CULTJAPAN!

Battle Royale is a 2000 Japanese film based on the novel of the same name and directed by Kinji Fukasaku. It was written by Kenta Fukasaku, and stars Takeshi Kitano and Tatsuya Fujiwara. The plot of the film is fairly faithful to that of the novel, with a few key differences. The prologue title card reads: “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…”

The film concentrates on Shuya Nanahara (Tatsuya Fujiwara), a charismatic young boy living in Kanagawa Prefecture. After his mother abandons him and his father commits suicide, he becomes disillusioned with life. The rest of his classmates are similarly disillusioned, and have little respect for authority. Shuya’s best friend, Yoshitoki “Nobu” Kuninobu (Yukihiro Kotani), attacks their teacher Kitano (Takeshi Kitano), but runs away before he can be identified. Noriko Nakagawa (Aki Maeda), a sweet, reserved young girl who happens to witness the incident, hides the knife that Nobu has just attacked Kitano with. Kitano, frustrated, resigns.

The next year, as the students are nearing the end of their compulsory education, they embark on a class trip. On the bus the entire class is gassed, kidnapped, taken to an isolated island, and fitted with electronic collars. Once there, the students are shocked to find that they are inside an abandoned school, and that Kitano (along with the government) is behind the entire operation. Kitano informs them that they have been selected as participants in Battle Royale, a game created by the Millennial Educational Reform Act (better known as the Battle Royale Act) where the students must kill each other until only one is left. One class from the country per year is selected to participate in the program. If after three days a winner is not declared, the explosive collars attached to each student’s neck will be detonated. The collars also prevent the students entering certain areas of the field of participation, the “danger zones,” with the intention of forcing the students to encounter one another. (These instructions are delivered by a cute, smiling girl via a video, who behaves like a kindergarten teacher and refers to herself as their “big sister”.) After killing a student, Fumiyo Fujiyoshi, for whispering, Kitano also detonates Nobu’s collar, killing him, to provide an example to the class. One by one, each student leaves the school, being provided with survival packs containing food, water, a flashlight, a compass, a map of the island and a random weapon. (In some cases said weapon might actually be deadly, such as an axe or machine gun; in others it might not even technically be a weapon at all, such as a saucepan lid or binoculars.)

The students separate, some of them forming groups or teams for mutual protection, while others remain solo. A few embrace the program and become willing to kill the others to ensure their own survival. Kazuo Kiriyama volunteered for Battle Royale for the adventure, and manages to kill a large group of students and goes around the island alone, killing without remorse. Also willing to kill is Mitsuko Souma, who has taken it upon herself to win the game, using everything she has at her disposal, especially her sexuality.

Some students refuse to play the game. Shuya, grieving over Nobu’s death, decides to take it upon himself to protect Noriko, the object of Nobu’s affection. Elsewhere, class president Yukie Utsumi (Eri Ishikawa) gathers up a group of girls and decides to hide in an abandoned lighthouse, while junior revolutionary Shinji Mimura (Takashi Tsukamoto) gathers his friends and plans to hack the system and blow up the school (along with Kitano), thereby liberating the students.

Other students refuse to kill or hide. While some commit suicide, Hiroki Sugimura (Sousuke Takaoka) decides to make the best of his final hours, and seeks out his best friend, Takako Chigusa (Chiaki Kuriyama), and the girl he loves, Kayoko Kotohiki (Takayo Mimura).

The film’s main plot focuses on Shuya and Noriko. They eventually run into Shogo Kawada, a seasoned warrior and Kobe native with an agenda. They witness Kiriyama murder Yumiko Kusaka and Yukiko Kitano, who were trying to call for peace, and Kawada runs off. Later, they run into Kawada again when they stumble upon his hideout. Kawada lets them in and reveals that he is out to avenge the death of his girlfriend, Keiko Onuki, who was killed in the first game. However, when Kiriyama kills Toshinori Oda outside the building (earning himself a bulletproof vest), Shuya tries to kill Kiriyama and only survives due to Hiroki Sugimura intervening while Shuya escapes. Sugimura then brings Shuya to the lighthouse where the girls are hiding out.

Shuya wakes up bandaged in the lighthouse, where many of the girls are hiding. Yuko Sakaki poisons a bowl of soup meant for Shuya. When Yuka Nakagawa is instead killed by the poison, all of the girls begin to distrust each other and they all kill each other, except Sakaki, who commits suicide over the guilt of killing her friend. An injured Shuya grabs all of the guns and begins looking for Noriko. Elsewhere, Noriko is confronted by Mitsuko, but Kitano scares her off and Noriko meets up again with Shuya.

As the game continues and only a few students are left, Sugimura finds Kotohiki, the girl he loves, hiding in a warehouse. She kills him, thinking he is a threat. As Sugimura dies, he professes his love for Kotohiki, who is sorrowful at having not known this. Shortly after, Kotohiki is shot by Mitsuko and dies. Kiriyama then arrives at the warehouse and after a short battle, kills Mitsuko, taking her pistol. Elsewhere, Mimura and his friends have hacked into the system and are ready to destroy the school. One of Mimura’s friends sees Kiriyama, and thinking it is Shuya, calls out to him. Kiriyama kills everyone of them, increasing his kill count to twelve, but not before Mimura manages to detonate the bomb, leaving Kiriyama blinded as Shuya, Noriko and Kawada arrive on the scene. Kawada confronts Kiriyama, who even while blinded, manages to injure Kawada severely until Kawada shoots his collar, killing him, leaving only Shuya, Noriko and Kawada on the island.

Kawada then, in a plot twist, reveals that he lied about Keiko and merely kept Shuya and Noriko alive because they trusted him. Kawada then seemingly kills both of them; the soldiers in charge go to check for the dead corpses, but Kitano stops them, ending the operation. Declared the winner, Kawada treks to the school. Kitano has since declared the operation a success, and is left on the island after the government leaves in helicopters. Kawada confronts Kitano, and is soon joined by Shuya and Noriko, who are revealed to be still alive after Kawada disabled their collars to fake their deaths. Kitano is unsurprised to see that Shuya and Noriko have survived, having realized Kawada’s plan. He reveals that he had hoped that Noriko would survive, as his daughter, Shiori, hates him—he sees Noriko as the daughter he never had. Kitano then reveals a hand-painted picture of Noriko, smiling and standing among her dead classmates. Not wanting to return home, he orders Noriko to kill him. Shuya eventually does when Kitano threatens Noriko with a gun, which is revealed as he falls to be a water pistol. Following a final conversation with Shiori, over the telephone, in which he tells her one must accept the consequences of hating someone, he dies.

The remaining trio escapes the island on a boat, but Kawada succumbs to his wounds and dies after teaching Shuya how to pilot the boat. As he dies, he reveals that in Shuya and Noriko he accomplished his goal of discovering why Keiko smiled at him as she died—she, like he now, had finally found true friends and was willing to give up her life for them. Shuya and Noriko make it to land, where they become fugitives wanted for murder. Shuya, in the movie’s final narrative, explains that the two of them, while still peaceful, will fight if they have to protect each other. Together, they go on the run.

Battle Royale stars Tatsuya Fujiwara, Aki Maeda, Taro Yamamoto, Takeshi Kitano, Masanobu Ando.

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article “Battle Royale (film)“.