Batoru rowaiaru (2000)

Director:

Kinji Fukasaku

Writers:

Koushun Takami (novel)
Kenta Fukasaku (screenplay)

Release Date:

16 December 2000 (Japan)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

Could you kill your best friend?

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

Graphic Violence | Push Button | Desert Island | Entrails | Bloody Violence

Awards:

7 wins & 7 nominations

Cast

Tatsuya Fujiwara	...	Shuya Nanahara - Boys #15
Aki Maeda	...	Noriko Nakagawa - Girls #15
Taro Yamamoto	...	Shougo Kawada - Boys #5
Chiaki Kuriyama	...	Takako Chigusa - Girls #13
Sosuke Takaoka	...	Hiroki Sugimura - Boys #11
Takashi Tsukamoto	...	Shinji Mimura - Boys #19
Yukihiro Kotani	...	Yoshitoki Kuninobu - Boys #7
Eri Ishikawa	...	Yukie Utsumi - Girls #2
Sayaka Kamiya	...	Satomi Noda - Girls #17
Aki Inoue	...	Fumiyo Fujiyoshi - Girls #18
Takayo Mimura	...	Kayoko Kotohiki - Girls #8
Yutaka Shimada	...	Yutaka Seto - Boys #12
Ren Matsuzawa	...	Keita Iijima - Boys #2
Hirohito Honda	...	Kazushi Niida - Boys #16
Ryou Nitta	...	Kyouichi Motobuchi - Boys #20

Also Known As:

Battle Royale (International: English title)
Batalha Real (Brazil) (festival title) [pt]
Batalla real (Argentina) [es]
Battle Royale (Spain) [es]
Battle Royale (Greece) [el]
Battle Royale (France) [fr]

Runtime:

114 min | USA:121 min (director's cut) | South Korea:120 min | Japan:122 min (director's cut)

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Germany:18 (JK/SPIO) (cut) | Malaysia:(Banned) | Canada:18A (Alberta) | Portugal:M/18 | Taiwan:R-18 | Argentina:18 | Australia:R | Belgium:KNT | Canada:R | Finland:K-18 | France:-16 | Hong Kong:III | Iceland:16 | Ireland:18 | Japan:R-15 | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R18 | Norway:18 | Peru:18 | Singapore:(Banned) (original rating) | Singapore:R(A) (edited for re-rating) | Singapore:R21 (re-rating) (uncut) | South Korea:18 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:18

Company:

Battle Royale Production Committee

Trivia:

The truck that Shinji uses to build his car bomb is a Honda Acty pick-up truck.

Goofs:

Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Noriko tells Kawada that the food that he cooked was good, we hear him reply that his father was a cook even though at that moment his mouth doesn't move.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Reporter: This year Zentsuji Middle School number 4's Class E was chosen from among 43,000 Ninth grade classes. This year's game, said to be more blistering than the last - - Oh look there! There she is! The winner's a girl! Surviving a fierce battle that raged two days, seven hours, and 43 minutes - the winner is a girl! Look, she's smiling! Smiling! The girl definitely just smiled!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Tokyo 10+01 (2003)

Soundtrack:

Dies Irae

A compelling & haunting masterpiece.

Based on a Japanese novel by Koushun Takami, "Battle Royale" is the story of a group of ninth graders who are transported to a small isolated island with a map, food and different arms. They are told to fight each other for three consecutive days until there remains but one student, who will then be named the 'winner'. All students are forced to wear a metal collar with a radar so that their teacher is aware when a rule is being broken.

The film is set in Japan and is in Japanese (and if you do come across a dubbed version, dispose of it immediately because it's only worth it to watch the original). It's hard to classify this film, as despite the extreme violence in it, it isn't action and despite its nightmarish feel, it isn't horror. It's just in between. There are many themes to this story; from to trust to complete selfishness (killing your best friend to save your own life) to suicide to disloyalty, and the list goes on.

The actors in Battle Royale were amazing. It is rare to find young talents like these, for instance, in Hollywood. These actors were by far the best young actors I have seen in all my life (though most of them weren't as young as their characters were). Tatsuya Fujiwara plays the main character, Shuya, a young man who is struck by tragedy when he becomes an orphan. All he has now is his best friend and the girl with whom he is madly in love. Fujiwara did a great job of transmitting the feel of despair that one would probably feel if he/she were to see his best friend die before their eyes, or to have to see classmates killing each other and then to portray that never-ending trust that two lovers share. The other actors all did a generally good job as well.

The first actor I'd like to criticize is Taro Yamamoto, who played the compassionate Shougo Kawada, who helps the protagonist and his girlfriend as the game of Battle Royale goes on. I thought that Yamamoto overplayed the character's casualty and I didn't feel as attached to him watching the movie as I did reading the comic book. The other actor I thought did a terrible job relative to the other actors was Masanobu Ando, who played the haunting character Kazuo Kiriyama, who basically seemed immune to everything. While reading the book, that guy really creeped the sh*t out of me. But in the movie, he just basically did the "undercover" thing and sort of leaped from place to place and tortured and killed people and that was it. You didn't feel anything, and in my opinion, that character was one of the most important so it was pretty disappointing. But putting those two aside, the acting WAS splendid, just as the directing of (sci-fi/Japanese gangster movie director) Kinji Fukasaku was.

I thought that the story was very haunting and compelling, and that you should read the novel or the comic book before watching the movie because just the use of your imagination and attachment to the characters while reading the books is so much more real. I really enjoyed the movie too, though, and would recommend it to anyone who has the stomach for constant shootings, hangings, blowing-up, abandoned corpses and a lot of blood squirting everywhere.

And so if it fits the shoe, rent it out. You probably won't regret it.