Battle Royale (film)
| Battle Royale | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Directed by | Kinji Fukasaku |
| Produced by | Kenta Fukasaku Kimio Kataoka Chie Kobayashi Toshio Nabeshima |
| Written by | Kenta Fukasaku Koushun Takami (Screenplay) |
| 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 | 114 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
| Budget | US$4.5 million |
| 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 classical music with some original composition. The choral Western classical music used as the film's overture theme music is the "Dies Irae" from Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem.
Contents |
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 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 and Fukasaku had a burning hatred of adults in general for a long time after.[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 experiences as a teenager, the novel's use of 15-year-olds, and the fact that many of the actors were around fifteen years of age. 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 teenagers; 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 appease the Japanese Diet in hopes they would not pursue increasing film regulation further.[3][4]
Plot
The prologue title card reads:
- "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 with life. The rest of his classmates are similarly disillusioned, and have little respect for authority. Shuya's best friend, Yoshitoki "Nobu" Kuninobu (Yukihiro Kotani), attacks their teacher 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 education, 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 inside 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 created 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 entering certain areas of the field of participation, the "danger zones," with the intention of forcing the students to encounter one another. (These instructions are 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, to provide an example to the class. One by one, each student leaves the school, being provided with survival packs containing food, water, a flashlight, a compass, a map of the island and a random weapon. (In some cases said weapon might actually be deadly, such as an axe or submachine gun; in others it might not even technically be a weapon at all, such as a saucepan lid or binoculars.)
The students separate, some of them forming groups or teams for mutual protection, while others remain solo. A few embrace the program and become willing to kill the others to ensure their own survival. Kazuo Kiriyama volunteered for Battle Royale for the adventure, and manages to kill a large group of students and goes around the island alone, killing without remorse. Also willing to kill is Mitsuko Souma, who has taken it upon herself to win the game, using everything she has at her disposal, especially her sexuality.
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 up a group of girls and decides to hide in an abandoned lighthouse, while junior revolutionary Shinji Mimura (Takashi Tsukamoto) gathers his friends and plans to hack the system and blow up the school (along with Kitano), thereby liberating the students.
Other students refuse to kill or hide. While some commit suicide, Hiroki Sugimura (Sousuke Takaoka) decides to make the best of his final hours, and seeks out 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 hideout. Kawada lets them in and reveals that he is out to avenge the death of his girlfriend, Keiko Onuki, who was killed in a previous game. However, when Kiriyama kills Toshinori Oda outside 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 lighthouse where the girls are hiding out.
Shuya wakes up bandaged in the lighthouse, where many of the girls are hiding. Yuko Sakaki poisons a bowl of soup meant for Shuya. When Yuka Nakagawa is instead 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 Noriko meets up again with Shuya.
As the game continues and only a few students are left, Sugimura finds Kotohiki, the girl he loves, hiding in a warehouse. She kills him, thinking he is a threat. As Sugimura dies, he professes his love for Kotohiki, who is sorrowful at having not known this. Shortly after, Kotohiki is shot by Mitsuko and dies. Kiriyama then arrives at the warehouse and after a short battle, kills Mitsuko, taking her pistol. Elsewhere, Mimura and his friends have hacked into the system and are ready to destroy the school. One of Mimura's friends sees Kiriyama, and thinking it is Shuya, calls out to him. Kiriyama kills everyone of them, 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 injure Kawada severely until Kawada shoots his collar, killing him, leaving only Shuya, Noriko and Kawada on the island.
Kawada then, in a plot twist, reveals that he lied about Keiko and merely kept Shuya and Noriko alive because they trusted him. Kawada then seemingly kills both of them; the soldiers in charge go to check for the dead corpses, but Kitano stops them, ending the operation. Declared the winner, Kawada treks to the school. Kitano has since declared the operation a success, and is left on the island after the government leaves in helicopters. Kawada confronts Kitano, and is soon joined by Shuya and Noriko, who are revealed to be still alive after Kawada disabled their collars to fake their deaths. 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 classmates. 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 someone (revealing he also had a real pistol in his back pocket which he did not threaten Noriko with), 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 smiled at him as she died—she, like he now, had finally found true friends and was willing to give up her life for them. Shuya and Noriko make it to land, where they become fugitives wanted for murder. Shuya, in the movie's final narrative, explains that the two of them, while still peaceful, will fight if they have to protect each other. Together, they go on the run.
Cast
- Tatsuya Fujiwara as Shuya Nanahara
- Taro Yamamoto as Shogo Kawada
- Aki Maeda as Noriko Nakagawa
- Takeshi Kitano as Kitano
- Kou Shibasaki as Mitsuko Souma
- Masanobu Ando as Kazuo Kiriyama
- Chiaki Kuriyama as Takako Chigusa
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.
It has been exhibited at film festivals in North America. Nonetheless, bootleg copies of the film imported from China, South Korea, and Hong Kong have widespread availability on the continent, and a Special Edition DVD 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, released an all-region NTSC DVD 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. Both Battle Royale and its sequel are available on NetFlix, a major home-entertainment distributor in the United States.
Sasebo slashing controversy
The creators of the sequel postponed the release of the DVD (originally scheduled for June 9, 2004) to later that year because of 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):
- Flashbacks to a basketball game which is used as a framework for the entire story.
- A flashback that explains Mitsuko's personality.
- Three epilogues (referred to as "requiems"). The first is an extension of the basketball 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 riverbank.
- Added shots of the lighthouse after the shoot-out
- Added reaction shots in the classroom, and extensions to existing shots.
