This is the latest controversial film by Japanese director Kinji Fukasaku, a 40-year veteran who balances action genre filmmaking with pointed commentary on his home country's political and social themes. "Battle Royale" shows that he may be even feistier and more audacious than ever before. Competition taken
"Battle Royale"
to a dark extreme
Closing night film, 8:30 p.m. Thursday
1/2
In reaction to the debilitating pressures and ruthlessly competitive natures of the school and corporate system, Fukasaku paints an especially bloody picture of a Japan several years into the millennium, when rebellious youth threaten to overthrow the social and political status quo. In brutal retaliation, the government enacts a law that has uniformed school kids, after completing their compulsory education, rounded up and forced into a Survivor-type setting for the sole purpose of killing each other until only one is left standing.
Fukasaku revels in this schlocky premise with the help of hip auteur "Beat" Takeshi Kitano, who plays the fascist teacher that oversees the carnage with a sadistic glee. As each of the kids fall, an onscreen body count is duly updated. This is a black -- very black -- satire.
The teen-age kids represent a microcosm of Japanese society -- some are mean-spirited, petty and vindictive; some are defensive; and others cooperate with each other in trying to outsmart their militaristic keepers. The most telling scene is the film's most brutal but funniest because of its over-the-top staging; the accidental poisoning of one of a group of girls arguing over a cute boy deteriorates into the ultimate catfight of a gun battle. The bloody scene ends with a title card that mockingly asks "do you know what this means?"
"Battle Royale" is a subversive masterwork from a filmmaker responsible for some of his country's best post-WWII yakuza films, the 1967 psychedelic cult classic "Black Lizard," trashy sci-fi films "The Green Slime" and "Message From Space" and even some work on the war epic "Tora! Tora! Tora!"
By Gary C.W. Chun
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