The makers of Battle Royale ain’t messin’ around. They’ve got forty school kids here to stab, shoot, splatter, explode and throw off cliffs and only two hours to get it all done. The result is one of the best action films of its time, breathless, ruthless and dripping blood over all the place.
The story keeps it simple: In the future, the Japanese government works to squash rampant juvenile delinquency by kidnapping groups of teenagers and then dumping them onto a remote island where they’re forced to kill each other until only one remains standing. Makes sense to me.
Each kid gets a bag that contains bread, water and one random weapon, which can be anything from a pot lid to a machine gun. They also get a locked neck bracelet that contains a small bomb set to blow everyone’s heads off if they don’t comply. This is REAL teen angst (many of the deaths are sad, in particular the suicides). If you didn’t get an arrow through your neck or have to fight with someone over an axe during your freshman year in high school, you had it easy. Adding to this film’s coolness is Beat Takashi as the frosty official who presides over the carnage.
After this was a major hit in Japan, despite controversy over its violence (which isn’t that bad if you’ve been around the block), news of an American remake began to circulate like piss in a public swimming pool. THEN came the Hunger Games movies, which boast a similar premise, and the Battle Royale remake thankfully died on the vine lest it be labeled an imitation. Never mind that Battle Royale and Koushun Takami’s novel came out a decade earlier.