‎Battle Royale (2000) directed by Kinji Fukasaku • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd

Battle Royale

2000 ‘バトル・ロワイアル’ Directed by Kinji Fukasaku

Could you kill your best friend?

In the future, the Japanese government captures a class of ninth-grade students and forces them to kill each other under the revolutionary "Battle Royale" act.

Takeshi Kitano Tsuyako Kinoshita Eri Ishikawa Sayaka Ikeda Tomomi Shimaki Tamaki Mihara Yukari Kanasawa Misao Kato Takayo Mimura Hitomi Hyuga Anna Nagata Kou Shibasaki Satomi Ishii Chiaki Kuriyama Haruka Nomiyama Aki Maeda Satomi Hanamura Sayaka Kamiya Aki Inoue Asami Kanai Mai Sekiguchi Takako Baba Shin Kusaka Ren Matsuzawa Shigehiro Yamaguchi Taro Yamamoto Masanobu Ando Yukihiro Kotani Sousuke Takaoka Show All…

114 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Jamie ★★★★ 42

omfg! such a copy off hungry 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 like peeta or gale in it so why watch? #Team Peeta 4 life!!!!!!
Review by Sarah Jane 🔪 ★★★★ 17

Every boy in this movie looks like he is a character straight from anime. Man, I hate that hairstyle. Then and now.

Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games) says she was inspired to write The Hunger Games after the poverty she saw in Iraq during the war. Uh huh.

Is anyone else buying that bullshit?

Still a great movie 14 years later.
Review by Todd Gaines ★★★★★ 25

Going on a school field trip has never fuckin' sucked so fuckin' bad. Sharing a Kodak moment with your friends. Waking up to a what-the-fuckin'-shit-hell-is-fuckin'-going-on nightmare. A fuckin' outrage as Professor Kitano takes over the class. No fuckin' talkin', not even a fuckin' whisper. A necklace that will fuck you up. Watching your best-mate's neck gush. The transfer students with two very different fuckin' agendas. Watch out, Death Note's finest will light you the fuck up with a pot lid. Mitsuko's smile. The way Kawada smokes. Kazuo, zero lines of dialogue and total fuckin' ownage. The boys from Anonymous try their fuckin' best to hack the system. Yummy spaghetti. The greatest fuckin' lunch ever served at a lighthouse. Kawada vs.…
Review by Naughty aka Juli Norwood ★★★★★ 2

Controversial Cult Classic, incredibly original and highly influential film that puts the Hunger Games to shame!

It has more than earned its reputation for its violence and brutality but the real star of the show is the diverse range of emotions and fears (Good and Bad) that are all too human!

Takeshi Kitano added some serious beaucoup depth and flavor to the film!
Review by YI JIAN ★★★★ 13

Run.

When you've already presented the main plot on the table in the first five minutes, and the rest of it are mostly predictable, what do you use to drive your film forward while keeping it interesting?

Testicle mutilation.

Wait. No.

Characters. That's right. Characters. Good ones. The ones with depth. And director Kinji Fukasaku, or rather, author of the original novel -- Koushun Takami, delivers. 43 of 'em! (Including Kitano-sensei.) The hardest part of telling a story about teenagers stabbing, choking and shooting each other is to make the audience care about them. Once that obstacle is crossed, what we have is an emotional, intense, shocking and insane little cult classic.

What makes Battle Royale even more special is…
Review by bethany esda ★★★★★ 2

everyone looked like they had fun

Recent reviews

Review by Sm4rtdrugs ★★★★★

All vs All.
Review by Nicanor Gordon ★★★★

Man...wtf Jennifer Lawrence. You ripped this off.

She wrote the movies right?
Review by HISHAM AL-KHREBAT ★★

boring :\
Review by Bruna Vasques ★★★★½

so this amazing movie inspired the WORST genre of modern video games AND a young adult trilogy with jennifer lawrence? the disrespect.
Review by Gab ★★★½

watched it out of curiosity because everyone was saying the hunger games is a copy. My final thought is.....they were right
Review by valerie ★★★

not to tag myself....BUT I’m the girl who keeps killing everyone and then still has time to do her makeup, change clothes, shower, AND do her skincare routine
Review by Jak-Luke Sharp ★★★★★

Arrow Video. Blu-Ray
1.78:1
Color
35mm
18

“So today's lesson is, you kill each other off till there's only one left. Nothing's against the rules”

SECOND VIEWING
THEATRICAL CUT

Batoru rowaiaru (Battle Royale) is a mesmerising and frightening tale of a dystopian state in complete authoritarian attack and control of the adolescent. It is a film that simply could not be made properly and to the razor sharp edge of nihilism in the West with its intensity and impact, ultimately leading to watered down uninspired holes such as The Hunger Games. Fukasakus’ picture is layered, poignant and ever so critical of a fascist state, possibly even more so in today’s society. It is a film that questions, as well as slices away the curtain that hides true authoritarian control of those whose mandates are to protect, but control.

Was 81 now 89
Review by jwhite6114 ★★½

Pre-Hunger Games Japanese fantasy. Heavy on gore, light on development. Good for treadmill.
Review by Paul Zoccolillo ★★★★

the grotesqueries of a quasi-fascistic dystopia meet the pains of being a teenager in this salient and enthralling thriller, unforgivingly brutal though self-aware in its satire, this cult favourite's special perversity only adds to its exploitative excellence