Review of Battle Royale (2000) by Nickorrey — 01 Jun 2014

Astonishing psychological thriller. Highly entertaining and certainly deserves the praise. One must have a whole lot of bravery and courage to watch this film, as it contains many disturbing scenes, but what I like about this film is how Kinji Fukasaku, the director executed this film.

A perfect example of true action and sacrifice, I have not seen such a perfect execution of such a terrific and horrifying plot. Battle Royale focuses on the near future, where countries around the world, in which have been somehow intervened by the west, follows the 'Battle Royale Act'. Set in Modern Day Japan, the act presents itself every year to a group of students who are set to have the task of killing each other, until the last person survives.

An act to repudiate western countries laws, they choose to defy the lives of others, by kidnapping children and sending them to war with each other. Noriko has nobody to trust except for her close classmate, Shuyu Nanahara, in which both of them fight side by side to overcome impending danger. The success of the film had to rely on how the director chooses to focus on all the subordinate characters almost equally with the exception of Noriko and Shuyu, as they were the main characters of the film.

It is a dream for a director to be able to achieve such a film with a moderate budget like that. If you haven't watched it, you should go rent it, because this is what action movies are suppose to be like. Kinji Fukasaku is like the Japanese Quentin Tarantino, and for this he deserves a cookie.

My only doubts would lay on the fact that the ending was a bit iffy with the two so called fugitives of the state, with them popping out of downtown Tokyo. I understand the budget of the film, and so I won't whine too much about the ending.

Overall, this film is something that would stick in my mind for the next few years, just something very relevant to our modern day society. People often mistaken the meaning behind this film, thus arguing that this film was totally horrid. I believe that this film sends the message to young viewers about the lack of empathy we have for others. Our society is changing, and by that, we need to realize that we are evolving into a self-embodiment world. This film provides the basis for us to reflect upon ourselves; to see the discreet message and how it is somehow related to us.