Begin with 'The Hunger Games', remove the fantasy setting and the Americans, and you've got 'Battle Royale'.
Also, add a more compelling cast, a good deal more gore, and general awesomeness (General Awesomeness). 'Battle Royale' sees Japan in a near future where the youth are rebelling violently and unpredictably. To sort this out the army takes a class of kids who are graduating high school, puts them all on an island, and has them fight each other to the death. Each kid starts with a bag of goodies, including one "weapon" (anything from an uzi to a frying pan) which makes for an interesting game. Oh yeah, and they're controlled via explosive collars, tha go off if they leave the island, try to remove them, or are in one of the unsafe zones at any given time. This is so that they can be hearded near one another, and to prevent camping (the FPS meaning of "camping", not literally. Literally they're all camping the whole time, kinda).
The backround is explained away in the first few minutes of the film, and much of the details of the game are revealed soon after. This leaves us trying to figure out who the protagonist is meant to be, as we are offered up possible options, only for them to either start brutally killing their former classmates or be brutally killed by their former classmates. This is one of the reasons why I enjoyed the movie: it offers little more than a middle finger to its audience, tricking us into following some backstory of any given kid (which, even as we watch it, we're thinking is a little too cliche, and feels a little sarcastic) before offing them (usually in some sort of ironic, or at east tragic, way).
I particularly liked the teacher, he's a complicated old bastard. All the characters felt pretty real, actually - the acting was fine all round. The location and many of the shots were great too, and I liked all the classical music.
Oh yeah! And I love that shot towards the end, of the blinded Kazuo Kiriyama standing in front of burning wreckage, still shooting at the others. He was a great villain.
It's fun and dark and thoughtful, and I'd happily watch it again some time.
Oh yeah! And I love that shot towards the end, of the blinded Kazuo Kiriyama standing in front of burning wreckage, still shooting at the others. He was a great villain.
It's fun and dark and thoughtful, and I'd happily watch it again some time.
Battle Royale: 71.6