- Extra CGI throughout the film
Reception
Battle Royale grossed ¥3.11 billion domestically (around $25 million US).[1][6]
The film was labeled "crude and tasteless" by members of Japanese parliament and other government officials after the film was screened for them before its general release.[7] The film created a debate over government action on media violence. Many conservative politicians used the film to blame popular culture for a youth 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]
At the 2001 Japanese Academy Awards, the film was nominated for Picture of the Year, Director of the Year, Screenplay of the Year, Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role (Tatsuya Fujiwara), Outstanding Achievement in Music (Masamichi Amano), and Outstanding Achievement in Sound Recording (Kunio Ando). The film won Outstanding Achievement in Film Editing (Hirohide Abe) and the Popularity Award, and Tatsuya Fujiwara and Aki Maeda both won Newcomer of the Year.[8]
Critics note its relation to the increasingly extreme trend in Asian cinema and its similarity to reality television.[9]
In 2009, Quentin Tarantino listed the film as his favorite film released since 1992.[10] Bloody Disgusting ranked the film fifteenth in its list of the Top-20 Horror Films of the Decade, with the article calling the film "a go-for-broke extravaganza: fun, provocative, ultra-violent, and bound to arouse controversy (which it did)...the film [is] more than just an empty provocation—it builds character through action, a method all good filmmakers should seek to emulate."[11] Empire ranked Battle Royale #235 and #82 on their lists of "The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time" and "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" respectively.[12][13]
TOKYO 10+01
Battle Royale heavily influenced the 2002 Japanese film TOKYO 10+01, which was directed by Higuchinsky and makes several references to the Battle Royale film itself. It involves eleven strangers being forced to play a game with a set time limit or face death. Instead 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.
Soundtrack
Remake
In June 2006, Variety reported that New Line Cinema, with producers Neil Moritz and Roy Lee, intended to produce a new adaptation of Battle Royale.[14] Several Web sites 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."[15] New Line tentatively set a release date of 2008.
The next month, The New York Times reported on an Internet backlash against the remake. Through the article, Lee assured fans 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 PG or PG-13, the characters would remain young teenagers, and that it would draw elements equally from the novel and the original movie and the manga.
The reporter noted "the hubbub...was at least slightly premature [as] New Line hasn't yet purchased the remake rights."[16]
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—its spokeswoman claimed "no news" when asked about progress on any deal.[17]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Garger, Ilya. "Royale Terror." TIME. June 30, 2003.
- ↑ Ito, Robert. "Lesson Plan: Kill or Be Killed." The New York Times. July 9, 2006.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Director's statement at the Internet Archive". http://web.archive.org/web/20021205020037/www.battleroyalethemovie.com/staff.htm. Retrieved 2006-12-30.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Kinji Fukasaku", Midnight Eye
- ↑ "Japan schoolgirl killer 'sorry'". BBC News. 2004-06-03. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3772737.stm. Retrieved 2007-01-12.
- ↑ J. T., Testar (June 2002). [(U.S. $23,208,955.22)http://www.accj.or.jp/document_library/Journal/1053151390.pdf "Japan Goes to the Movies"] (PDF). The Journal. pp. 1. (U.S. $23,208,955.22)http://www.accj.or.jp/document_library/Journal/1053151390.pdf. Retrieved 2007-01-08.
- ↑ Leong, Anthony (2001). "Battle Royale Movie Review". Issue 33 of Asian Cult Cinima. http://mediacircus.net/battleroyale.html. Retrieved 2007-01-08.
- ↑ "24th Japanese Academy Awards" (in Japanese). http://www.japan-academy-prize.jp/allprizes/2001/index.html. Retrieved 2006-12-29.
- ↑ Korsner, Jason (2001-09-13). "Battle Royale (2001)". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2001/09/05/battle_royale_2001_review.shtml. Retrieved 2007-01-08.
- ↑ "Quentin Tarantino’s Favorite 20 Films Since 1992". http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2009/08/20/quentin-tarantinos-favorite-20-films-since-1992/. Retrieved 2009-09-20.
- ↑ "00's Retrospect: Bloody Disgusting's Top 20 Films of the Decade...Part 2". Bloody Disgusting. http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/18415. Retrieved 2010-01-03.
- ↑ "Empire Features". Empire. 2010-07-30. http://www.empireonline.com/500/51.asp.
- ↑ "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema". Empire. http://www.empireonline.com/features/100-greatest-world-cinema-films/default.asp?film=82.
- ↑ McNary, Dave (2006-06-07). "New Line set to do 'Battle'". Variety (Reed Business Information). http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117944872.html?categoryid=13&cs=1. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
- ↑ Harry Knowles (2006-06-08). "BATTLE ROYALE American Remake Set Up...". Ain't It Cool News. Ain't It Cool, Inc.. http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=23540. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
- ↑ Ito, Robert (2006-07-09). "Lesson Plan: Kill or Be Killed". The New York Times (The New York Times Company). http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/09/movies/09ito.html. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
- ↑ Cieply, Michael (2007-04-30). "After Virginia Tech, Testing Limits of Movie Violence". The New York Times (The New York Times Company). http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/30/business/media/30hostel.html. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
External links
- Battle Royale at the Internet Movie Database
- Battle Royale at Allmovie
- 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
- (Japanese) Battle Royale at the Japanese Movie Database
- (Japanese) Battle Royale (Director's Cut) at the Japanese Movie Database
|
|||||
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
|||||