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k-flip-blog1 · 7 years ago

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Battle Royale (2000)

This will be my first essay-type piece or whatever you want to call it. You might have guessed. Where my profile picture is from, Battle Royale. My second favourite film of all time. An extremely controversial Japanese film directed by the late and great Kinji Fukasaku. A truly bloody and gruesome film that depcits a class of teens paying for their actions after rebelling against the adults.

The Japanese film “Battle Royale” is based on the book written in 1999 by Koushun Takami. It’s set in, at the time, modern Japan. The Japanese youth are losing respect and rebelling against adults, causing chaos across the country. To combat this the government implement the “BR Act”. Every year a random 9th grade class will be taken and transported to an abandoned island located in the middle of the ocean. The students would then be forced to kill one another until only one remained.

I’ll start with what I enjoyed.

Firstly, the thing that impressed me the most about this film is how the director, Kenta Fukasaku, who at the time was 69 managed to truly capture and portray all 42 kids. Throughout the film you felt as if it was somewhat real purely through the relationships these teenagers had. The chemistry, the way they talked, dressed and even moved had a hyper-realistic feeling. It didn’t feel like I was watching adults play these children, it felt like I was watching lifelong friends. The arguments they would have, the conversations even down to the choice of words was portrayed better than any film I’ve ever seen. It really brings this film together for me. If they weren’t used as well as they were I doubt this film would be as critically acclaimed as it is. Fukasaku gives the children a voice through these character and even nearly 20 years later it still holds up.

Opening more on that the characters, each one has a defined and deep backstory and instead of throwing all that information in your face at once it gradually releases small nuggets of information about each teen as you watch then fight for surival. I’m not sure how the director managed to do this for nearly all 42 characters not including adults. The more the film progresses you start to feel more connected and closer to a lot of the characters and their very different approaches on what was happening. While some tried to rise up against the act others leaned into it using the opportunity to kill as many as possible at the same time as some are just simply hiding, scared for their lives.

The soundtrack composed mostly by Masamichi Amano fits the movie well I feel. It speaks more to the government/military side. Establishing order and an overbearing prescence which is amazing when you look at what the film is about. We are watching the teenagers but listening to the adults. It gives a good comparison to the two opposite sides. The orchestral score is overall extremely eiree and unnerving, giving the viewer a sense that whoever we are watching is never safe. It establishes strong paranoia within you when watching. Nobody is safe and there’s nothing you can do as you root for whoever your favourite character may be.

The actual base story was something that, at the time, was groundbreaking and truly helped push film into a new era. Although I read somewhere that it was influenced by another book written many years before Battle Royale, this film really pushed this new genre into popularity especially in recent years with many video games such as Fortnite, Call of Duty and even Battlefield jumping on the “Last man standing” bandwagon. All the hype was created by this film. Not only did it do that but it also helped push foreign films to worldwide audiences. Although it wasn’t released in the US until 12 years later, the film was creating waves around the world. A revoultionary film and book. It was something new, original, fresh and creative that took a look at a bleak alternative reality and the actions taken by the government to stop an uprising.

The writing and script for the most part works well except for maybe a few scenes that were clearly added just to kill a few extras off, a prime example being the lighthouse scene. What the writer Kenta Fukasaku managed to do in cooperation with Kinji in terms of making these teens feel real and like actual friends with every interaction and conversation.

I will only touch lightly on the cinematography. This is usually something I pay attention to a lot in films. It is usually what determines if I like a film or not. This film captured the atmosphere almost perfectly. Portraying a beautiful island turned blood-covered battlefield with phenomenal shots with an eiree and bleak tone. The overgrown forests, the decaying buildings. Everything was captured so well. For me, if two characters are interacting or conversing one shot should be used. I hate the many angles and constant switching between cameras completely breaking what should be a fluent, flowing conversation. A show that uses this very well is “Mr. Robot”. If this film could do that and use it effectively I feel it would make it an even better film.

Onto what I don’t really like about this film.

I don’t like the sequel and what the ending lead up to. If the movie was left as it was it would of been better. But that is after-the-fact.

Another thing I don’t like is the ending on the island. They make one go back on and then allow him to somehow disable the collars? Firstly, how? They basically said at the beginning that they were almost indestructible and if they found anyone to be tampering with the devices they would automatically explode. So the government essentially just let this kid win for no reason?

Also, the soldiers say “move out and confirm the bodies” and yet never do find them or move them and just leave the teacher there on his own without returning the supposed winner? Yet in the beginning the previous winner was surrounded with news reporters and cameras and was escorted away in a SUV-type vehicle.

The requiems aren’t available in the standard version of the film so some of the conversations that the teens have are talking about things that you would see at the end in the director’s cut that would tie things together nicely, which they did. But people viewing the standard edition would surely be left confused as to why they left it in the film. The first time I watched the film was admittedly a torrented version without the requiems and I was left bewildered by these random anecdotes spoken by various characters. Throughout the rest of the movie I was just left waiting for them to be explained and yet they weren’t. When I finally went and bought a copy of the directors cut and they were included it made a lot more sense.

Overall there were many plot holes and just little subtle things that annoyed me about this film e.g how some characters would die in one or two shots yet some would take close to 20 and still be fighting.

Overall, I think this film is a very special and unique film and no hunger games could come close to replicating the emotions and violence this film produces. From the characters to the cinematography, this film ticks so many boxes for me. A bloody, gorey yet silently beautiful film is one that I am able to watch over and over again and relive the same feelings I felt the first time I watched it as if it were my first viewing. An accomplishment that most films will never achieve. A film that transformed and evolved the artform as a whole and made people notice foreign films.

8.5/10

If it weren’t for the numerous plot holes that I simply cannot overlook I would rate this movie higher. I highly recommend this film to anyone who hasn’t seen it or any other foreign films.

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