Battle Royale (film)

Battle Royale
Directed by	Kinji Fukasaku
Produced by	Kenta Fukasaku Kimio Kataoka Chie Kobayashi Toshio Nabeshima
Written by	Novel: Koushun Takami Screenplay: Kenta Fukasaku
Starring	Tatsuya Fujiwara Aki Maeda Taro Yamamoto Takeshi Kitano Masanobu Ando
Music by	Masamichi Amano
Cinematography	Katsumi Yanagishima
Editing by	Hirohide Abe
Distributed by	Toei
Release date(s)	December 16, 2000
Running time	Theatrical Cut: 114 min. Special Version: 122 min.
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese
Budget	$4,500,000 (estimated)
Followed by	Battle Royale II: Requiem

Battle Royale (バトル・ロワイアル, Batoru Rowaiaru^?) is a 2000 Japanese film based on the novel of the same name and directed by Kinji Fukasaku. It was written by Kenta Fukasaku, and stars Takeshi Kitano and Tatsuya Fujiwara. The film aroused much controversy.^[1][2]

A sequel, Battle Royale II: Requiem, followed. The music soundtracks for both movies were composed, arranged and conducted by Masamichi Amano, performed by the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra and features pieces of real classical music with some original composition. The choral classical music used as the film's main theme music is "Dies Irae" from Giuseppe Verdi's Requiem.

Production

Creative process

Kinji Fukasaku stated that the novel reminded him of his time as a 15-year old munitions factory worker, so he decided to create the film adaptation. When he was 15 years old, Fukasaku's class was drafted, and he worked as a munitions worker during World War II. In July 1945, the class was caught in artillery fire. Since the children could not escape artillery fire, they had to dive under each other in order to survive. The surviving members of the class had to dispose of the corpses. Fukasaku realized that the Japanese government lied about World War II at that point; Fukasaku had a burning hatred of adults in general for a long time.^[3]

When asked in an interview with The Midnight Eye if the film is "a warning or advice to the youth," Kinji Fukasaku responded by describing the words "warning" and "advice" as "sounding very strong to me" as if they were actions which one tries to accomplish; therefore the film would not be "particularly a warning or advice." Fukasaku explained that the film, which he describes as "a fable," includes themes, such as crime by young people, which in Japan "are very much real modern issues." Fukasaku said that he did not have a lack of concern or a lack of interest; he used the themes as part of his fable. When the interviewer told Fukasaku that he asked the question specifically because of the word "run," the end text, which the interviewer describes as "very positive." Fukasaku explained that he developed the concept throughout the film. Fukasaku interpreted the interviewer's question as having "a stronger meaning" than "a simple message." Fukasaku explained that the film has his "words to the next generation" so the viewer should decide whether to take the words as advice or as a warning.^[3][4]

Ratings

Kinji Fukasaku originally opposed the R15 rating given by the Eiga Rinri Kanri Iinkai (Eirin) because of Fukasaku's experience when adolescent, the novel's use of fifteen-year old students, and the fact that many of the actors were around fifteen years old. After he submitted an appeal and before Eiga Rinri Kanri Iinkai could rule on the appeal, members of the Diet of Japan said that the film harmed adolescent movie-goers; the Diet members also criticized the film industry ratings, which were a part of self-regulation by the Japanese film industry. Fukasaku dropped the appeal to oppose the Japanese Diet.^[3][4]

Plot

The plot of the film is fairly faithful to that of the novel, with some key differences. The prologue is as follows:

"At the dawn of the millennium, the nation collapsed. At fifteen percent unemployment, ten million were out of work. 800,000 students boycotted school. The adults lost confidence, and fearing the youth, eventually passed the Millennium Educational Reform Act - AKA: The BR Act..."

