Battle Royale DVD > Reviews > Unmajestic struggle

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Disliked it
Story	Good
Characters / Performances	Satisfactory
Special Effects	Good
Soundtrack	Good

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Disadvantages:	-

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

*The following is printed in the University of Wollongong student magazine 'Tertangala', 'Indigenous' issue. Word limit was 250 words. Rate as you feel*

Directed by Kinji Fukasaku
Written by Kenta Fukasaku
Starring Tatsuya Fujiwara, Aki Maeda, Taro Yamamoto, Masanobu Ando, Kou Shibasaki, Chiaki Kuriyama, Kitano ‘Beat’ Takeshi
113 minutes

Japan, the dawn of a new millennium: un-employment has risen to fifteen percent with millions of people out of work. Violence in the school system is uncontrollable and rebellious teenagers stage mass boycotts. The government is stressed beyond its capabilities and retaliates in the most extreme way with Battle Royale. Each year a class is chosen at random and is pitted against its self on an abandoned island in a cruel and terrifying game of survival that lasts for three days. Only one student may survive.

Thus begins the one of the most violent, gruesome, and explicitly shocking movies in Australian theatres. Having been mostly raised on western cinema with very little Japanese influence, appreciating the context and culture from which this movie originates limits drawing a clear conclusion. Still, the issues and themes cross the cultural boundary: loyalty, betrayal, love, hate, hope, fear, revenge. Could you kill your best friend? ‘Yes’ is the answer here.

As an experience, it’s gut-wrenching: a system pushed to its limits resorting to an extreme measure of control; empathising with the 42 students, their situation and decisions; the initial apathy of fellow classmates; groups of friends torn apart. The story leads the way, only to have awful acting - especially the death scenes - destroy the tension. The violence is occasionally self-indulgent, yet death and destruction does portray the hopelessness of the situation. And watch out for the ending.

Also be prepared to read the subtitles, as it’s in Japanese. Connoisseurs of Japanese film and culture will probably love it (and seen it already, as it was initially released in Japan in 2000), where as the uninformed majority will be left feeling shocked and a little disappointed.