Director: Kinji Fukusaku
Regardless of any sociopolitical subtext, whenever you've got a movie featuring 13-year-olds brutally killing each other, it is going to be a cult classic. Battle Royale is extremely violent and has got compelling plot that never fails to keep your attention. Kids fight each other with all sorts of weapons and engage in all sorts of survival techniques, it is certainly fascinating. But there is also some great subtext about the divide between the world of adults and the world of children. The plot of the movie represents the disdain the filmmakers have for the inhumane dog-eat-dog world of adults, especially in a time of economic woes, such as the time Japan was in when this movie was made.
The actual details of the premise and plot are sometimes thin, which is not a flaw. Too much backstory would have taken away the allegorical quality of the plot, but there is some unclarity in the end that I would have liked to see improved. There's also a whole lot of unnecessary teenage melodrama, and much of it focuses on a select few characters making the question of who lives and who dies very predictable. But ultimately, the movie is extremely entertaining and leaves a whole lot of room for contemplation on the relationship between children and adults.
Grade: B
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