The film concentrates on Shuya Nanahara (Tatsuya Fujiwara), a charismatic young boy living in Kanagawa Prefecture. After his mother abandons him and his father commits suicide, he becomes disillusioned. The rest of his class-mates are similarly disillusioned, and have little respect for governmental figures. Shuya's best friend, Yoshitoki "Nobu" Kuninobu (Yukihiro Kotani), attacks their ench (principal) Kitano (Takeshi Kitano), but runs away before he can be identified. Noriko Nakagawa (Aki Maeda), a sweet, reserved young girl who happens to witness the incident, hides the knife that Nobu has just attacked Kitano with. Kitano, frustrated, resigns.

The next year, as the students are nearing the end of their compulsory learning period, they embark on a class trip. On the bus the entire class is gassed, kidnapped, taken to an isolated island, and fitted with electronic collars. Once there, the students are shocked to find that they are within an abandoned school, and that Kitano (along with the government) is behind the entire operation. Kitano informs them that they have been selected as participants in Battle Royale, a game made by the Millennial Educational Reform Act (better known as the Battle Royale Act) where the students must kill each other until only one is left. One class from the country per year is selected to participate in the program. If after three days a winner is not declared, the explosive collars attached to each student's neck will be detonated. The collars also prevent the students from entering certain areas of the field of participation, the "danger zones," the idea being to force students to encounter each other. (This instruction is delivered by a cute, smiling girl via a video, who behaves like a kindergarten teacher and refers to herself as their "big sister".) After killing a student, Fumiyo Fujiyoshi, for whispering, Kitano also detonates Nobu's collar, killing him. One by one, each student leaves the school, having been provided with survival packs and a random weapon.

The students split. Some of them go into groups, while others stay on their own. A mute boy who signed up for fun named Kazuo Kiriyama, whose weapon is a paper fan, manages to kill a large group of students and goes around the island by himself, killing without remorse. Also willing to kill is Mitsuko Souma, who has taken it upon herself to win the game, using every thing she has at her disposal, especially seduction.

Some students refuse to play the game. Shuya, grieving over Nobu's death, decides to take it upon himself to protect Noriko, the object of Nobu's affection. Elsewhere, class president Yukie Utsumi (Eri Ishikawa) gathers a group of girls and decides to hide in an abandoned light-house, while junior revolutionary Shinji Mimura (Takashi Tsukamoto) gathers his friends and plans to hack the system and blow the school up (along with Kitano), there-by liberating the students.

Other students accept their fate. While some commit suicide, a student named Hiroki Sugimura (Sousuke Takaoka) decides to make the best of his final hours, and seeks his best friend, Takako Chigusa (Chiaki Kuriyama), and the girl he loves, Kayoko Kotohiki (Takayo Mimura).

The film's main plot focuses on Shuya and Noriko. They eventually run into Shogo Kawada, a seasoned warrior and Kobe native with an agenda. They witness Kiriyama murder Yumiko Kusaka and Yukiko Kitano, who were trying to call for peace, and Kawada runs off. Later, they run into Kawada again when they stumble upon his hide-out. Kawada lets them in and reveals that he is out to avenge the death of his sweet-heart, Keiko Onuki, who sacrificed herself for him in a previous game. How ever, when Kiriyama kills Toshinori Oda without the building (earning himself a bulletproof vest), Shuya tries to kill Kiriyama and only survives due to Hiroki Sugimura intervening while Shuya escapes. Sugimura then brings Shuya to the light-house where the girls are hiding.

Shuya wakes bandaged in the light-house, where many of the girls are hiding. Yuko Sakaki poisons a bowl of soup meant for Shuya. When Yuka Nakagawa is accidentally killed by the poison, all of the girls begin to distrust each other and they all kill each other, except Sakaki, who commits suicide over the guilt of killing her friend. An injured Shuya grabs all of the guns and begins looking for Noriko. Elsewhere, Noriko is confronted by Mitsuko, but Kitano scares her off and she meets Shuya again.

