18 | 1h 54min | Action, Adventure, Drama | Japan
Director: Kinji Fukasaku
Writers: Koushun Takami (novel), Kenta Fukasaku (screenplay)
Stars: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Aki Maeda, Tarô Yamamoto
The film follows a group of junior high-school students that are forced to fight to the death by the Japanese totalitarian government under the revolutionary "Battle Royale" act. The film drew controversy, and was banned or excluded from distribution in several countries. Toei even refused to sell the film to any United States distributor for a long time due to concerns about potential controversy and lawsuits It is based on the 1999 novel of the same name, written by Koushun Takami.
It was released in Japan and 22 countries worldwide. It is
often regarded as one of Fukasaku's best films, and one of the best films of
the 2000s. In 2009, filmmaker Quentin Tarantino praised Battle Royale as
the best film he had seen in the past two decades.
Battle Royale was the last film to be directed by Fukasaku. He also
started working on the sequel titled Battle Royale II: Requiem, but died of
cancer in January 2003.
Battle Royale became a cultural phenomenon, and is considered one of the
most significant films in recent decades, having been highly influential in
global popular culture.
Ground-breaking.
Plot
In the near-future, following a major recession, the Japanese
government has passed the "BR ACT” to curb the nation's juvenile
delinquency. Middle school student Shuya Nanahara copes with life after his
father committed suicide. Noriko Nakagawa is the only student regularly
attending class 3-B. Their teacher, Kitano, resigns after being wounded by
Yoshitoki Kuninobu, Shuya's best friend.
One year later, class 3-B takes a field trip, but they are
gassed and taken to a remote island. Kitano reappears surrounded by JSDF
soldiers, explaining to the class that they are chosen to participate in the
annual Battle Royale as a result of the Act: they have three days to fight to
the death until a victor emerges, while explosive collars will kill
uncooperative students or those within daily "danger zones". Each
student is provided rations, water, a map of the island, compass, flashlight,
and a random weapon. Kitano personally kills two of the students for
disobedience, one of them being Kuninobu, who dies from collar detonation.
The first six hours see twelve deaths, four by suicide, and
eight caused by the desperate, psychotic Mitsuko Souma and psychopathic
volunteer Kazuo Kiriyama. Transfer student Shogo Kawada lets Shuya go after
killing one student, while Shuya accidentally kills another student, Oki, which
is witnessed by Yuko Sakaki, while basketball player Shinji Mimura plots to
hack into the JSDF's computer system to disrupt the program.
Amid shifting loyalties and violent confrontations, Shuya
promises to keep Noriko safe as Yoshitoki secretly loved her. He carries her to
a clinic, where Kawada reveals that he won a previous Battle Royale at the cost
of his girlfriend, whose death he seeks to avenge. When Kiriyama attacks, Shuya
entrusts Kawada to protect Noriko and runs as a distraction. Shuya is wounded
by Kiriyama's Uzi. However, he is saved by Hiroki Sugimura, a martial artist
who has recently had his friend Takako Chigusa die in his arms, and is on a
personal mission to find his unrequited love, Kayoko Kotohiki.
Shuya awakens in the island's lighthouse, bandaged by female
class representative Yukie Utsumi, who has a crush on him. Five other girls are
also hiding in the building, including Yuko, who attempts to poison Shuya out
of fear of him possibly killing them like he did Oki. However, Yuka
accidentally eats the food, leading to a shootout between the girls. Yuko is
the only survivor; horrified and realizing her mistake, she apologizes to Shuya
and commits suicide. Shuya finds Noriko and Kawada, and they set out to find
Mimura.
Now only ten players left, Hiroki is killed by Kotohiki, who
is then killed by Mitsuko. Kiriyama kills Mitsuko with her own weapon, making
Noriko the last surviving girl. Mimura and two others, Yutaka Seto and Keita
Iijima, infiltrate the JSDF's computer system, but Kiriyama kills them, but not
before Mimura uses his homemade bomb to explode the base to hide all evidence.
When Kawada, Noriko and Shuya arrive at the hackers' burning base, Kawada
confronts and kills Kiriyama, who had his eyes burned out by the explosion, by
detonating the collar with his shotgun, but in turn is seriously injured by
Kiriyama's Uzi.
On the final day, Kawada, aware of the collars' internal
microphones, seemingly kills Shuya and Noriko by shooting them. Suspicious,
Kitano ends the game and dismisses the troops, intent on personally killing the
supposed victor. Kitano realizes that Kawada hacked the system months
beforehand, and has disabled Shuya and Noriko's tracking devices. The three
survivors confront Kitano in the game's control room, and he unveils a homemade
painting of the massacred class depicting Noriko as the sole survivor. He
reveals that he was unable to bear the hatred between him and his students,
having been rejected by his daughter, and confesses that he always thought of
Noriko as a daughter. He asks her to kill him, but Shuya shoots him after he
threatens her with a gun. As he falls, Kitano shoots, revealing the gun to be a
water pistol. Kitano's daughter calls him; after an argument, he shoots the
phone with an actual gun before dying of his wounds.
Shuya, Noriko and Kawada leave the island on a boat, but
Kawada dies from the injuries, happy that he found friendship. Shuya and Noriko
are declared fugitives, and are last seen on the run in the direction of
Shibuya Station. Noriko gives Shuya the Seto Dragon Claw butterfly knife
Kuninobu used to injure Kitano at the beginning of the film. They then run off
together.
