Battle Royale on DVD (2000)

RJTaylor from London , 22/08/2005

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.

  63 out of 70 people found this review helpful

Read all reviews

bobbyyy from Teesside , 11/11/2003

This film hits you a lot harder than most Hollywood films ever could, this group of youths are told outright that only one of them can live through this ordeal, straight to the point and dosen't worm around any of the details both graphically and emotionally. This film will leave you wondering how you ever missed this genre of horror movies before. Excellent plot and execution of it, and leaves a scary question about human nature itself.

  17 out of 18 people found this review helpful

Read all reviews

peter139 from cheshire , 01/05/2004

This is the third time I've watched this film and it won't be the last. The idea of kids having to slaughter one another to teach them respect for adults seems more than a little odd but get past that and you have a film that works on many levels.

Entertaining action, gore, romance ('ish or is it an honourable platonic protector type thing because he promised?), honour, character development - all here in spades.

Now the problem - we have to stop Hollywood from ruining this by a producing a big budget remake staring Tom Cruise and Catherine Zeta Jones. Please sign here...

  16 out of 16 people found this review helpful

Read all reviews

steve from Didsbury , 04/10/2004

This film was banned in loads of places. It's really just a slightly less intelligent, but infinitely more gory version of Lord of the Flies.

Japanese school kids are stuck on an island with weapons from pan lids to uzis and its last man standing. Basically some kids take to the killing thing quite happily (there is even one volunteer), some refuse to be a part of it, some go it alone and some form teams.

One noce bit is the cutsie instruction video which tells them the rules.

Watch out if you get the pan lid and I get the uzi....

  12 out of 12 people found this review helpful

Read all reviews

Fluff175 from Hampshire, England , 17/10/2006

BR is one of my all time favourite films ever. I can understand why people may not like it.

It is very violent (42 kids on an island, all but one must die), and not something for the faint hearted.

The friendships bewteen characters give this film so much emotion, teenagers having to deal with the loss of their friends and realising being cool doesn't get you anywhere in life.

The action is amazing, lots of guns and cool sequences to match a clever story line.

I would suggest watching this and then reading the Manga series, it goes into the background of each character, so then when you watch the film again it brings so much richness to the film, and you understand the characters who don't last long enough for an introduction.

  1 out of 1 person found this review helpful

Read all highest rated reviews

Peter from UK, London , 23/06/2004

I think you will either love or hate this film. Some excellent performances from the young cast, and a very disturbingly cold psychotic character protrayed by Beat Takeshi (if you like him you will enjoy this film).

Whilst the film is incredibly violent, this violence is obviously a tool for the director rather than an end in itself. Much of the violence is used to reflect the motivations and personalities of the characters involved and to support the film's message on the brewing problems of Japanese society.

Good pace, extreme changes from love to hate and disturbing - recommended.

  2 out of 2 people found this review helpful

Read all highest rated reviews