Battle Royale is one of those films that, when it begins, seems normal … until it becomes a game of death. Starting March 15, Champaign’s own Art Theater will begin showing this “semi-banned” Japanese thriller, a film that Quentin Tarantino describes as his favorite movie, and that has had a marked impact on several more recent films. The plot of Battle Royale, as posted by IMDB is this: “In the future, the Japanese government captures a class of ninth-grade students and forces them to kill each other under the revolutionary ‘Battle Royale’ act.”
Does this plot sound familiar to anyone? Of course it does. For those people who have read the hugely popular Hunger Games series (or seen the similarly hugely popular film starring recent Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence), this premise should sound virtually identical. However, the thing that separates Battle Royale from Hunger Games is the former film’s starkly black tone.
Whereas Hunger Games has the Jumbotron, fashion-forward aesthetic of a violent Olympic sport, all corporate sponsorship and sleek outerwear, Battle Royale is a very dark, visceral, and depressing movie. This darkness permeates the way its characters respond to each other.
Another film set that owes a serious debt to Battle Royale is Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill two-parter, specifically The Bride’s systematic takedown of the Crazy 88 and the animated story of O-Ren. In those two standout moments you have the Bride (Uma Thurman) going after 88 people with one sword. Battle Royale also features systematic killing, but its cast of student warriors are armed with very different weapons. The Crazy 88 scene is action-oriented in tone and has no deeper context than allowing the heroine to progress further in her journey to find (and kill) Bill. There is no sadness at the deaths of the 88, just the dramatic balls-to-the-wall sword fighting. O-Ren’s story highlights the struggles of someone who has always been underestimated; this is a constant theme running through Battle Royale.
One more film that clearly pays homage to Battle Royale is one, perhaps, that not many would suspect. That film is Death Note: The Movie. While Battle Royale focuses on the idea of kids fighting each other for survival, there is also a hint of playing God with other people’s lives. Death Note pays homage to that in its story of a kid named Light Yagami. Yagami finds a book that allows him to write someone’s name inside and then have them die of a heart attack thirty seconds later. Light can also construct elaborate deaths for people, which is a big part of the violence in Battle Royale.
Battle Royale and its somber nature inspired and influenced a lot of action films and some straight dramas. The three films mentioned in this preview, in addition to being great films in their own right, are also three very good reasons you should check out this Japanese classic.
For showtimes, check out the Art’s website. For a quick peek, check out the trailer. For a bloody good time, check out Battle Royale. It might look a little familiar, but that’s just because the underclassmen always want to dress like the cool kids.