While audiences in general have become increasingly tolerant of gore in their mainstream movies over the last 2 decades, (mostly thanks to Quentin Tarantino and the Saw franchise) Battle Royale is nonetheless a movie that will shock you. Adapted from the controversial book of the same name, Battle Royale is a movie that 70 year-old director Kinji Fukasaku made to teach young people not to trust adults. This message gets across clearly enough, but I felt that the movie explores an even more interesting area involving human behavior and the thought of death. I am talking of course of the killer instinct. When faced with certain death, what are you willing to do to avoid dying? And no, this isn’t just another variation of a Saw movie looking for twisted scenarios with which to make you cringe. Instead, Battle Royale explores the different responses people can have when presented with such a horrible situation, and in doing so makes the viewer question their own strength of personal integrity. And if that is not a compelling enough reason to check out this film, the direction, cinematography, and imagery are all superb, even if the acting, story, and frantic plot are a let down. Its not a bad film overall, just another case of an adaptation loosing substance through the translation from book to screen. I think both the director’s unique vision and the limitations of the feature length movie format are to blame. Its a shame, because the book has so much potential to be really great movie…anyone want to make a remake?
Synopsis: In the near future, the Japanese economy has collapsed and there are millions unemployed. As a result, students are boycotting school and the adults are powerless to control them. The Battle Royale law is passed, which forces a class of randomly chosen students to fight to the death on a deserted island for entertainment purposes. The last one to survive is declared the winner. The film follows the experience of a class of 9th graders as they are chosen to compete on the island. There, they find out how far friendships and clique divisions really go in an effort to escape with their lives…
Acting: The movie follows a teenager (played by Tatsuya Fujiwara) and a female classmate (Noriko Nakagawa) as they try to survive. And while they manage to carry the movie, they don’t get much support from their costars. At times the acting is laughably bad, but people get killed off so frequently chances are that if a particular character is annoying you he or she will not have too much longer to live. The weight of the story’s emotion falls on the only main adult actor in the movie, Takeshi Kitano, who does a great job as a former teacher who was victim of a student’s attack but now is in charge of the Battle Royal program. His stoic expressions and demeanor are aided perfectly by a sense of loneliness and self-denial that questions the chaotic world around him. Okay (16/25)
- Tatsuya Fujiwara: Okay
- Noriko Nakagawa: Okay
- Takeshi Kitano: Good
- Supporting cast: Bad
Script/Plot: Like I said, the story is also not so great. Those who have not read the book will be confused by the quick and spotty introduction, and most of the rest of the movie is spent killing off the students giving little to no reasoning behind why the events taking place onscreen are happening. I will concede that it is difficult to give strong characters to 40 or so young adults, but the movie barely goes into details about the characters pasts anyway, so it is a mute point. The result is that the audience has no connection to any of the characters, and as they die in various horrible scenarios, you feel nothing but for the absurdity of it all. Obviously, the added inner monologues and explanations from the book would have been useful, but I don’t see a practical way of implementing them into this film format. Still, the movie remains entertaining because it is almost entirely action and watching the different decisions the characters make can be interesting, just not as involved as you might have hoped. Okay (16/25)
- Dialogue: Okay
- Script: Bad
- Plot: Okay
- Themes/Messages: Good
Direction: The direction, on the other hand, is surprisingly good. Fukasaku manages to make the movie feel like a game with lots of stats and updates flashing across the screen. He knows how to frame his characters well too, with fascinating panning out camera motions to demonstrate their alienation and frustration with the world. The film is well edited, such that even if the plot and dialogue feels choppy the movie itself maintains its pace and tonal qualities. The film does seem dated though, and not just ten years. It feels as if it could have been made in the 80’s. But again, being a foreign film, the production values are lower and it probably cost a lot less than any typical Hollywood spectacle. Good (22/25)
- Professionalism: Good
- Flow: Good
- Editing: Good
Special Effects: As the production values are low, so are the special effects. The intro is nifty, and there’s plenty of gore in quantity if not in quality. The action sequences are only so-so, with the struggles often being hard to decipher. Higher quality effects would have given the movie more punch, but the action on screen is shocking enough and the movie is lacking in other areas, so you don’t mind too much. Still, it is a modern classic and its popularity world wide says something about its universal appeal. Okay (19/25)
- Special Effects: Okay
- Music: Good
- X-Factor: Great
The Verdict: (73/100) = C (watchable)
- What’s Good: A veteran director does his job well, molding a controversial story into an action-filled and shockingly thought-provoking film.
- What’s Bad: The problems with adapting a book to film format are all too apparent; characterization is largely left aside, the story is changed and condensed for easier digestion, and the acting and production are not that great.
- Summary: A sick and twisted movie, but not as powerful as it could have been.
My previous review: Rated: The Ghost Writer (2010)
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