Battle Royale (2000)
Background
Why?
You may wonder why I watched this movie, or where I found it. Especially considering that it came out 25 years ago and almost didn’t release in the U.S.
I was on Reddit (yes I know) when I saw a post about someone looking for a movie. In the comments, one user incorrectly guessed the film was Battle Royale. I googled the movie, and the description seemed pretty interesting, so I watched it!
The rating
Battle Royale is “not rated” in the United States, and had the rare, controversial R15+ rating in Japan. If I was to rate this movie, I would definitely assign in an R rating. The movie itself contains references to rape, multiple suicides, multiple murders, and lots of blood.
The Hunger Games and Fortnite
This movie has had a massive cultural impact. Battle Royale certainly inspired The Hunger Games, with the similarities apparent from just the descriptions themselves. It also inspired the Battle Royale video game genre, which includes games like Fortnite, Warzone, and Pubg.
Worth it?
I haven’t watched this movie yet, is it worth watching?
Maybe I should read this blog to find out.
If this sounds like you at all, I highly recommend you watch the movie before reading this blog post. This blog post spoils a lot of the best moments. However, if you dislike violence, suicide, or murder, you shouldn’t watch the movie. This movie has some of the most interpersonal murders and suicides of almost any movie I’ve ever watched. The deaths are always of characters who are well known to each other and often the audience as well.
The start
The movie begins with two very important scenes. First, is Nanahara witnessing his dad’s suicide, which is one of the defining parts of his story. Second, is the scene where Noriko is the only one not to skip Kitano’s class and when Nobu accidentally stabs Kitano in the hallway.
These two scenes are critical to Nanahara’s character and explain almost all (sans his daughter) of Kitano’s behavior and character throughout the movie.
The real beginning of the movie (or the first scene in the current moment) is on the bus, where we quickly learn of Nanahara being our main character, Nanahara and Nobu’s close friendship and Noriko’s feelings for Nanahara (cookies).
The premise
After the bus scene, we are introduced to the premise of Battle Royale. The rise of the young population and crime committed by young people led to the Battle Royale Act — an act which chooses a random freshman class to be put on an island and fight it out till the end, with a 3 day time limit and ever decreasing area.
The reason behind the Battle Royale act still seems a little flimsy to me. While I can understand the young population being too high (LOL) causing a reactionary populist horrible government, I’m not sure how the B.R. Act really solves anything — maybe just enacted out of pure hatred?
A Class vs Random Selections
In Battle Royale, all the participants are from the same class (except the transfers) and are unaware of the Battle Royale. While in The Hunger Games, every participant is a random selection from a specific town.
Selecting a class is a much better choice for this scenario than random selection. The Hunger Games’ approach has some merit and does a decent job. But the freshman class that participates in the Battle Royale has been together for many years, which makes them a lot closer. Having the competitors be a class surprised by the Battle Royale drives a large portion of the emotions in Battle Royale.
Realization
The class obviously doesn’t believe in the act immediately. But Kitano throwing a knife into the girl and exploding Nobu cements the fact that this is happening. Nobu’s death is key to the rest of the movie as it links Nanahara and Noriko together (more than before).
This also leads to a ton of suicides at the beginning, with many of the classmates refusing to participate - which you can’t really blame them for.
My favorite parts
Disclaimer: I did not watch the Director’s Cut / Special Edition, which includes some important scenes for character building at the expense of a slower pace and worse CGI blood splatter.
“I’m a Survivor”
Before this chapter, we don’t know much about the transfer student who helped Noriko and Nanahara out. In this chapter, we finally learn Kawada’s name, and that he had participated in a Battle Royale before. Kawada introduces Keiko and talks about how they were together till the time limit. Kawada explains how when the time limit ended, they embraced each other and Keiko shot him. He shot back twice, and as Keiko died, she smiled and told him “Thank You.”
The Lighthouse - Suspicions Lead to Bloodshed
The lighthouse scene really highlights the fragility of the mental state of the participants.
At the end of the first day, Nanahara escaped the transfer student by jumping into the water. The next thing we see is him waking up in the lighthouse with Utsumi. She explains he was found in the water and carried up to the lighthouse. Utsumi was at the lighthouse with a lot of her friends. She talks about how Yuko saw Nanahara kill Oki, which Nanahara denies, explaining that was an accident.
Utsumi then locks the door and goes downstairs. Once downstairs, she tells Yuko that what Nanahara did was an accident, which Yuko doesn’t seem to believe. The rest of the girls all start talking to each other about what they plan to do next. Yuko elects to feed Nanahara and starts preparing a plate of food for him. Yuko, who still mistrusts Nanahara, mixes poison into the food. However, before Yuko can give Nanahara the poisoned food, Yuka walks in and starts to try the food, despite Yuko’s slight protest. Yuko, panicked, doesn’t know what to do and fails to stop Yuka from eating the poisoned food and dying.
This poisoning causes the girls to panic, each thinking one of the other girls is backstabbing them. The girls start to blame each other and begin to shoot each other, each dying in the gunfight except Yuko. Yuko, who couldn’t accept what she had done, runs to the top of the lighthouse and jumps to her death. Leaving Nanahara the only person alive in the lighthouse.
Despite all the previous deaths, these are the ones that really show the brutality of the Battle Royale the most. The pace at which the group of girls transforms from a motivated team to all dead is extreme. I don’t think any other scene shows the mistrust, even between close friends, better than this one.
Mitsuko’s final moments
“I just didn't want to be a loser anymore.” — Mitsuko Sôma
Personally, Mitsuko was probably the character I hated the most. She was brutal and killed 6 people. From what I’ve heard, the director’s cut goes more into her past. However, without this context, she is my most hated character. Her final words are particularly revealing of her motivations, are quite heavy, and made me completely rethink her character.
The Ending
The final few
After the transfer student killed Mitsuko, he went for the three kids trying to hack the system and blow up the command center. While they all try their best, the transfer student ends up killing the mastermind, and the other two kids, left with no option, explode themselves, hoping the transfer student dies in the explosion as well.
This part of the movie was very predictable. The final two including Nanahara and Noriko was obvious since the beginning of the movie. Once we saw Kawada open up to Noriko and Nanahara and team with them, it was also pretty obvious he would also make it to the final three.
The Winner
Kawada outsmarts the system by lying and pretending to turn on Noriko and Nanahara, by admitting Keiko was fake and ‘shooting’ them to win the game. Kawada knew how to disable the collars, and he faked killing Noriko and Nanhara on the microphones in the collars and disabled them, making Kitano end the game.
All three of them slowly make their way back to the command center and confront Kitano. Kitano talks about how he wanted Noriko to win and how she was the only one who wasn’t horrible to him.
On the way back on the boat, Kawada’s character arc is wrapped up by him finally understanding Keiko’s smile and last words. Noriko and Nanahara escaping together in Tokyo is also a nice ending for those two, who by this point, really deserve it.
The movie does a decent job of wrapping up loose ends. But, by this point, I feel the ending isn’t too important and just needs to satisfy the viewers. The ending for Noriko and Nanahara is obviously great, and Kawada finally understanding what Keiko meant with her final smile is the perfect ending for him.
Finally, to end off like the movie did,
No matter how far, run for all you’re worth.