As the game continues and only a few students are left, Sugimura finds Kotohiki, the girl he loves, hiding in a ware-house. She kills him, thinking he is a threat, and is shortly after killed by Mitsuko. Kiriyama then arrives at the ware-house and kills Mitsuko. Elsewhere, Mimura and his friends have hacked into the system and are ready to destroy the school. Kiriyama arrives at the scene, killing every one and increasing his kill count to twelve, but not before Mimura manages to detonate the bomb, leaving Kiriyama blinded as Shuya, Noriko and Kawada arrive on the scene. Kawada confronts Kiriyama, who even while blinded, manages to shoot him a few times before Kawada shoots his collar, killing him, leaving only Shuya, Noriko and Kawada on the island.

Kawada then reveals that he knows how to disable the collars, and fakes Shuya's and Noriko's deaths. Declared the winner, Kawada treks to the school. Kitano has since declared the operation a success, and is the only one there. Kawada confronts Kitano, and is soon joined by Shuya and Noriko. Kitano is unsurprised to see that Shuya and Noriko have survived, having realized Kawada's plan. He reveals that he had hoped that Noriko would survive, as his daughter, Shiori, hates him - he sees Noriko as the daughter he never had. Kitano then reveals a hand-painted picture of Noriko, smiling and standing among her dead class-mates. Not wanting to return home, he orders Noriko to kill him. Shuya eventually does when Kitano threatens Noriko with a gun, which is revealed as he falls to be a water pistol. Following a final conversation with Shiori, over the telephone, in which he tells her one must accept the consequences of hating some one, he dies.

The remaining trio escapes the island on a boat, but Kawada succumbs to his wounds and dies after teaching Shuya how to pilot the boat. As he dies, he reveals that in Shuya and Noriko he accomplished his goal of discovering why Keiko sacrificed herself for him - she, like he now, had finally found true friends and was willing to relent her life for them. Shuya and Noriko make it to land, where they become fugitives wanted for murder. Together, they go on the run.

Difference between the book and the film

Difference between the book includes (though is not limited to):

