This review may contain spoilers
Interesting and good
This is an older one so the quality was not so great. But the story was interesting.At times it was just overly brutal and hard to watch and other times it was kinda cheesy which is good cause I couldn't have handled it if it was more realistic. Definitely dark though. Probably won't watch it again though.
Though the scene at the end between the girl and the teacher had me wondering what that was about. I will have to look it up and see if I can find anything.
The music definitely gave me Star Wars vibes and it made it feel more dated to me. It was used well but not something that stood out in a good way in my opinon.
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Had me hooked the entire time~
STORY: After watching the Hunger Games a while back and loving it, my brother suggested Battle Royale. Let me say that they are NOT that similar at all. I love both but they are completely different so don't come into this with the Hunger Games in mind. I don't mind blood or death in movies and this movie had a good amount which is only expected and I wasn't disappointed one bit. This movie can be pretty dark but it's not too uncomfortable and fits in perfectly. The story wasn't too complex and the few twists and foreshadowing kept me hooked. I found my self keeping my eyes glued to the TV because no part of it was boring. It makes you wonder what it would be like if this happened in real life and although the concept was over the top, what happened wasn't unrealistic.ACTING/CAST: The cast I think were perfect and I felt involved as the story played through. The acting felt real as if though this is how people outside of the movie would react in this kind of situation. I've never seen any actors from this movie in any other Japanese movies or shows that I've watched so far so I have a long way to go. I'm sure some of the main actors are in other great movies that I can't wait to see.
MUSIC: I actually didn't notice or remember any of the music so I can't give a perfect or exact rating. However if the music was bad then I would've noticed it right away. Like I said I was hooked the entire time so the music probably wasn't bad in the first place.
REWATCH VALUE: I haven't rewatched it yet but I most definitely will in the future with someone else. The reason why I felt it didn't deserve 10 stars was because although rewatching it would still be fun, you won't get that amazing impact for the first time watching it again. That shock factor of course won't be there like it was before but rewatching it for fun by yourself or with someone is great either way.
Overall it deserves a chance especially if you like the whole story because you won't be bored at all~!
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This review may contain spoilers
Let the games begin!
What would you do if you were suddenly pitted against your closest friends in a fight to the death? Director Kinji Fukasaku's film adaptation of writer Koushun Takami's short story Batoru Rowaiaru is a hearty, dramatic, exciting and very well-made story that manages to touch on all levels.The year is 2000. We are in a fictional future Japan where the entire nation has recently collapsed. Huge unemployment and juvenile delinquency prevail in the country. Adults have lost confidence and fear the younger generation more and more, which leads to a new reform action being put into use by the government to overcome the problems - Battle Royale.
Battle Royale involves a middle school class being selected through a very careful lottery, kidnapped and then sent to an isolated island where they are forced to fight each other for 3 days until only 1 survivor remains.
It is with a very raw and merciless violence that the director Kinji Fukasaku depicts the central plot of Battle Royale. We follow class 9B, a group of young school students who have become like a family to each other and who are suddenly pitted against their best friends in a brutal fight to the death.
As a viewer, you quickly grow fond of many of the characters, which gives you the feeling that you are almost in their midst. The moment when the game on the island is set in motion, when each student is given a randomly selected weapon and sent out to take on each other, was in my opinion one of the strongest and most uncomfortable scenes of the film. We get to see how some react with panic and do everything to survive while others stick together and do everything they can to stop it all.
We mainly follow 3 main characters during the course of the film, primarily the students Shuya Nanahara and Noriko Nagakawa. Shuya has a difficult past that left a strong impression on him. By his side he has Noriko, a girl who has been very fond of him for a long time.
These 2 are also joined by Shougo Kawada, who participated in the game once before. He is portrayed as a somewhat erratic person. We never really know where we have him and what his intentions are. This uncertainty contributes to a very exciting and intense atmosphere between the 3 who stick together during the time they are on the island where the brutal game takes place.
