Battle Royale details
| Formats: | 18 DVD, Blu-ray, LOVEFiLM Instant |
|---|---|
| Starring: | Takayo Mimura, Aki Inoue, Aki Maeda, Hirohito Honda, Ren Matsuzawa, Yutaka Shimada, Sousuke Takaoka, Eri Ishikawa, Yukihiro Kotani, Taro Yamamoto, Tatsuya Fujiwara, Takashi Tsukamoto, Ryou Nitta, Sayaka Kamiya, Takeshi Kitano |
| Director: | Kinji Fukasaku |
| Genres: | Action/Adventure, Thriller - General, World Cinema - Japanese |
| Studio: | PALISADES TARTAN |
| Original title | Batoru Rowaiaru |
| Collection: | Awesome Asian Films, Beautiful Films, Cult Classics, Decades: 00s, LOVEFiLM Staff Picks, TFI Friday, The Classic Collection, Top LOVEFiLM Instant Movies of 2012 |
| Title | Runtime | Certificate | |
|---|---|---|---|
Battle Royale |
1hr 48 mins | 18 |
LOVEFiLM Instant Information
| Run time: | 1 hour 48 minutes |
|---|---|
| Rental release: | To be confirmed |
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Most helpful review
Ah, It Takes Me Back...
By RJTaylor (31 reviews) from Manchester , 22 Aug 2005[Highly rated reviewer]
Battle Royale = The Running Man + Lord of the Flies. In Japan.
Every year a class of schoolkids is chosen at random, landed on an island and told to get on with killing one another until there's only one of them left. Want to team up? Fine, but if at the end of three days there's more than one of you alive you all die by way of a personal exploding collar.
I liked this film. I liked the basic premise, the story, the occasional red fountain, and the interesting non-glitzy way that human relationships are portrayed under one of the most immense (albeit far-fetched) pressures imaginable. On more than one occasion I found my mind stretching back to my schooldays and how I would have dealt with some of my classmates if I'd have found myself in this situation; lucky for a few of them that this is just a movie!
BR has two main flaws. Firstly, much of the action is in the dark, so scenes that were probably perfectly visible in a cinema are just stretches of black with glints of light and a soundtrack when viewed on a TV screen.
Secondly, the film starts off with too many characters. (42 classmates in all.) It's never quite obvious which of them you're supposed to be following, and as a result gets a little bit jumbled. Credit is due to the writer/s for bestowing personalities upon their cannon fodder, but once you've seen one profession and painful rejection of unrequited adolescent love, that's enough to get the gist: After three or four times, what was once sweet quickly becomes cloying.
I haven't read it, but I'd guess that this wealth of characters is a symptom of the film being faithful to the book it is based on. But there simply isn't enough room in a movie like this for so many players.
That said, just go with the flow and it soon straightens out. You'll enjoy BR much more if you don't try to concentrate too hard on where everyone is at any given moment.
Well acted and well shot, ('scuse the pun,) BR is a movie that any fan of Asian cinema should see. However, I don't think there's enough here to coax your average moviegoing subtitle-o-phobe to sit down and concentrate for 109 minutes.- Was this review helpful to you?
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All reviews
(299)Bloody Survival
By chiquitou (6 reviews) , 20 May 2013This hard, like a japanese film. But it is definitively a better film than Hunger Games !!! If you don't like gore movie, watch out !!!- Was this review helpful to you?
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Child warfare
By a customer , 17 May 2013Very good, action packed and gory. Also has a good moral message. The hunger games is a ripoff of this.- Was this review helpful to you?
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quirky japanese
By a customer , 30 Apr 2013Interesting insight into modern Japanese filmaking. Low budget, fast paced and little chance for building any empathy or identification with characters due to so many people being killed so quickly - has a video game feel in some respects. Strangely compulsive!- Was this review helpful to you?
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Rename it "FUKYU!" and set it in Scotland
By LAgoboomboom (8 reviews) , 29 Apr 2013not bad, but these guys take themselves far too seriously, even if this is a classic film. this should be remade (preferably in my native Scotland) with a touch of irony. would look much better set in some abandoned post industrial area of Glasgow some lonely Scottish island. or in the old towns of Edinburgh or Stirling. It could be renamed 'FUKYU!'- Was this review helpful to you?
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Gore and violence with a good story.
By JugoC (3 reviews) , 20 Mar 2013Leaving the Hunger Games vs Battle Royal discussion aside, I like the fact that this movie shows a more realistic side of what would happen if you are caught in this type of life-or-death situation. These are simple school kids, classmates and are certainly not trained for this.- Was this review helpful to you?
- (1) Yes |
- No (0)
