| Probably one of the best Japanese movies I've seen in a long time |
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| written by TCragoEdwards |
May 6, 2010 - 12:23 PM PDT |
| A must-see for fans of Asian horror cinema. It was at times shocking and unexpected. |
| If you're interested in Japanese film... |
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| written by Effex |
April 17, 2006 - 7:10 PM PDT |
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2 out of 2 members found this review helpful
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Battle Royale represents a nice chunk of Japanese cinema from the late '90s into the '00s. Takeshi Kitano, Kinji Fukasaku, Chiaki Kuriyama(recently of Kill Bill fame) and a controversial novel, throw Verdi's Requiem in and it all comes together to make a disarmingly honest, yet enthralling film.
Fukasaku, the director should be noted for having directed such staples of Japanese cinema in the '70s as the Yakuza Papers series starting with Battles without Honor and Humanity and films like Graveyard of Honor, giving him credit for being one of the first innovators of the gritty violent realism most Yakuza movies to this day draw from. He also co-directed the Japanese half of Tora,Tora,Tora with Yoshio Masuda after Akira Kurosawa left the project.
Though some relegate BR to Japanese camp, the true message of Battle Royale is the same as Fukasaku's previous work only geared towards a new generation, be wary even of your supervisors. It should be noted before its release members of the Japanese Parliament questioned the validity of whether this film was ham-fisted violence masquerading as a film or something more. The film was released to the Japanese public after Parliament admitted the film had something real to say though the controversy made it notorious worldwide. Also of interest is Toei's refusal to allow US distribution of the film, supposedly unless it is given as good a distribution in theaters as Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, the cost of which and the film's blatant controversy leaves this film without a real distributor in the US.
The premise is simple enough, a cross between Lord of the Flies and Full Metal Jacket, the children are set on the grounds of an island and forced to kill each other to the last one as a show of force that adults are still in control of an ever-increasingly rebellious youth. The children find out that no one will save them and the degeneration of the morals and social norms of the children are stripped with alarming believability. The violence is not glorified and just as Fukasaku displayed in his old yakuza films, these are fights without honor but of desperation and a tinge of flat remorse, courtesy of Kitano's character. Character development and plot constraints are the main problems of BR, though the special edition offers a few more scenes that add more insights into a few of the characters.
Battle Royale is a classic of Japan's recent cinema and is a poignant final message from a Japanese cinema guru who has always displayed a distrust of authority and a flare for action. |
| No Beating Around the Bush! |
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| written by ahogue |
August 26, 2005 - 3:00 PM PDT |
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8 out of 11 members found this review helpful
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Let's get one thing straight from the start: this is not a great film. Surprised? Of course not. You haven't seen it yet, but you already know it's no Citizen Kane.
Good, now that's out of the way, you can take all of the glowing comments I am about to make in the right way. Battle Royale is a fine film, made with passion and sincerity by one of Japan's great directors, Kinji Fukasaku. Is this film outlandish, violent, direct and unsubtle? Yes, it is! Is that bad? Not necessarily! Indirection and complexity are not good things in themselves, nor are directness and a refusal to beat around the bush bad things. Battle Royale is no intellectual achievement, but it is sincere, compassionate, and very well made.
I had no idea that this film might be anything other than your typical Japanese b horror flick when I first heard of it. At the time I did not know Fukasaku's excellent early work, particularly the yakuza films Battles without Honor and Humanity and Street Mobster. Both of these films are masterful, gritty, hard hitting gang dramas. Looking over the rest of his work it's clear that his staples have largely remained yakuza and samurai pictures. So why would Fukasaku, then in his seventies, decide to make a strange science fiction film like Battle Royale?
People who complain about the bloodiness of this movie probably do not understand that Fukasaku is trying to leave something behind for young people, to give them some of his wisdom. Yes, he does it with a good amount of violence, but this violence, as in his earlier films, is not presented simply for titillation, and judging by its popularity in Japan Fukasaku's representation of human brutality and intergenerational conflict must have struck a deep chord with Japan's young people.