• The program administrator's name and personality are different - the subplot of Kitano's family and his love for Noriko is not present in Kinpatsu Sakamochi - the equivalent character - in the novel. Additionally, Sakamochi had no previous relationship with the class, and is significantly more sadistic than Kitano.
• In the original novel, Battle Royale is simply known as "the Program" and has been taught about in school from fourth grade and on. In the film, the students have no knowledge of the Program whatsoever.
• Kazuo Kiriyama is a transfer student in the film (playing voluntarily), whereas in the novel he was a member of the class. He also occasionally smiles sadistically, which his novel and manga counterparts are incapable of, suggesting the brain-damage preventing him from emoting in the novel is not present. Kazuo in the film does not, however, speak on any occasion, though he does in the novel. In the movie, one gets the impression that Kazuo is only a cold-blooded sadistic killer, while in the novel several things imply that he is suffering from pseudopsychopathic disorder due to the brain-injury he got from a car-crash/in utero (in the manga/novel, respectively). His inability to emote, empathize or project morality are some things that suggests this theory. For example, in the novel he says that he let a coin decide when ever he should fight back against the government or participate in the game.
• Mitsuko's killing of Hirono Shimizu in the film - as opposed to Toshinori Oda killing Hirono in the novel - replaces a scene in the book in which Hiroki confronts Mitsuko over Chigusa's death shortly before he locates Kotohiki, though she escapes him.
• In the film, Kazuo does not kill Mizuho Inada, and Hirono does not kill Kaori Minami. Instead, Mizuho and Kaori form a team and kill each other over a life-preserver.
• The film depicts the students as residents of the Kanagawa Prefecture, as Mimura's postcard reveals a mailing address in the name of "Mr. Sinji Mimura" in Kanagawa Prefecture. With the exception of Shogo Kawada, most students in the film speak Kantō ben, the dialect of the Eastern Kantō region, which includes Kanagawa. The novel and manga set Shiroiwa in the rural Kagawa Prefecture, on Shikoku island.
• Various students start with different weapons and die in different manners. Almost every student is given a back-ground in the novel, whereas only the significant characters receive them in the film.
• The 'victory' dead-line is changed from the book; in the film, the students are given three days to win, while in the book, the only dead-line is that at least one student be killed every twenty-four hours. Further, only one class participates per year in the film, whereas it is fifty in the novel.
• In the film, the "police state" overtones are toned down (but are still notably present), while the idea of a major social and economic up-heaval being the cause of the story's events is introduced in the beginning.
• The school-uniforms featured in the film differ from the ones featured in the novel.
• In the book Kazuo is killed by Noriko and Shogo after a large shoot-out and car chase (the latter being fully absent in the film), while in the film Shogo Kawada kills Kiriyama.
• The Battle Royale logo is never described in the book.
• There is no "introductory video" in the novel. The rules of the Battle Royale are simply read out in the class-room by Sakamochi.
• Shogo mentions he was not with Keiko Onuki during the previous game in the book, also he makes no mention of killing a friend so they could both survive.
• Noriko is shot in the leg in the book, but is shot in the arm in the movie.
• The film portrays Mitsuko's coldness as having stemmed from her youth during which she inadvertently kills a man to avoid being raped after she is pimped by her mother for money. In the novel, Mitsuko is unable to escape several incidents of rape in which she is a brain-washed and love-starved participant.
• In the film, the Battle Royale act is introduced to deal with widely spread delinquency in young citizens. In the novel, the participants are initially told that the Battle Royale is a simulated battle-exercise used to obtain data for use by the military, and the mandatory entry is a replacement for conscription. How ever, a character is later told that the true purpose to keep the totalitarian government in control, by inspiring citizens to fear and distrust each other.
• In the novel the character Hiroki Sugimura is adept at martial arts and utilizes this skill in several scenes; no mention is made of it in the movie.
• In the film, Shogo initially runs off after saving Shuya from Kyoichi and they meet later when Noriko is ill. In the novel, they stay together after this encounter and travel to a medical clinic when Noriko is ill.
• In the film, Shogo immediately returns after leaving saying that he was given the wrong day pack and receives a new one. His exit is not mentioned at all in the novel.
• In the novel, Kazuo Kiriyama is the leader of a gang consisting of Mitsuri Numai, Sho Tsukioka, Ryuhei Sasagawa, and Hiroshi Kuronaga. They are known in the original novel as "the Kiriyama family."
• Similar to the Kiriyama family in the novel, Mitsuko Souma was the leader of a group that consisted of Yoshimi Yahagi and Hirono Shimizu.

Cast

See also: List of characters in Battle Royale (film)

Distribution

Distribution in North America

Despite rumors to the contrary, the film is not banned in the United States. Rather, there has never been a distribution agreement for the film, due to its controversy and reportedly unreasonable distribution terms specified by Toei (specifically the price of distribution being somewhere between 1-2 million dollars and that it must be a wide release on the order of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). This, incidentally is not the first of Toei's controversial moves in regards to its properties and the European and North American markets. This stipulation put it out of the range of most smaller film distributors, and the larger distributors would not handle the film. Therefore, technically the film is not banned, but neither does a local distributor for it exist. It has been exhibited at film festivals in North America. None the less, 'bootleg' copies of the film imported from China and Hong Kong have widely spread availability on the continent, and a 'Special Edition D.V.D.' of the film was carried to a limited extent by retailers such as HMV and Starstruck Entertainment in Canada and Tower Records in the United States; the legal status of this edition is not clear. Also, the film's UK distributor, Tartan Films, has released an all-region NTSC D.V.D. version of the film that is available in North America from specialty outlets. One widely available Hong Kong import is a special edition without English subtitles that contains both Battle Royale and its sequel.