The film's antagonist Kitano is played by a brilliant Takeshi Kitano (Sonatine and Outrage). The interesting thing about this character is that we get to see him in different contexts, whereby his personality changes between the situations. Kitano is initially the teacher of Class 9B under the chaotic conditions of collapsed Japan.
He is portrayed during this stage as a very inferior and fearful person who has completely given up hope for the youth he teaches. Here we get an equally clear and frightening picture of how the situation in the country has affected the adults and how the young people have now taken the law into their own hands.
When he then leads the Battle Royale where his former students participate as players, it is he who once again holds the stick, but in this context there is no trace of the submissive and fearful teacher - Here instead a completely emotional, sadistic and mentally unstable person appears, who seems capable of any number of horrors.
At the same time, during the course of the story, we learn more about Kitano's personal background and the root of his madness and callousness. Beneath the character's frightening exterior, there are nevertheless glimpses of goodness, which almost forces the viewer to feel a certain sympathy for him. Therefore, the audience is kept in a tense uncertainty about what kind of person Kitano really is.
While Battle Royale is a very exciting movie experience, it is also a very dramatic and scary story with a lot of moral undertones. Both the fantastic character direction and the, in several cases, extraordinary performances contribute to this. Fukasaku has managed to portray the plot of Koushun Takami's novel of the same title in a realistic yet frightening way and delivers a cinematic experience that you simply cannot miss.
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An adaptation which adds one good part but is overall worse than its sources
Decent movie which I feel would've benefited from a longer runtime to develop the characters further. There were several missed opportunites with the source material with some characters being much more interesting in the source material, also adding to the emotional punch of the story.Some great scenes though always love to see Kitano too I just feel what was here could've been elevated with more time for plot points to breathe and characters to grow on you.
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One of a kind
I've seen this movie 3 times, and it's hard to believe that such a bloody and murderous movie can give you such strange emotions. Each scene of the movie is edited very clever, each character has their own role and leaves their own mark, no character acts unreasonable. With such a film with so many characters, this is really the excellence of the director. I also feel fine when they put symphonies into the movie, such as the loudspeaker announcement, after gore and scary scenes, the symphony plays to soften the atmosphere, reducing the tension a bit in necessary way.In terms of content, this is a sensitive and unique topic that is not easy to make into a movie, so this is a successful movie, the couple Nanahara and Noriko performed well and created a highlight, every viewer would love them. Actually a lot of characters in this movie can attract the audience's attention, even Mitsuko, Hirono, Chigusa, savage girls also have their own charms, I like them all. Although there are still some limitations such as why does the army come and go so quickly while the winner is not clearly determined? The military force in this movie is just a puppet in the hands of teacher Kitano, and in the end the army leaves, leaving Kitano with an unstable mind? While this is a special project of the Government and is noticed by the media. And some scenes are a bit weird I'm talking about acting, anyway, this is a special movie for me, we can see the message of a generation of young people with worries about the future, and the sadness hidden deep in the hearts of families like the Kitano family, the Mitsuko family, Nanahara, Nobu,... even violent people like Kiriyama. They are mirrors that reflect the dark sides of society, things that are unstable even in real life and even right now, those things still exist. Somewhere out there, in those families, innocent children will have to learn to grow up with hidden pain. I love the flashbacks in the movie, they're so good and right-timed.
This is the kind of movie that after you know it and watch it, someday in the future, sometime, when you watch it again, the movie will make you think about it, for me personally, in addition to watching and thinking about the message of the young generation, the movie also made me feel emotions, a little sad, a little happy, like the first moments of the movie when the whole 9B class went sightseeing/picnic and had fun joke together on the bus. And then bad things happen, the students have to try to kill their own classmates. Oh my!
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Heart-pounding, great at characterization
I can 100% understand why this became a classic and why it birthed an entire genre. I absolutely loved it and I felt so much tension from the start of the game to the end.I think what this film does really well is characterization; there are 40+ students and the film manages to humanize all of them in one or two scenes. I think the main characters were actually pretty bland compared to some of the side character so I was glad that we got different perspectives. In that sense, the film feels almost like an anthology of different stories.