So is a film so oriented toward teenagers worth watching for adults? Yes, it is. What Fukasaku has to say is not subtle, but it is indeed an uncanny and rather satirical exaggeration of some unfortunate truths about human character and society. It is because these truths only start to become evident to humans at a certain age that it speaks more directly to young people, but this by no means makes it irrelevant to adults. |
| S*** Royale |
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| written by jodawi |
August 5, 2005 - 4:58 PM PDT |
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4 out of 20 members found this review helpful
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A few lame minutes are used to set up the theme of "society is getting too violent, so let's solve the problem by having random children murder each other!". Oh yeah, why didn't we think of that sooner?
Then you can watch for hours as children murder each other, with a nice feel-good ending to wash down all the blood.
It might be vaguely interesting if you were to cover up the picture and just read the subtitles on fast-forward, but the minimal plot is as full of holes as the kids are, and a few attempts at dark humor fall flat. |
| Battle Fatigue |
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| written by talltale |
May 10, 2005 - 4:41 PM PDT |
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6 out of 7 members found this review helpful
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BATTLE ROYALE is a hard one: fabulous concept, middling execution; lots of dark and bitter moments with an equal amount of sentimental ones; as alternately believable as it is un-; in order to get involved with these kids, you'd like to know more about many of them, but the movie--at two hours--is already too long. I could go on.
This is the kind of film that makes you wish you'd been raised Asian (specifically Japanese) so that you'd better understand it on a cultural level--all the generational stuff, the shame, the need to follow vs. the need to rebel, the teen-age crushes taken to heady extremes, the "role" of the teacher (nice job by Mr. Takeshi!). And more. Some of this translates decently to the occidental mind, but plenty of it does not.
Thinking about the movie afterward is as interesting as the film itself, which probably indicates that it's worth more than a passing glance. I'll remember it, all right, but with very mixed opinions and emotions. I would, however, recommend it to anyone who enjoy movies, possesses catholic taste and doesn't mind a little (well, a lot of) "ultra-violence." My partner walked out 2/3's of the way through; I stuck it out and finished feeling both moved and confused.
Oh--and what's with the English title "Battle Royale"? Isn't the phrase "battle royal" rather than the hifalutin' royale, as in "Casino Royale?" Just wondering.... |
| Honey, who's hacked the kids? |
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| written by DPangilinan |
January 3, 2005 - 11:22 PM PST |
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3 out of 7 members found this review helpful
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Definitely not a film you can find at your local Blockbuster! It reminds me of an old Stephen King book called, "The Long Walk." In that story, children are made to walk a trail followed by soldiers. If anyone misteps away from the trail or slows down too much, the soldiers take care of them!
Teens have always thought themselves invincible because of their youth. Now, they realize how important life really is, once certain choices are taken away from you.
Watch this film! And you thought Algebra was tough! |
| brilliant! |
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| written by GLowe |
October 2, 2004 - 2:07 PM PDT |
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2 out of 10 members found this review helpful
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| never thought a film with a bunch of teenagers killing each other off could be soooo good. almost perfect. |
| I liked it! |
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| written by StAlf |
June 30, 2004 - 1:41 PM PDT |
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1 out of 14 members found this review helpful
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powerfully violent and disturbing.
I liked it!
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| A Japanese Turn of the Screw |
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| written by AHidalgo |
August 17, 2003 - 1:31 PM PDT |
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16 out of 36 members found this review helpful
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This film seemed like a perverse episode of the Twilight Zone that went on for an additional hour.
The film is like an episodic machine gun attack on young schoolchildren forced into a reality-tv like island of dreadful competition.
The violence and relentless countdown of murders until the "last one standing" became repetitive after the first hour. The ending posed very few questions to the viewer.
The whole "Don't trust adults" lesson talked about in synopses of the film seems like an excuse to place mayhem in the hands of children.
If you want a similar subject matter (kids trapped on an island having to resort to violence to survive), rent a film with some ideological and political weight to the actions, like Peter Brooks' "Lord of the Flies". Better yet, read that novel. Another film that leads me to recommend "Flies" over it is the similarly disappointing and less spectacularly bloody "The Beach". |
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