BATTLE ROYALE

AKA: Batoru Rowaiaru

Tag line : Could you kill your best friend?

One of the more controversial Japanese films to be released on UK shores was this shocking tale of Japanese youth gone wild and the extreme measures the authorities resort to, to keep them in check.

Set in the not-too-distant future, the Japanese government decides to curb the rising tide of truancy and violent assaults in schools by introducing the “Battle Royale” act. This basically involves selecting one of the more disruptive school classes at random and having the army dump them on a deserted island, where they are forced to fight each other to the death.

The objective of this exercise being that the last man standing gets to go home, and serve as a warning to other disruptive classes. This basically means that for the delinquents of Class B, their end of term school trip is going to be no picnic.

Kitted out with a random weapon and bag of supplies, each child is tagged with electronic collars that monitor their activities, and blows up if they refuse to fight each other. To make things even more interesting, one of the previous years winners has decided to join them, along with some young psychopath who tagged along just for the hell of it.

No sooner are they dumped on the island than the fun begins, as what follows is a brutal shocking battle to the death, as the once friendly classmates are forced to kill each other off in the most gruesome of fashions. Much to the enjoyment of one of their former teachers who has since become part of the Battle Royale selection team.

Based on the novel of the same name, the film is in many ways similar to “The Running Man”, with elements of “A Clockwork Orange”. Brutal, bloody and violent, the film manages to be as thought provoking as it is shocking and should be an essential part of any cult cinema enthusiast’s collection.

Film score : 6/10.

Other Information.

• Alternate tag lines "One Dead. 41 To Go", "In the game of life there are winners and losers, which are you?".

• The German release was supposed to have been uncut, but unfortunately the film came out in the wake of the school shootings in Efurt and so they couldn't get approval until several cuts had been made. The eventually released product missed out, or shortened, several knife fight scenes and the part where a pupil is killed by his explosive collar detonating. Several lines of dialogue where also cut, as was the "on-screen" score that came up telling you how many pupils were left after each killing.

• Japanese rock singer Kyo, from the group "Dir en Grey", was apparently offered a part in the film, but his management refused to let him appear.

• There is a re-edited version of this film available in Japan only, in addition to the directors original cut. This was a "special version" which was cut to allow it to be shown to under 15s. The "special version" trimmed down all the violence and blood, but added 8 mins of additional dialogue.

• The UK release is of the original uncut version, but the additional dialogue scenes can be seen as extras on the UK 2-disc special edition.

• The film was unavailable in North America until 2004, as production company Toei initially refused to license it for distribution, despite several serious offers. No specific reason has been given, but it was suggested that they wanted a subtitled pan-American release, not a dubbed partial release.

Cast & Crew.

Buy the UK DVD (spec-ed)

Buy the UK DVD (standard)

Buy the Novel.

Buy the US DVD (spec-ed)

Buy the Novel.

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