Battle Royale Review

Written by: Googopqp   

In the near future Japan's economy will hit an all time low, and people will be stuggling. Students boycotting school and have lost all respect for anyone but themselves. So the government puts in place an act called the Battle Royale Act! In this, one class of students is chosen at random to be featured on a reality TV show. In this show however, the class is put on an island and pit against each other forced to kill one another for their own survival. 42 students are in the new class and they have exploding neckbraces and are each given a bag with food/supplies and a weapon. If they are lucky they will get a good weapon, but if not they will get a frying pan or some shit like that. Its dog eat dog out on that island, and its a fight for survival. It is Battle Royale!

I flat out loved this movie, not only was it a very fun movie to watch but its also original, bloody, and has a fucked up premise of "can you kill your bestfriend?" and thats what this is, its all about the characters dealing with this game and how some refuse to play and how others love it. Plus its got Takeshi Kitano who is just awesome!

Now this isn't just some random asian shoot em up like Tokyo Gore Police, this movie has a story and a message. To me I think this movie was a response to Tienamen Square, I could be wrong, but having that in mind the movie does make a bit more sense.

In the movie we follow a character who has had some tromadic experiences in his past. His father killed himself when he was young and this has really left an impression on him growing up after that. We also follow the ex-teacher of the class and see that he put the class into this game/show because of a grudge he had on the class when he was teaching them. No respect, no listening, plus he was injured on the job.

Anyways, before the game begins there is this fairly funny/cheezy training video that I just cannot get out of my head. Its a lady in camo style clothing with a big smile and bright voice explaining the rules of the game. She talks about the exploding bracenecks and says "Boom!" with a big smile. After this the kids are given their supplies and the game begins. The rest you can guess from there.

If I had to point out any negatives to this film, really all I could say is that they killed off too many people early in the film and that it could've been bloodier, but honestly I don't agree with taht either. It may just be a personal expectation for the film but I don't really think that. I thought this movie was damn near perfect, down to the end. It starts off with an intense score that I will continue to remember and love, then goes straight into a creepy bloodied smiling girl being bombarded with paparrazi. But, if I did have one true negative for the film it would be some of the annoying characters, sure you got some bad asses and some kewl characters, but then you got the crying screaming annoying as hell characters I could barely stand.

The acting in the film was actually pretty good, not that its great acting, but they do show, in a way, that killing their best friends is a bad thing XD. That may not have come off as what I'm trying to say. What I mean is, they do a good job, but Takeshi Kitano is still the best out of all of them, he is a veteran actor and a veteran bad ass (who can tap dance). Director Kinji Fukasaku I really gotta give some props to. He made a terrific film, and its one of my favorite foreign films! I watched it once, for the time, and then had urges to watch it again a week later, that doesn't happen with most any films!

The movie is bloody, quite bloody, but not too bloody, and there is not a lot of gore. The movie didn't need to be gory, but the blood made for some very kewl scenes. One in particular is the neckbrace exploding, once I saw that I rewinded it to see it again, it was pretty awesome! But yes, its bloody, but don't expect a blood bath like well, to reference this again, Tokyo Gore Police.

Overall, I loved Battle Royale and have almost no complaints. Most of the characters are kewl and the acting is decent and the movie is bloody enough to sustain. The story is good and its overall a very enjoyable film! Checks it out! I give Battle Royale a deserving 9/10!!!!

-Dustin "Googopqp" M.