It must have been one of those days when I had nothing to do and then I surf the internet on the latest trending things the youth of today are attracted to. A few months ago, there was the movie Hunger Games which was based on Suzanne Collins' book of the same title. I haven't seen the movie yet but I guess I will have to one of these days just to see for myself the similarities and differences of that movie to the Japanese Battle Royale.
Battle Royale itself was based on a manga by Koushun Takami which tempted me to read it, too, especially after watching the film. The story revolves around 42 students who were gassed while inside a bus on a fieldtrip. They woke up finding an electronic collar around each student's neck and were briefed on the Battle Royale, a result of the Millennium Educational Reform Act meant to "reform" the students who were becoming more and more uncontrollable in the eyes of the adults. The rule is simple: the students kill each other until only one survives. If more than one survives after three days, everyone dies.
The 42 students were comprised of different personalities. Most opted not to participate in the game and they form small bands trying to find a way out of the grim situation they were in. Still, others like Kazuo Kiriyama and Mitsuko Souma were more than eager to win as they unhesitatingly killed anyone that crosses their respective paths. The movie explores the different reactions of people under a situation when only one can emerge as winner: paranoia, manipulation, deception, and mistrust. On a more positive side, it also considers cooperation and overcoming trust issues as a way to get out of the game.
One group of girls were found to be working together until one of them puts poison in the food supposed to be given to Nanahara, the main protagonist of the story. Paranoia had crept into the girl as she had seen Nanahara "kill" one of their classmates. The food was eaten by another girl who died in front of the other girls and which immediately triggered mistrust among the group that they ended up gunning down each other. This is one of my favorite scenes, seeing these girls suddenly becoming experts in ducking and aiming guns at each other like trained soldiers.
If there are two characters I would have liked to win, it would be Hiroki Sugimura and Shinji Mimura. Armed with just a GPS tracking device, Sugimura goes off alone to warn his best friend Takako Chigusa and his crush Kayoko Kotohiki. But he met a tragic death in the hands of Kotohiki who thought he was dangerous and fired at him nonstop. Still as he lay dying, Sugimura warns her of the coming of Kiriyama who soon afterward kills Kotohiki.
Shinji Mimura on the other hand is a computer genius who infiltrated the system's computers thus making it impossible to track the students in the game. Before he was killed by Kiriyama, he managed to detonate the bomb he and his friends made which gravely injured Kiriyama. Mimura is quite bossy but being also quite resourceful as to find a computer and a generator in a remote island, not to mention being able to hack into the military's computer system make me admire his character. It is such a pity that he would die.
In the end, it is the kindhearted couple Nanahara and Noriko who survived everything. They were just lucky though to be able to trust each other and to demonstrate that trust so effectively throughout the film. And they were doubly lucky to be aided by the experienced BR participant Kawada who wanted to seek revenge for the death of his love interest when the two participated in the program sometime before the present storyline.
Grim, violent, and full of suspense, Battle Royale is not for the fainthearted. While thrillers and horror movies are not my cup of tea, I find myself liking this film for shallow reasons. I like Shibasaki Kou and Kuriyama Chiaki's performance. Both are pretty.. and well, deadly. The movie lacks more background info on each character though. For instance, I would have loved to know why Kiriyama and Mitsuko were like that. Also, why pass the BR Act? Why not any other act? Or is it just another instrument to propel a plot in which students are made to kill each other to feed the consumer's desire for action and strategy?
I would have loved to see an anime version of Battle Royale...
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