Battle Royale

The subject matter may be superficially about endless mindless violence, however, with such a strong creative team producing it, it is a well-shot action movie in which everything works - from the psychological issues of the characters and their presentation to the audience, natural acting, and believably emotional performances, through imaginative and intensely violent scenes, to almost poetic overtones. Within the world of Battle Royale itself, everything might not make sense, or things are not clearly stated - the meaning of the danger zones is not sufficiently explained, and the objective/effectiveness of the whole game is probably also quite debatable, yet as an idea, the movie works perfectly and creates some moments for flawlessly shocking action scenes, which Jinji Fukasaku unashamedly and extensively exploits, and at the same time, thanks to the aesthetics of the savagery and the choice of soundtrack, he can have the movie stamped with the hallmark of a "nobler" kind of art. What else is there to add? I enjoy this picture with big gulps with each new viewing. (06/20/2019)

If I recall correctly (and can’t guarantee it), Battle Royale is only the second Asian film to get five stars from me (the first one was the Korean melodrama A Moment to Remember). During the first fifteen minutes I could only stare in disbelief at what was happening on the screen – I don’t remember any film ever shocking so much. Incredibly bizarre and insane (the explanation of the rules!), uncompromising and politically incorrect, I almost couldn’t believe what the Japanese had done. Once I got used to that, I let myself be entertained by the film and how many times it casually slips into the B-movie comedy realm. I’m not going to say it’s perfect, it isn’t, there are many places where it grids with the logic and the execution, but I’m extremely satisfied. (07/04/2009)

Battle Royale is a beautifully shocking murder flick whose absurdity you just have to laugh at (even out loud in a few places). It’s superbly filmed and edited, with locations that are reminiscent of both Bad Taste and Ring. But I'm not a fan of it. The million-dollar idea is half-baked. The initial decadent fun tries to come across as something more at the end and it only gets halfway there. *** SPOILER FOLLOWS! *** The important dramatic motif involving Takeshi Kitano’s character betraying the whole system and the rules of the game for the love of one of the players almost doesn’t work at all and the final ideas that stem from it seem overly contrived in the context of the preceding show. (08/11/2005)

While I have nothing against Asia, extreme violence, or false psychology, presenting false emotions is inexcusable to me. The idea and the script may be original, but after 20 minutes the film turns into a pointless and unbearably drawn-out bore that cannot even rely on the amazing audiovisual design. The captivating camerawork and the musical accompaniment from the greatest classics, combined with the brutal violence, create a hypnotic synthesis. However, none of the characters grew close to my heart, and I didn't care about any of them. Instead, I found myself watching the clock, aware of the remaining duration of the film. My highly subjective feeling at the end that I had just lost two hours of time in an absolutely incomprehensible way, admittedly made me a little angry. (02/04/2006)

A very bold and stylish thriller that owes its undying fame to its controversy. I still have the nagging feeling that even more could have been extracted from such an excellent premise and that cramming ideas about life or deeper meaning into a story like this was a low blow to the viewer, but there’s not much more to complain about. Fukasaku knew exactly what he wanted to achieve, and he succeeded. From the very beginning, it’s a very brisk and, thanks to the shocking content, rather unpleasant spectacle full of blood and violence that fleshes out the human character into the blackest form imaginable. From a filmmaking point of view, it’s an almost flawless piece of work, with an effective atmosphere, excellent soundtrack and developed psychology of the main characters, whom we get to know through small episodes from their past. Of the actors, the most striking is of course Takeshi Kitano, whose character surprisingly has the most depth and most important motive. I won't, and I don't want to ramble on about the message of Battle Royale as a vision of modern society, because it's as debatable as the film itself, I would simply say that Fukasaku is a madman who took great pleasure in letting his imagination run wild. No wonder Tarantino praised this film so much. 80% (04/07/2013)