Battle Royale

Battle Royale (Batoru Rowaiaru) (2000)

Runtime: I saw the 121 minute Special Edition

Directed by: Kinji Fukasaku

Starring: A bunch of random Japanese teens, plus Beat Takeshi

From: Toei

I am slaughtering a sacred cow here...

Note that it taking me more than 20 years to see this has no bearing on my rating; there are plenty of films I still want to view & it just takes the right time and place for it—plus, it took more than a decade for Battle Royale to arrive on US shores due to controversy. Last night I finally decided to see why this has so much love among everyone (including Tarantino) and afterwards, I am still pondering this...

It was one thing for me to not quite understand just why a totalitarian version of the Japanese government would want to try and kill off much of its younger generation even if they were rabble-rousers... but “satire” and all that so perhaps I should not dwell on that. It was another thing for me to try and care about the story when its tone was all wrong to me-including “humor” that was more a turn-off than anything else-and I did not care about any of these dumbass young teenagers, which included some bad actors. It was not a pleasurable or fun 2 hours seeing those “shocking” and “graphic” moments involving no one I cared for. In addition, among various story issues I've seen some criticism of who lives and dies & how “it was a product of male writers”-that is a worthy discussion point although I won't say on which side of the fence I'm on there.

I'll just shrug my shoulders and not spend time worrying why most others love this while this was a massive disappointment for me. It was wild that this was made by a man in his late 60's; however, give me his 1980 Virus (a downbeat picture which at least had a great cast and an intriguing story) or even the silliness of The Green Slim instead. Plus, Battles Without Honor or Humanity should be more up my alley-I'll find out in the future.