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Battle Royale (2001)
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Movie Review by Chris
December 6th, 2008
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'Battle Royale' is one of the best foreign horror films ever made, that's only my opinion though. I'm not to big on watching foreign films though, I mostly watch the American adapted ones such as The Ring or Grudge, though most of those films really suck. Many people consider 'Battle Royale' as a "pointless gore fest" or "the greatest film ever made", I think it's just a completely splendid movie. Sure it does seem like a pointless film, gory at that, but it's so well made that I can't find anything within myself to say I hate this movie. It's a fascinating experience that is surprisingly original. Directed by Kinji Fukasaku, 'Battle Royale' is a politically challenging movie engaged in gore and death, but it's an amazing movie.
At the dawn of the new millennium, Japan is in a a state of near-collapse. Unemployment is at an all-time high, and violence among the nation's youth is spiraling out of control. With schoolchildren boycotting their classes and physically abusing their teachers, a beleaguered and near-defeated government decides to introduce a radical new measure: the Battle Royale Act Overseen by their former teacher Kitano and requiring that a randomly chosen school class is taken to a deserted island and forced to fight each other to the death, the Act dictates that only one pupil is allowed to survive the punishment. He or she will return, not as the victor, but as the ultimate proof of the lengths to which the government is prepared to go to curb the tide of juvenile disobedience.
It's very hard to review a movie in a different language, the film is completely subtitles and it's hard to determine any kind of acting talent when we cannot understand the language our actors are speaking. There are a lot of younger actors here, most of the roles demanded for teens and young adults, since the film stars a 9th grade high school class. One of the main characters in the movie is Nanahara, a basketball star whom girls love, but he is weaker then many people see him to be. Inside his weapon bag is a trash can lid, but Nanahara isnt all in for killing people for the sake of nothing. Most of the acting in the film is good, when it comes to physical needs or emotional attitude. This is a very emotional movie, no clue why, but our characters are put to the test in courage and even survival needs. They must kill best friends or girlfriends just to be granted the wish to go home.
The game is one only seen in video games, or if you saw the Stone Cold Steve Austin film called Condemned, which is basically the same thing, you know how it works. Kids must kill each other until one person is left, they have necklaces which contain bombs to blow up their necks, if there is not one person left by the ending of the 3 days. They each get a bag which contains a roll, a weapon of random choice and a bottle of water. You can receive anything from a trash can lid to a machine gun, this really spreads the body count around. Most of the killing in the movie was considered "pointless" by critics and movie watchers, but I found it to be a valuable part of the film as a whole. People are shot, stabbed, blown up, beat and many other ways, each one scary and gory in it's own little fashions. Some of the gore is computer generated, gunshots and some extra juice is helped out with computer generation, but they all looked pretty great.
'Battle Royale' is a classic movie, on both a horror film and political stature film. A great movie. Unforgettable.
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