Battle Royale (2000)

Number Rolled: 55

Movie Name/Year: Battle Royale (2000)

Genre: Thriller

Length: 113 Minutes

Rating: NR

Director: Kinji Fukasaku

Writer: Koushun Takami, Kenta Fukasaku

Actors: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Aki Maeda, Taro Yamamoto, Takeshi Kitano, Chiaki Kuriyama, Sosuke Takaoka, Takashi Tsukamoto, Yukihiro Kotani, Eri Ishikawa, Sayaka Kamiya, Aki Inoue, Takayo Mimura, Yutaka Shimada, Ren Matsuzawa, Hirohito Honda, Ryou Nitta, Sayaka Ikeda, Anna Nagata, Yukari Kanasawa, Misao Kato, Hitomi Hyuga, Yuko Miyamura, Ko Shibasaki, Masanobu Ando, Ivan Buckley

During a time of economic collapse in Japan, school students have gone rogue. There are stabbings, classes frequently cut school in unison, teenagers are rude and disrespectful. As a way of trying to regain control, the Japanese government issues the Battle Royale Law. The law states that one class should be chosen randomly to be transported to a deserted island where they will be forced to fight to the death until there is only one survivor.

Since I became obsessed with the “Hunger Games” (yes, obsessed is the right word), a lot of people have been telling me to watch “Battle Royale”. This move predated the aforementioned story by about eight years, and they seem to be analogous. At the core, the fighting to the death mixed with love stories is essentially the same. However, the actual details and flow of storyline are vastly different, making the two stories comparable – but not as similar as you would expect.

“Battle Royale” was much more gruesome than I thought it would be and many of the kills were unnecessarily over the top. That was my only issue with it, though. The actors were amazing, and the effects were alright despite some slight continuity errors. I was also fond of the look into the psychology in play – it was interesting to see the differences between fight and flight.

I enjoyed the movie immensely, and I’m looking forward to when I get to see “Battle Royale II”.

Netflix’s Prediction for Me – 3.8/5

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 86%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 89%

Trust-the-Dice Score – 4.5/5

The Random Rating: R – Strong Violence

P.S. Based on a Novel of the same name by Koushun Takami. (The manga was developed after the original novel.)

Movie Trailer: