Comments on: Battle Royale (2000)

By: We Are Ninja

We Are Ninja — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 17:02:54 +0000

For the record, the “class slut” and cold-blooded killer was Mitsuko Souma, not Takako Chigusa…

By: tHE hERETIC

tHE hERETIC — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 03:22:27 +0000

Just rewatched it again, and still impressed. Can’t help but compare it to _Lord of the Flies_ in its themes of trust and civilization.

By: Ichii Yamamoto

Ichii Yamamoto — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 19:05:20 +0000

this was the best japanese movie that I’ve seen in centuries, greatly surpassed all of the american action/survival/horror flicks put together.

By: Joe Valdez

Joe Valdez — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 19:58:57 +0000

Dad: There’s no mistaking Battle Royale for anything other than a Japanese exploitation flick, but the more I think about it, the more I like it. There are many similarities between this movie and The Long Walk and The Running Man novellas of Stephen King’s The Bachman Books. Patricia: I wish you were a professional critic. “This is a pretty sick yet very special movie” is a blurb that would get me into a theater. I always enjoy your take on international cinema and appreciate you filling me in on Takeshi Kitano. He sounds like a Japanese Lee Van Cleef. Pat: I see your point about the violence needing to be over-the-top instead of realistic. This again demonstrates why I should not be a movie director. I read that Tarantino was in Japan having dinner with Kenta Fukasaku and told him how much he loved that lighthouse scene. Fukasaku told Tarantino that the author of Battle Royale had seen Reservoir Dogs and used it as the inspiration for the standoff between the girls. So even if you're a Tarantino hater and believe he steals everything he writes, it's refreshing to know that creative inspiration goes both east and west.

By: Piper

Piper — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 16:30:04 +0000

Joe,

I heard the premise of this movie when it first came out and knew I had to have it. I bought some kind of collectors edition that only plays on my portable DVD player and I watched it on a flight to LA.

The two scenes that do it for me are the classroom scene where the children quickly become aware of the situation they are in and the super happy/super creepy video they are subjected to. And the scene where the kids in the lighthouse are convinced they are all trying to kill one another.

The violence is over the top and I appreciated that considering the subject matter. If it were handled more seriously, I might have found it just too disturbing. So I appreciated the cheesiness at times. I do however feel this movie kind of fell apart at the end. I guess I was expecting a much darker ending rather than a hopeful one. It’s my understanding that the sequel to this was not good.

Tarantino loved Chiaki Kuriyama in this so much, he tapped her to play Gogo in Kill Bill Vol. 1.

After I saw this movie, I couldn’t stop talking about it. I was at a dinner in LA with the Executive Producer in charge of Film Production at Anonymous Content (nice title dropping, huh?) and I was telling him about it. He ended up borrowing my DVD to dub it because he was very interested in making an American version of it. I kept telling him that it was a weird disc and he probably couldn’t make a dub of it. He kept telling me very arrogantly that as Executive Producer in charge of Film Production he could probably find a way to get it dubbed. He never did.

By: Pat Evans

Pat Evans — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 12:12:11 +0000

This is a pretty sick yet very special movie — I’ve seen it a few times now and definitely reckon it, although I agree that the ending is something of a cop-out. I’ve also seen the sequel which is a little over-ambitious and not really in the same shock league.
Mind you I’m a big, big Takeshi Kitano fan and if you haven’t seen all of his films put them on your “must-see” list. I take that back, his last two movies where he sort of mocks his own persona are more than self-indulgent. But the earlier ones are wonderfully violent and the middle period like Hana-bi (Fireworks) and Dolls brilliant. I also love his take on Zatoichi.

By: Joseph R. Valdez

Joseph R. Valdez — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 12:48:30 +0000

Dear # 1 son,
Thought this was some sort of James Bond pic that must have completely flown under my radar screen when it was first released. Skeptical when I saw its origin, your review took me by surprise and was so descriptive and compelling I find I must find a way to rectify that situation, and you’ve thoughtfully shown the way. Thank you.