Celebrated japanese director Kinji Fukasaku left this world with a long list of accomplished movies from his yakuza films like Street Mobster and Graveyard of Honor to his American Co-productions like Tora! Tora! Tora! and Virus, but for me his most accessible film is BATTLE
The plot is set sometime in the very near future where the public school system is struggling and unruly kids are running amok, to combat this the Japanese government implements the BR act or BATTLE ROYALE ACT. The purpose of this new law is to lower the teenage population by sticking them on an island and have them kill each other off. The film follows a class of 9th graders as they are randomly selected and kidnapped by the government to play the game. The man running the show for this class is their former teacher Takeshi Kitano (Zatoichi), who after being cut by a pupil leaves the school only to show up on the island. Joining the class are two new students, Kuriyama and Kawada. Each student is given a bag containing food, water and a weapon, ranging anywhere from a fan to an Uzi. The kids set off and begin knocking each other off one by one except for two students trying their hardest to survive, Nanahara and Noriko.
Wow what a film, the first time i saw it i was blown away, id never watched foreign films before because i didn't believe in subtitled movies and dismissed them as rubbish, i have to say a big thank you to my younger brother for introducing me to the wonders of Asian and world cinema. Cheers bro!!!
Anyways the film is pretty brutal and doesn't skimp when showing the deaths. The film also keeps a body count going. 42 started only one can remain.
The cast members are also outstanding especially Tetsuya Fujiwara who plays Nanahara who people may recognize from the Death Note films, he's a really good actor and you can see that Nanahara desperately wants to protect Noriko.
Noriko is played by Aki Maeda from the japanese rock comedy LINDA! LINDA! LINDA!. She's cute but a little annoying, but then again you'd be a bit scared too if you were 15 and told to kill all your friends.
Kawada is played by Taro Yamamoto (Moon Child), he's pretty much the bad ass of the movie, he's already played the game and won and now he's back to avenge the death of his girlfriend. He's really good and holds a shotgun like a pro....
Then we have Mr. Kitano himself, Writer, Director, actor, comedian and king of a castle, Takeshi Kitano, absolutely brilliant as the pissed of teacher. The scene with the instructional video is great and darkly funny. Long live Kitano!!!!
There's a familier face in the crowd to with Kill Bill's Chiaki Kuriyama.
For his final Full length film Fukasaku didn't pull any punches and it paid off brilliantly, for an old pro this was fitting end to a career that has spanned nearly 50 years and a great screenplay by his Son Kenta Fukasaku.
FILM: 10/10
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