The Town Herald

The netpaper about Elftowners, by Elftowners, for Elftowners.

Battle Royale

Review by [Atayemi]



Okay, so one of the greatest fears which most people have is losing their friends or family. However, when looking at the film Battle Royale, we see that the young characters aged from sixteen to eighteen, who are simple school students, must fight for survival. Alas, doing this concludes to the point where the students are indeed, losing their friends and family in the process due to their own past foolish acts.

Battle Royale is a Japanese film directed by the wonderful Kinji Fukasaku. This novel turned film bases around one class of children who have been chosen for a programme because they have boycotted school, physically abused teachers, and have just generally been an extremely rebellious class. This programme results in the students having to kill each other off until one is left standing, and so he or she is titled the winner. Each student is given a bag which contains a map, a small amount of food and water, toiletries(how kind!) and one random weapon. The weapon in each bag can vary from a pair of binoculars, a bin lid, a dagger, or a gun. It's all about luck.

The film contains stunning cinematography, glorious settings, and as much as some have doubted younger actors and actresses, the acting within Battle Royale is certainly believable. Battle Royale is a film about death and at the same time, learning who you are as you learn to believe who you should trust, and who you should not. It is a film about progressing through life from being a child to an adult, and Battle Royale indeed gives off that sense of well being.

However, it is not a film for the fainthearted. Expect lots of blood, screams, and dark, eerie scenes. It is fearful, but at the same time exciting. Many children are killed within this film, although some may find it humorous.

As for my own personal rating, I give this a ten. Simply because it is my favourite film of all time, and it has made me feel that I should not take school or my friends for granted, because as much as this is not real, anything could really happen. But then again, the Japanese are bonkers, aren't they? So who knows?



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