Battle Royale

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.

Japanese cinema can sometimes throw up some very interesting ideas, often being far more willing to push the boundaries of what is acceptable than many studios here would ever dare. Battle Royale is one such example and delivers an experience that is both inventive and nightmarish, but also just as incredibly entertaining as it is taboo.

I hadn't seen this in ten years or so and was somewhat concerned that the spectre of The Hunger Games (being more or less a poor, sanitised facsimile of the film) might detract from the experience this time around. Thankfully, this wasn't the case and it didn't enter my mind once. From the first few seconds onwards, its captivating melodrama and gleeful pomp had me glued to the screen, absorbed in the universe gone askew in which pitting children against each other in a fight for survival is an acceptable method of discipline. It's this aspect of the premise, more so than any others, that renders imitators so inferior. The sadistic nature of the world, the sheer cruelty of it, that give it so much more weight. However, this is not necessarily to say that it sets out to succeed through disturbing the viewer.

At its heart, this is an action flick. Yes, there is a great deal of blood, and yes, these murderers (and victims) are school children, but the action sequences are by far the most prominent point of the film. It's sometimes almost surprising that it was released as recently as 2000, mostly due to the very '80s action feel that can be found in many of the scenes. There's a sort of grubby, Escape from New York air to it that I just love. In addition to this, it is also about as far from Hollywood as you can get. The Asian style of storytelling is markedly different from that of Hollywood and its ilk, making for an experience that is always refreshing, should you be the sort that takes in a great deal of American cinema.

As far as the characters are concerned, I can only say that there seem to be many unstable types in the Japanese school system. Granted, these particular youths are intended to be disaffected and rebellious in the extreme, but the frequency and ease with which they turn sociopathic is alarming. Having said that, it does make for some very memorable imagery. On top of this, those overseeing the bloodbath are just as warped as those forced to take part and seem to take no small degree of pleasure in the carnage as it unfolds. Most have little to no depth to them, but this works just fine given the nature of the movie. At the very least the central players are afforded some dispensation in this respect.

Overall, there's very little time to catch a breath given the pace of the film, with violence that comes thick and fast, as well as the gore. In light of this, the degree of depth is surprising and certainly has the capacity to get you thinking.

The Verdict:

8/10
An action flick that spares no stomach when it comes to the blood, but at the same time isn't completely brainless. Both controversial and incredibly entertaining in equal measure.