Battle Royale
2001 ‘Batoru rowaiaru’ Directed by Kinji Fukasaku
Synopsis
Could you kill your best friend?
At the dawn of the new millennium, Japan is in a state of collapse. Unemployment is endemic and school violence is out of control. The beleaguered government retaliates with Battle Royale... Each year, a randomly chosen class is pitted against itself on an abandoned island in a cruel game of survival. The rules of the game are simple: 1) it lasts three days; 2) Each player starts with food, water and a "weapon"; 3) if more than one player survives, everyone dies (by detonating special electronic necklaces; 4) there is no escape. As the game progresses, terror and panic challenge the students' fragile trust in each other. But despite the game's brutality, the adolescent players remain obsessed with their crushes, their petty grudges - and their dreams...
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omfg! such a copy off hunger games but so bad! its gross and all in a stupid langiage! i cant read subtitles and watch at the same time!
plus it doesnt even have any hot boys liek peeta or gale in it so why watch? #Team Peeta 4 lyf!!!!!! #yolo!!!1
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A dangerous and very well put together film with a lot of action and even more gore. The story is surprisingly well developed and it's very easy to enjoy and follow. What I liked most was that these children knew each other, so it has a strong focus on the individual victims and how they each react in the situation they are thrown into, which helps to better capture the brutality of this dystopian concept.
It's only too easy to compare the film to the recent Hunger Games though, as it's obvious that Battle Royale was a big influence to Collins when writing The Hunger Games novels. Whilst Battle Royale does a lot of things better, working in human emotions…
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I watched this purely out of curiosity because I heard this is the movie Hunger Games was based on. I wasn't expecting anything close to what this film is, which is the bloodiest and most nonsensical teen movie ever created.
Seriously, how in the world did this get greenlit? I'm glad it did, but I wish I could've been a fly on the wall at those meetings.
"We're going to do a gladiator style battle of teenagers fighting to the death."
"Why are they fighting?"
"Because the adults are tired of them being rebellious."
"That's it?"
"Yup."
"Oh. Okay. That makes sense. Let's do it!"There isn't enough evidence to buy into the adults' reasoning behind having a bunch of…
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"So today's lesson is, you kill each other off till there's only one left. Nothing's against the rules."
-Teacher KitanoI was expecting a violent and controversial film. What I wasn't expecting was for it to be so skillfully made with such confidence. Beat Takeshi being in it is just the icing on the cake.
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6th Movie, 6th Country (Japan) in the May 30 Days, 30 Countries Challenge
"Die, ugly." - Mitsuko
Before The Hunger Games, there was Battle Royale, which is definitely gorier and less commercial than it's successor. Quickly reading thru the beginning subtitles it is explained that " At the dawn of the millennium, the nation collapsed. At 15% unemployment, 10 million were out of work. 800,000 students boycotted the schools. The adults lost confidence and, fearing the youth, eventually passed the Millennium Educational Reform Act, AKA the BR Act." (opening narrator). This Battle Royale Act: Every year one randomly selected ninth-grade class is shipped off to a secret location and compelled to participate in a three-day game, whose rules are explained…
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I remember when I was in grade school the worst thing we'd have to look forward to was getting picked last for dodgeball in gym class, and then getting annihilated. Yep, this would be much worst.
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Campy, melodramatic and totally overblown in all the ways that normally make me hate mainstream Hollywood action flicks.
It baffles me that people hold this in any sort of high regard.
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it's passable
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RUN!!!
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A weird choice for a break from grading final exams...
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In simple words, Battle Royale is The Hunger Games meets Tarantino. And, for those of you who doesn't like Tarantino, but liked THG, please you still need to see this movie. Not an easy watch, but definitely a must see because, more than anything, it's a hell of a lot more fun and a hell of a lot better than THG.
This is a great dystopian future tale that tackles modern human and social characteristics. Yes, the most basic ones, love and friendship, are at the heart of the tale, but I found the movie to contain a more cynical criticism, in terms of our current social, cultural, maybe sociopolitical landscape. Each kid from this 7th grade class represents a… -
If you think Hunger Games is good, watch this and think again.
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Battle Royale is a good film to watch.
It's entertaining and different.
And no, it's not The Hunger Games. It has the same concept but with a different style.
It's not a classic or a particular accomplishment in film, it's just a well-made, gory and fun japanesse action movie.
What I liked the most, personally, is the story. -
High school, Bloodfest, fun and strangeness.
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A load of annoying teenagers on an island who are forced to kill each other.
That's about it really, worth watching but not worthy of the huge cult following it has.
Better the first time round
(as a younger adult/teenager)(It's not as gory and as horrific as people make out)