Sasebo slashing controversy

The creators of the sequel postponed the release of the D.V.D. (originally scheduled for June 9, 2004) to later that year, due to 'current events' which at the time was the Sasebo slashing. The killer was a fan of Battle Royale.^[5]

Release of Special Version

A special version of the film was released after the original which has eight extra minutes of running time. Unusually, the extra material includes scenes newly filmed after the release of the original. Inserted scenes include (but are not limited to):

• Flash-backs to a basketball game which is used as a frame-work for the entire story.
• A flash-back that explains Mitsuko's personality.
• Three epilogues (referred to as "requiems"). The first is an extension of the basket-ball scene. The second is a vision of Nobu telling Shuya to take care of Noriko. The third is a scene between Kitano and Noriko, who talk casually by a river-bank.
• Added shots of the light-house after the shoot-out
• Added reaction shots in the class-room, and extension to existing shots.
• Extra C.G.I. throughout the film

Reception

Battle Royale was labeled "crude and tasteless" by members of Japanese parliament and other governmental officers after the film was screened for them, even before its general release.^[6] The film caused a debate over governmental action on medial violence.

Many conservative politicians used the film to blame entertainment media for a crime wave. Ilya Garger of TIME magazine said that Battle Royale received "free publicity" and received "box-office success usually reserved for cartoons and TV-drama spin-offs."^[1]

Battle Royale grossed ¥3.11 billion domestically. (around twenty-five million U.S. dollars)^[7][1]

At the 2001 Japanese Academy Awards the film was nominated for best film, best direction, best script, best starring actor (Tatsuya Fujiwara), best sound-track (Masamichi Amano), and best sound-recording (Kunio Ando). The film won best editing (Hirohide Abe), Tatsuya Fujiwara and Aki Maeda won rookie of the year, and Battle Royale won the audience popularity prize for a film.^[8]

The detracting critics not only point out plot-holes, but also note its relation to the increasingly extreme trend in East Asian cinema and its similarity to reality television.^[9]

TOKYO 10+01

Main article: TOKYO 10+01

Battle Royale heavily influenced the 2002 Japanese film TOKYO 10+01, which was directed by Higuchinsky and refers to the Battle Royale film itself several times. It involves eleven strangers being forced to play a game with a set time limit or face death. In place of explosive collars, they have bracelets with hypodermic needles which can inject a deadly poison if they try to remove them or time runs out. TOKYO 10+01 has two actors who respectively appeared in both Battle Royale and Battle Royale II: Requiem: Masanobu Ando, who played Kazuo Kiriyama in the first film, and Natsuki Kato, who appeared in Battle Royale II as Saki Sakurai.

Sound-track

Main article: Battle Royale (soundtrack)

Remake

In June 2006, Variety reported that New Line Cinema, with producers Neil Moritz and Roy Lee, intend to produce a new adaptation of Battle Royale.^[10] Several websites echoed the news, including Ain't It Cool News, which claimed the remake would be a "an extremely Hard R - serious-minded Americanization of BATTLE ROYALE."^[11] New Line tentatively set a release date of 2008.

The next month, The New York Times reported on an internet backlash to the remake. Through the article, Lee assured fanatics of his respect for the original work, claiming, "This is the one I'm going to be the most careful with." He stated that despite earlier concerns the movie would not be toned down to P.G. or P.G.-13, the characters would remain adolescent, and that it would draw elements equally from the novel and the original movie. The reporter noted "the hubbub ... was at least slightly premature [as] New Line hasn't yet purchased the remake rights." ^[12]

Following the Virginia Tech massacre in April 2007, Roy Lee claimed that prospects for the remake had been "seriously shaken." While he remained willing to proceed, he stated, "we might be a little more sensitive to some of the issues." The reporting article noted that New Line still had not secured remake rights - their spokeswoman claiming "no news" when asked about progress on any deal.^[13]

References

External links

• Battle Royale at the Internet Movie Database
• Battle Royale at Rotten Tomatoes
• Official English-language Battle Royale website
• Battle Royale fansite
• Review and analysis of the Battle Royale film
• Battle Royale American Remake Set Up
• Comparison of DVD releases
• Battle Royale Fan Made Film Trailer
• (Japanese) Battle Royale at the Japanese Movie Database
• (Japanese) Battle Royale (Director's Cut) at the Japanese Movie Database