There's some iffiness around how the law was passed and how things work in this world, and also around some plot points that were annoying or simply triggered by stupid decision-making.
I think the acting in some of the scenes were also a little stiff — especially in some death scenes — but overall this is a film that holds up.
I know there are a bunch of comparisons to Hunger Games which took inspiration from this, and as a baby of the dystopian YA era I have to make a comparison too. In one quick sentence, it's this: Battle Royale is better with its characters, Hunger Games is better with its world-building.
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Of course, this movie was more brutal, not lacking the bloodbath scenes, a very common Japanese style horror/thriller movie. It was also very emotional, harsh and even a bit ridiculous sometimes (talking about the plot here) but in the end, it all falls in place. A classic indeed, always worth a re-watch with a group of friends or alone.
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Where your favorite games and movies comes from
you may not know, but this movie is where a lot of your favorite games come from like Fortnite call of duty, Apex legends, etc. along with your favorite movies and books like hunger games squid games are very heavily influenced from this movie, so even if it may not have been the best acting or whatever it’s I’d say it’s quite original because it’s is where all the other stuff comes from basically.i’d say it would be naïve to not call this a masterpiece this is definitely a masterpiece in the sense that we wouldn’t have a lot of shows and games like we do now if it wasn’t for this movie so insanely good and influential movie it’s worth the watch just to you know watch it it’s good very good acting probably wasn’t the best but they were also all like 15 so it makes sense and they did pretty good for their age
There’s a lot of violence, so just keep that in mind if you’re gonna watch this but that’s about it it’s pretty good it’s good heavily recommend
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I am old enough that I had the joy to watch this movie shortly after its release, so I didn't have to compare it to nowaday standards. Back then, it was top nodge and of course, the story and setting were something totally new to me as a Westerner.
You gotta be warned, if you didn't know this beforehand, but this is not a happy story. Set in a futuristic alternative Japan, each year a class is selected to be sent on an island where the pupils have to battle each other until only one stays alive. Of course, this is a rather radical setting, and one has just to accept it, because the interesting thing is what happens psychologically later. As the fighting continues, many emotional developments occur, as is epected when humans are pushed to their limits. And as a viewer one keeps asking oneself "What would I have done?" It is not a flamboyant fantasy story like Hunger Games (which I always saw as rip-off of this idea here), it is not Hollywood, it is a stab in your heart and your brain, and either are you a viewer who enjoys this ... or not.
Other than other reviewers, I give this a very high rewatch value (I have seen it about 6 times myself), because each time you get the occasion to focuse more on the psychological aspects rather than the slaughter itself. It's just one of those movies, which can offer deep insight if you give it some time.
To those who liked it a lot, I recommend the book, it gives a deeper inside into the persons' feelings and thoughts and enriches the experience by this.
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Poco gore y mucha sobreactuación
Es verdad que tiene muchos fallos en la historia como ¿por qué si quieres "educar" a los jóvenes no se te ocurre nada mejor que darles un arma a cada uno y soltarlos en una isla para que maten entre ellos? Eso sí les toca un arma para matar porque también puede tocar unos prismáticos, una tapa de olla o incluso un abanico. Pero mi mayor pregunta es ¿Quién organiza todo esto exactamente y dónde están los padres de estos jóvenes? ¿No sé preocupan al saber que sus hijos se están matando entre sí? Ya que al parecer no es la primera vez que se hace este "concurso" mortal, así que ya habrá padres que se habrán quedado sin hijos por eso...No obstante, la idea es buena, salvando unos pequeños errores, y al parecer esta es la idea original en la que se inspiraron para hacer "Los juegos del hambre" o multitud de videojuegos actuales como "Fortnite", así que por lo menos tiene el premio a la originalidad.
Lo que menos me ha gustado de la película, quitando los errores de guion, son las actuaciones de los chicos y chicas que en más de una ocasión se ven muy forzados y sobreactuados y lo mejor ha sido que esperaba que fuese mucho más gore, más aún siendo un film japonés, pero al final no es para tanto.
Yo recomiendo verla.
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