Kinji Fukasaku’s “Battle Royale”

Battle Royale (バトル・ロワイアル) (2000)

The violent and melodramatic sugar rush Lord of the Flies shows its age but still works as an entertaining absurdist parable of adolescence

Based on the 1999 novel by Koushun Takami., Battle Royale has had a considerable influence on media from The Hunger Games and Squid Game to a whole genre of videogames. Through a bizarre government program meant to curb delinquency, a class is sent to a remote island on which the students are obliged to participate in a horrific game from which only one can survive. Amid shifting loyalties and principles, the players confront adolescent traumas given a life or death importance.

In terms of how it’s aged since 2000, the dialogue feels even more clunky now but it’s taken on a whole new level of absurdity with declarations like “ You’re the coolest girl in the whole world!” as the recipient of said declaration goes dramatically limp, succumbing to their wounds. Also, the action scenes are hilariously insane as machine guns inexplicably always miss their target. Still, it’s so unpredictable and the momentum is consistent hurried along with an over-the-top classical soundtrack.

Takeshi Kitano’s role as Kitano overseeing the games adds another layer to proceedings. Dissatisfied with life and family, his motivations are hard to read and difficult to predict but that’s true of most of the enormous cast of characters. It’s the combination of all these aspects that creates a weird chemistry that isn’t far off the concoction that is Lars von Trier’s Kingdom series but in the guise of 1970s grindhouse.

Often funny and ridiculous while also leaving space to pick apart the puzzle, Battle Royale is a slightly faded but still entertaining piece of genre cinema that should be on every cinemaphiles’ bucket list.