great movie showing what lengths people will go through to survive, and how Japanese highschoolers act when trying to kill each other :) And there are some crazy death scenes. Not so much in terms of violence, but in terms of what is going on in the character’s heads. (Imagine the self-sacrifice of being glad your love interest killed you!)
RATINGS: IMDB: 4/5 stars. Netflix: 8/10.
RECOMMENDATION: Like action? Like a movie where there can be only one survivor? Like Japanese horror/action flicks? Check this out. It’s pretty renowned, even among us Gaijin. Check it out.
I’d definitely like to see the Special Version of this movie.
SIMILAR MOVIES: Lord Of The Flies.
MOVIE QUOTE: Teacher Kitano: Here’s your list of friends in the order they died.
FRIENDS’ RATINGS: Ian really liked it. A lot of people really liked it, actually. An 8.0/10 global IMDB rating is quite high — the lowest 50 out of the Top 250 (that is, #200-#250) Highest Movies Ever Rated are also 8.0, so this movie almost made it to the top 200.
Mood: annoyed at neocons
Music: KMFDM – Urban Monkey Warfare
January 21, 2010 at 11:47 AM
[…] horrific indeed. Some of the more horrible things I’ve ever, ever seen. Such suffering • * Battle Royale 1 – listed under ACTION/REVENGE/THRILLER, but is kind of a horror too. Being in this society as […]
January 22, 2010 at 11:52 AM
[…] Battle Royale 1 (2001) – It would suck to be a student in this society. Suck bad. A classic in Japanese […]
December 28, 2010 at 7:07 AM
[…] link] [Netflix link] Unfortunately, we did not watch the director’s cut. And wow. Battle Royale 1 was rated 8.0/10 on IMDB, barely missing the Top 250. Battle Royale 2 is only rated 4.7/10. Big […]
December 28, 2010 at 8:22 AM
Ian B: “My one minor beef is that I think it might have been interesting to explore what might have happened if (SPOILER!!!!) those two hadn’t been able to make it out together. If they’d been forced to do each other in. Even so, it’s still fantastic.”
December 28, 2010 at 8:46 AM
@Ian: Well, the girl was kinda happy that she didn’t make it, right? so she’d probably let him kill her?
March 7, 2011 at 7:08 AM
[…] language I’ve watched in 2 weeks: English, Korean (Sympathy For Lady Vengeance), Japanese (Battle Royale 1 & 2), Spanish (Sleep Dealer), and Swedish (this film). Also, British (Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel…)))) […]