“At the dawn of the millennium, the nation collapsed. At fifteen percent unemployment, ten million were out of work. 800,000 students boycotted school. The adults lost confidence and, fearing the youth, eventually passed the Millennium Educational Reform Act, AKA the BR Act….”
Last night, I finished “Battle Royale,” a movie that I have been waiting for so long to watch. And let me tell you, the wait was worth it. Before seeing this movie, “Noroi” was one of my all-time favorite horror films… but now, I don’t know… “Battle Royale” is right up there with “Noroi.”
Now, if you’ve ever heard of or read William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, the concept of “Battle Royale” is very similar. Basically, Japan is becoming a mess with unemployment and crap, so the adults begin to fear the power of the youth. How to solve this? Well, the government passes an act in which each year, a randomly chosen high school class will be sent to a deserted island to battle it out to survive. Only one winner can be standing at the end of three days.
With that said, you can imagine the blood bath that is created on the island. Even though most of the teenagers feared such an uncivil duty placed upon them, there was that one student that took the task seriously and started it all… all it took was one death for people to get nervous and untrustworthy towards one another. And so friends turned against friends… lovers turned against lovers… etc.
Besides the blood and gore, this film posed some good questions. What will our world become when we do not have the government to protect our stabilization? Can we really trust the people we think we can trust? Are we all savages at heart? Will we return to our natural instincts in times of dire need… such as when our survival is on the line? Who are we? What kind of people are we? These are definitely things to think about, especially since our economy dipped this past year. Sure the world was not in panic, but what would have happened if we did get to that level? And of course, this movie made me think twice about the people that I think I know. Other circumstances have already made me lose trust in people in general… but I still questioned whether I knew the people around me as well as I think I do. I mean, do I really know who my enemies are? Do YOU know who your true enemies are? And what about your comrades?
The point is, this movie isn’t just your typical horror film (as with most Asian horror movies). Rather, there are deeper questions and meanings that lie within the film itself. Essentially, this is what I enjoy most about Asian horror movies. But I specifically choose this as one of my favorites because of how well the plot is formulated and quite frankly, it relates to me and my generation.
So that I don’t leave you completely horrified and fearful of your peers, let me entertain you with some funny things I found about this film. First and foremost, I thought it was quite funny how every person who died would say their last words and then flop like a dead fish almost as quickly as I can blink my eye. Just think about it, if someone turned to you while blood was pouring out of them like the Niagara Falls, and said “I love you,” and then flopped the next moment… wouldn’t you giggle a little bit at the unnaturalness of it all? Maybe so, maybe not… but I would. And secondly, there is one scene where this one girl chases this guy who threatens to kill her if she doesn’t have sex with him. When she finally gets him, she takes her knife and stabs at his crotch so many times that I cannot count on both of my hands. She twists and jabs and whatnot… Talk about a cockblock… ㅋㅋㅋ
In essence, this movie is definitely one that you should watch… but if you get sick from seeing blood, don’t watch this. There will be scenes in which blood squirts like a summer sprinkler. 😦 for you 🙂 for me. Just remember, “Life is a game. So fight for it and see if you’re worth it.”
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Heheheh… sorry, I just had to… 🙂
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