Battle Royale

Departing from two decades' worth of domestic and personal dramas and returning to his roots as Japan's maestro of mayhem, Kinji Fukasaku has delivered a brutal punch to the collective solar plexus with one of his most outrageous and timely films.

American fans of "The Hunger Games" may not embrace - or even be permitted to see - Battle Royale, which is too bad. It is in many ways a better movie and in any case a fascinating companion, drawn from a parallel cultural universe. It is a lot uglier and also, perversely, a lot more fun.

[Fukasaku's] genius is finding the overlap between teenage dreams and nightmares, between the intensity of first love and the terror of extinction.

Kinji Fukasaku's slick, sick nightmare is best left to the quasi-banned realm where it exists as a perfect satire; when brought into reality, it's a touch awkward.

This one's a thoroughly campy exercise in teen melodrama and Grand Guignol gore (how gory? it's one of Quentin Tarantino's favorite movies), the other (The Hunger Games) a straight-faced action picture.

Bloodhounds will lick their lips experiencing the re-launch of Kinji Fukasaku's trendsetting Battle Royale (2000) with 3D effects, which basically make the splatter scenes gorier and stickier.

Maybe Battle Royale's ultimate punchline is its inexplicable ability to fool some people into taking it seriously.

This is one of the greatest films ever made, it literally put battle royale into pop culture and influence in most video games, and this film inspired Hunger Games the concept of how a totalitarian society changes their way of living, not just living but surviving in it, Kinji once said at the behind of the scenes that this film took inspiration of his experiences during World War 2, this was Kinji **** final film before his death in 2003, where the sequel is dropped, final verdict though, I don't really recommend you to watch the sequel of this masterpiece because of it's Anti sentiments. but this one is a definite recommend. Grade: ***** (or 10 in Metacritic)

Semi-dystopia in the classroom, as a few unruly students assault their teacher and get the whole class shipped off to a deserted island. There, recent legislature doth decree, they'll fight to the death for the nation's amusement and, presumably, to serve as a cautionary tale for similarly rebellious juveniles. Learning the ground rules alongside the aghast students is quite a ride: randomized weapons, explosive neck collars, daily fatality announcements and roving danger zones to keep participants from just picking a spot and camping out. Witnessing the swift divide between the everyday kids who are out of their depth and those who are immediately, passionately bought-in is equally stunning. With forty-odd faces to chew ammo, it's impossible to feel complacent - somebody dies every couple of minutes - but also difficult to keep track of all the names and faces. Several attempts are made to hand-pick a few key personalities, to really get under the skin of why they are the way they are, but I found these segments too daydreamy and simplistic, like a bad anime. Shallow answers to dense, personality-defining questions. When it stays in its lane, Battle Royale is a wickedly harsh lampoon of the public hunger for fresh reality programming. It pulls no punches and airs all the dirty details, sweeping us up in the thrilling, violent whirlwind of a chase / trap / kill and then making us feel bad about it. Without its tremendous legacy, though, which has inspired long-running franchises throughout pop culture, I'm not sure it would be as well-regarded as it is. Much more powerful as an influencer than a standalone film.

5.7 This film is an absolute blast and if that was the only metric in which I ranked movies it would be a 10. The core of this film is greatly flawed, the main characters are BORING AND FORGETTABLE and the world building is pathetic. Essentially everything other then the violence in this film is ether mediocre or down right bad. Still a solid flick.

De verdad que no entiendo la nota de esta película, y no creo me valga la excusa de que es un clásico. Vaya CASTAÑA con todas sus letras de película me acabo de tragar. Algunos la tienen como súper buena, y no les juzgo pues para gustos colores. Pero, hay cosas que no tienen ningún tipo de sentido, escenas que te dejan totalmente roto. PASTELÓN

This is my Passion of the Christ, too violent and sick. Hunger Games Series were better than this garbage. I just personal cannot get into this.