Post by StevePulaski on Apr 29, 2012 20:41:27 GMT -5
The ninth graders in Battle Royale.
Rating: ★★★★
All your friends have become your opponents. All your alliances and friendships you've worked so hard to form have quickly decimated into nothing. Every shred of moral-upbringing and integrity you occupied has now been eliminated. Kinji Fukasaku's Battle Royale is a grim picture, one that has been brought back into mainstream conversation with the release of the film The Hunger Games. Many have cited that it was a ripoff, a mere act of plagiarism on the author's part. I went into Battle Royale with that in mind, and came out with this thought; one is a haunting picture, visually graphic and darkly captured. The other is the ideas reduced gradually and taken with a mainstream focus, diluted unconditionally for teenagers. They occupy similar premises, but they are by no means synonymous in terms of commentary. This is one of the most violent pictures I have yet to see.
The story goes like this; a ninth grade class boards a bus, and when they wake up, they are entering a cold and bleak room. In that room is where their last act of true communication with each other will take place, before they become savage, desperate, and utterly fearful. Due to an increasingly dismal economy and the lack of employment, a lot of the blame has been put on school-children, who are dubbed incompetent and disrespectful by the Japanese government. As punishment, every year a ninth grade class, selected at random, will be placed on an isolated island, where they will be forced to murder each other up until one person remains. If three days pass, and more than one person remains, everyone will die.
Upon their arrival, they are shown a video and realize that indestructible bracelets have been placed around their neck that will be triggered to explode if any intolerable behavior occurs. They are given a duffel bag with food rations, water, a map, a compass, a flashlight, and a random weapon to help them survive. The weapons range from a pot lid to a heavy-duty, rapid fire machine gun. Is it fair? Absolutely not. Is it justifiable? Not at all. It is an unlawful, disgusting game these children are forced to play and are forced to answer this question without any contemplation; would they kill their best friend? Impulse takes over before an answer can be given.
Our lead character is Shuya Nanahara (Fujiwara), a naive, yet idealistic soul who alines early with a young girl (Maeda) and a transfer student (Yamamoto) to hopefully come out victorious. But only one can win, so the inevitable is always looming over their heads. Each kids' goal is the same; to thrive as long as possible on what little you have. Within the first few minutes of the game various kids are killed. Captions stating the child's number pop up frequently so a body count is always kept in place.
I almost forgot to mention the "danger zones." The map you are given has a grid on it, and four times a day an intercom announcement is made by the teacher to state who is dead and what the danger zones are. If you are caught in one of these danger zones and do not get out in time, your neck bracelet is activated and obliteration will not be far in your future.
I believe why I stated the film is one of the most violent I have ever seen is because we actually see young children get killed; something that never happens in American cinema. Japanese cinema is a whole different ballgame, and before you dismiss this as a Japanese shock picture along the lines of the Guinea Pig series, let me say that this film is deeper and more substantially constructed than a slew of other action/torture epics.
For one, there is a great deal of characterization and depression in this film, but it never comes off as gratuitously placed or indecent and inept. Occasional instances of dark humor pop up, but the persistent feeling of sadness will soon catch up with you. The film plays like William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies, only with more graphic savagery and tormenting monologues. At times the film becomes even more versatile, having scenes that depict a brewing teenage melodrama.
Some of the saddest scenes come from not the violent aspects, but the human discussions between the students. They are poignant and gritty, as these children are faced with the inevitable feeling of dying and the convoluted conglomerate of emotions that currently plague them. They are so confused and consumed with remorse we wonder why they were thought to be savages delinquents in the first place. We see them try to cope with what has been unfairly placed on them, as well as the tragic loss of innocence they are currently enduring.
This is a brilliantly executed film, one so upsetting, violent, relentless, and depressing I doubt I'll be able to sit through it again. Reiterating my point about The Hunger Games, I find that film to be a shallower take on a subject with potential. The film wasn't bad, but it lacked any formal commentary on the society the children endured, was vastly limited by its rating, and was void of any emotional impact. Battle Royale occupies all of that and, despite a strong whirlwind of controversy and a hefty rating, it is one teenagers (think about sixteen and up) should definitely seek out. It serves and holds up better than a greatly neutered trendy film.
Starring: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Aki Maeda, Taro Yamamoto, Chiaki Kuriyama, Kou Shibasaki, Masanobu Ando, and Takeshi Kitano. Directed by: Kinji Fukasaku.