Battle Royale (2000) - Originally Written August 9, 2012

 Battle Royale (2000)

Watching The Movie: 

Like most foreign films; if you are not a native speaker, you usually have a choice to make; bad dubbing or spending as much time READING the movie as you are watching it, however for BR, the choice is actually "Do I want to read this in English, or in Korean (and guess which one is on by default). That said, as a movie, it's not all that different an experience from other "survival game" films. Not speaking the language hurts it as a "movie" because you can't really just sit back and enjoy it.

Screening the film: 

"Survival game" imagery (man vs society, man vs man, man vs self, strategy formulation and tactics, information asymmetries, trust choices, leadership and mentoring, and of course, game theory in general). Regimen vs Chaos, political structure. Obviously being a foreign film, there is consideration within a cultural context, in this case, Japanese (The training video girl was AWESOME) and being the movie is now 12 years old, there's an element of historical context as well. Oh and I almost forgot, there's a couple images of young vs old as well; you don't really notice it though /sarcasm

Best Quotation: 

"Listen, if you hate someone, you take the consequences... Irresponsible? Who the hell asked you?"

The Bottom Line:

By default, I tend to stay away from plot summaries in these reviews because it's not about what happened as much as it is what I saw; but as soon as my friend Chuck told me about this film (and the fact it's apparently becoming a CW series and according to IMDB being remade in 2015); (2023 note, as near as I can tell neither actually happened) I immediately rattled off about 5 other films with similar premises; most notably "The Condemned (2007) and "The Running Man" (1987). (2023 note, Uh, The Hunger Games? Pretty sure I had just watched the first movie with my girlfriend at the time not long before this) Both those films focus more on the entertainment, gladiatorial "lions vs Christians" aspect of society; BR is more about the sheer pointlessness of our existence and the soul crushing loneliness that comes with it for the individual who lacks drive and clarity of purpose. It's considered by many to be a modern masterpiece. I can't go that far; it's not a good enough movie (because I don't speak Japanese); and as a film it could be a little more succinct in making it's point (the film is easily 20 minutes too long); but it is a very worthy addition to any serious film buff's collection

4 out of 5

 

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