Battle Royale [DVD] [2001] [NTSC]

The reasoning behind this bizarre piece of legislation is perhaps the weakest part of the plot - but the Director deftly causes us to suspend disbelief by drawing us surely and touchingly into the feelings of the young cast. Unlike many western movies which trot out a body count of simplistic characters who are only there to die horribly for our entertainment, Battle Royale somehow manages to rapidly introduce us to the story's potential victims and make us care about them.

We are deliberately disoriented by blackly humorous elements - most notably the video taped instructions delivered by a relentlessly hyper female presenter; like a living cartoon character, she mockingly tells the children to think of her as their new big sister and urges them to ‘fight with gusto’. As the class is issued with their survival packs (containing food, water, a flashlight and a randomly-issued weapon which might be as deadly as a shotgun or as useless as a paper fan), we see them react in a variety of realistic ways - some are numbed with terror; some decline to kill; others rush outside and prepare to ambush their former friends.

You will read reviews that describe this film as excessively violent. I believe that this is a gross overstatement. Though there are many deaths and not a little blood, the main emphasis is upon simple human values - issues such as trust, friendship, love and hate - which the competition tests to their very limits. Children who have little genuine experience of living are forced to evaluate their relationships with each other if they want to stay alive. Alliances are formed and broken; long suppressed crushes and barely buried antagonisms influence their decisions.

There are no easy or mindless deaths in this film. The violent scenes make the point that violence and death are not cool or funny. This is not Kill Bill; every character in Battle Royale has value as a living, breathing human being. It may sound corny to say that the movie is an emotional rollercoaster ride, but it truly is - having dared to give us three dimensional people who bleed when they are cut, the Director sometimes dares to cruelly follow scenes of tragedy with jarring moments of biting, dark and sarcastic wit.

We are given subtle hints that the game is rigged and that the class has not really been 'chosen by impartial lottery'. The adults who manage the contest have hidden agendas; disconcertingly, their own behaviour does not make them good role models for the young 'delinquents' they are supposedly attempting to reform. Their leader - one of the students' former teachers - is revealed (like many of the S.S. men who ran the Nazi concentration camps) to be a failure in life outside the game. Uninspiring as a teacher and unloved and unrespected as a father, he receives such bitterly contemptuous 'phone calls from his own daughter that we almost feel pity for him. Yet, this emotionally-crippled man ultimately shows himself to be unexpectedly capable of an unconventional brand of compassion.

If this was an American movie, the class would be played by people in their twenties and thirties. Two or three of the students would be given a lot of screen time and the rest would be faceless cannon fodder. Five seconds after the opening titles, you would know who was going to survive. Despite its odd premise, Battle Royale seems closer to reality because its teenagers really are teenagers and it allows no comforting certainties about who lives or dies.

The true genius of Battle Royale lies in the ensemble playing of the entire cast. Although young, not one of them strikes a dud note and the script gives almost all of the students a chance to shine at some point. The fight scenes are not staged in the style of 'Enter The Dragon' - the kids are not weapons experts or Karate champions. We see them kill each other but we are not invited to hate them - they are, after all, children. They are scared and desperate.

Some reviewers have criticised aspects of the dialogue as unrealistic. There are certainly times when the script seems stagey - but it is important to remember that these Japanese children are products of a national culture which often finds the expression of passionate emotions problematical. If anything, the formal phrasing and awkwardness of their most heartfelt expressions only serves to make them more meaningful.

The Special Edition ends (quite literally) with a question. You will find yourself going back to this movie time and time again to answer it. Each viewing is rewarded with details that you probably missed previously - the depth of characterisation and the layers of hidden-in-plain-sight clues continually allow you to understand the story from fresh perspectives.

There are probably three reasons to watch this film, or at least three ways to view it. One is as a slickly written and filmed movie which bombards us with so many stories that we are unable really to predict what will happen, despite the many cliches thrown at us. This is the mature film-making of a mature film-maker, capable of keeping a film going without attempting to instil any overall message. The attempts of those characters we might expect the director to most sympathise with, those who attempt to rebel against the system (as I think the director did in his younger days) are thwarted by Kiriyama's dispassionate shooting spree, without the group ever really having a chance to carry out their plan.

The second reason is perhaps the multitude of characters and their reactions to the situation, which is quite explicitly established as a paradigm of real life, as Kitano tells Class B 'Life is a game. Now fight for srvival and see if you're worth it.' This is where the Lord of the Flies element comes in. No matter who a character is, their intentions will always be compromised by those of another. The characters are carried along by the system dying deaths as absurd and pointless as the game itself. The message is perhaps dark, but if you llike looking at the woorld in this kind of way, you'll enjoy the movie.

The third reason is no doubt the quality of the acting, with most of the characters played by school-age children. Its this that gives the movie its originality and subtlety. The relationships between characters seem as apprehensive and real as they would be in a real school situation. At the same time no character is a steretype; there are no jocks or geeks as such, and no time is spent lingering on past events which are proved now by the situation to be irrelevant.

I'm not sure this film can be classed a masterpiece, but at the same time is far more enjoyable than many films that would be, and not just in a guns 'n death kinda way. It's a beautiful, often subtle film, and though not exactly profound it makes no attempts to be so. If you're looking for gratuitous violence you might be disappointed. Suffering in this film is for the most part self-inflicted. This is a film about school-leavers fighting not only a world which despises them, but also a world which loves them.

The truly great thing about this film is the way the children are portrayed. You see how they react differently and shockingly to the contest, by laughing it off until they cop a bullet in the ribs, or taking their own lives because they cannot face killing their friends, or forming gangs built on fragile trust that can be broken in a heartbeat. Truly shocking, yet riveting in a way that makes you unable to stop watching. It's acted by real children - not famous children bred on success. That really really adds to the films effect.

As I said, this film can be taken on two levels. I seriously suggest seeing it firstly as a shocking and realistic film. The emotive power of this film beats anything I have seen before.

Excellent. Get it.