Review of Battle Royale (2000) by Patrick M — 03 Jun 2013

A movie set in Japan, where a random group of ninth-grade students are forced by a law called the BR act ("Battle Royale") to compete by killing each other until only one of them remains, the winner.

First of all its probably the most violent movie I've ever seen, but apart from that its a movie about friendship and loyalty, not only about action. We get to know all the characters very well throughout the movie, sometimes because of their actions. The pace is extremely fast, just the way I like it. There's even some comic-relief in it brought by Takeshi Kitano, who gives a great performance as Kitano, who used to be the students' professor until he suffered an act of violence by the hands of one of his students.

"Battle Royale" is full of surprises, appearances are not what they seem, which is what makes it so frightening. Quentin Tarantino has named this his favorite movie made since he's started working (1992) and it has also influenced a lighter version of it called "The Hunger Games".

I think the reason Tarantino liked it so much is because its a movie about characters as opposed to a movie that is plot-driven, like in "Dazed and Confused" we're given information on every single character and we get the feeling that we know them. Its a character study and as a character study I believe its one of the best.