In the early 2000s, it was relatively common within the Western market to have films that were severely toned down in terms of graphic content regardless of the age rating. Since it was during a boom where movies and television was very marketable to children which led to a lot of kids latching onto franchise that properly weren’t directed towards them (resulting in toys from R-rated properties like RoboCop, Rambo and Terminator), it resulted in a lot of neutered material during that era.  As a result, Japan decided to release its own intense messed-up killing spree fighting tournament of a film named Battle Royale, which was based on a 1999 novel written by journalist Koushun Takami, which was as successful as it was controversial, which is how the film was also viewed as. Set in the never designated future where the totalitarian Japanese government has apparently lost tolerance in their younger generation’s negligence and juvenile behavior, this has resulted in a system being put in place where a randomly picked class of ninth-grade students from a single school are kidnapped them to an isolated island and forced to compete in a battle to the death-style competition where only one can survive. One such class involved features Shuya and Noriko (played by Tatsuya Fujiwara and Aki Maeda), two simple quiet students who decide to stick together as their fellow students slowly lose their minds and succumb to the fear, killing each other off one by one. Both students, along with a previous winner of the game, Taro (played by Shogo Kawada), must find a way to escape while avoiding a deranged female student, Mitsuko Souma (played by Ko Shibasaki), a blood-hungry exchange student named Kazuo Kiriyama (played by Masanobu Andō), and the leader of the game, an old teacher Kitano (played by Takeshi Kitano) who has a close connection to Noriko. For a subject that seems to scream mindless gore-sploitation, Battle Royale surprisingly has a lot of intelligence behind it, which is what a lot of people seemed to think as it was the highest-grossing Japanese-language film for six weeks after its initial release and eventually grew a global cult following once it was distributed outside of Japan. While it does stumble a touch when it comes to aspects like its world-building and some annoyingly familiar story tropes, It has some decent characters, passionate acting, average but corny gore, and an intense atmosphere.

While the concept may feel similar to a certain famous teenage novel which includes a similar kind of all-out slaughter of youths (Hunger Games was clearly inspired by this story), this film has its own distinct Japanese feel that gives the movie an oddly light sense of humor that offsets the harsh brutality. Moments like hearing an upbeat lady announcer discussing the gruesome roles of the game in a very similar way to that of a game show surprisingly doesn’t kill the more intense moments later on and instead helps build up the concept in a unique manner. Despite the large number of contestants, the film is surprisingly well paced and never really gets boring, offering each student (regardless of how many there are) an understandable dilemma to overcome and focus on, so it almost never loses the audience’s attention. The film’s climax drags a bit and even the ending is quite underwhelming, but it’s mainly a minor gripe as the rest of the film isn’t too badly structure, properly helped out by having very well renowned director and screenwriter, Kinji Fukasaku, helm the movie (it was his last film before he passed away in 2003). However, the movie also doesn’t do a very good job establishing the world it inhabits; many of the teenagers aren’t seen enough outside the arena to get to know them all very well, and the actual logistics behind the Battle Royale isn’t explained very well and never shows a good reason for all this bloodshed to exist. It’s a shame because the world they set up in which the government is actively allowing students that are unruly to be slaughtered amongst each other could lead when to some interesting commentary, but because it’s so laser-focused on this one concept and pilled in with a lot of annoying romance drama, that little time is given to establish the world around this event, which leaves things a little under explained. Its a messy delivery from screenwriter and son of the director, Kenta Fukasaku, but does still contain enough of a sense of humor and self-awareness regarding the surreal nature of the situation to make it function well enough. Also, some plot points involving the characters feel very secondary and pointless in the large picture, especially the relationship between the lead girl and the teacher, and even a good majority of the students falling for each other seems to get repetitive really quick even though its meant to represent a last ditch desperate act before certain death. But with that said, when it focuses on the actual survival element, it has some surprisingly intense, even graphic moments that keep the viewers invested, but still keeps its own unique goofy Japanese tone to balance out the film overall.

The characters, though not given much time to be established, are for the short time we see them, interesting enough to follow. The main two are quite bland, the evil teacher, despite being played by a well-known Japanese celebrity, is pretty standard, and Masanobu Andō as the exchange student is laughably boring, but most of the others, either through the writing or the acting, come off as at least definable people with their own desires and even motivations that are all, even the most awful ones, understandable. It paints a pretty clever picture where the situation feels so dire and so out-of-your-control that it can let the hysterics run high in its character (which would be even more understandable considering these kids should be around 14-15), and because of this frantic state of atmosphere, the kids are allowed to be a little more exaggerated with their portrayals, and it can make them more memorable. Even though there are about forty kids, most of them have a lot of passion to admire that really comes through in the acting. Whether live-action Japanese over the top or as a straightforward actual good performance, all the kids are putting everything into their roles, even the most minimal parts, and provide some delightfully fierce performance, with special praise going to Ko Shibasaki as the antagonistic Mitsuko, who really sells the crazed stare and tilted smile of a psychopath flawlessly. However, though the characters are good, there is a lot of focus on romance between a lot of the characters and most of them either have no build up and don’t have much emotional impact, or only drag out the story with drawn out death scenes expressing their true feelings which kills the pacing and takes away from the world’s, at least, adequately realistic atmosphere.

The film’s gore, while used a lot throughout the film, doesn’t look particularly realistic, featuring more dulled reds that feel very much like out of an old fashion horror movie. What it lacks in realism, it makes up for in the specific use, because most of the students are wearing white and most of the environments are very bland looking and grey, so the red stands out much more and leaves a frightening image. It doesn’t detract from the gruesome killings and the creativity behind some of the murders as well as the sheer amount of death throughout do give credence to the R rating. It’s a story that was heavily criticized for its excessive violence that was specifically targeted at kids in high school, and if the story doesn’t have enough smarts built around its premise and themes, it could come across as lacking taste and depth, and while the film does somewhat have that element, the before-mentioned lack of further exploration of the world and its rules leaves some things to be desired sadly. The action isn’t anything special, mostly consisting of shaky close-up shot scuffles or generic gun shoot outs (which makes sense as that was a technique used a lot by Fukasaku in a lot of his films post 1970). Once and a while, there’s a good explosion and there’s even a shootout at the end at night with fire burning in the background surrounding the duelers that comes with a cool ambiance, but for a story all about mindless killing, it could’ve been a bit more interesting. The location itself isn’t the most interesting to look at and even the production design by Kyôko Heya doesn’t have anything striking to look at, but for a more intense movie focusing on survival, it makes sense to be mostly woodlands and seasides. The cinematography by Katsumi Yanagijima at times can get some good shots and works nicely on the establishing shots, but the close ups sometimes can get a little incoherent and hard to see.

For such a brutal idea and mindless motivations, Battle Royale has a great deal of effort put into this simple premise. The characters are simple, but identifiable and enjoyable to watch, the acting is amazingly passionate and energized, the concept is basic, but offers a lot of creative deaths and imagery, the environments are stale, but effective for the movie, and the film never goes too far in a specific tone to feel unbalanced, keeping the surprisingly clever moments still upbeat and positive, but also mixes them with the darker more gruesome reality that the film takes place in. If the villains were better, the world was better established, and some of the characters got even more development than the bare minimum, this could have been an even greater star killer for the ages. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but for that certain person who likes intense Japanese action, Battle Royale is an interesting trip to get into. Look and see if this game is worth viewing.

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