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Tatsuya Fujiwara, Aki Maeda, Taro Yamamoto, Masanobu Ando, Kou Shibasaki ... see more see more... , Chiaki Kuriyama , Takeshi Kitano , Yamamoto Taru , Ai Maeda , Ai Iwamura , Sousuke Takaoka

A long-unavailable underground hit that anticipated The Hunger Games novels by eight years, veteran director Fukasaku's epically violent, still-controversial and deeply influential genre masterpiece t... read more read more...akes place in a dystopian alternate universe. In the near future, the economy has collapsed, unemployment has soared and juvenile crime has exploded. Fearful of its nation's youth, the Japanese government passes The BR Law: Each year, a 9th grade class is sent to a remote island where they will be locked into exploding neck collars, given a random weapon, and forced to hunt and kill each other until there is only one survivor left. Battle Royale follows one such class, with an ice-cold performance from Takeski Kitano as the group's teacher. -- (C) Anchor Bay

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89% liked it

77,560 ratings

Critics

86% liked it

42 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 54 min.

Directed by: Kinji Fukasaku

Release Date: May 25, 2012

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DVD Release Date: January 25, 2005

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Stats: 9,057 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (9,057)

  • garyX
    May 18, 2012
    garyX
    A Japan increasingly concerned with spiralling urban violence makes an example of troublesome teens by stranding them on a desert island with the sole purpose of making them kill each other off until just one remains. Kinji Fukasaku's magnificently tasteless satire on reactionary... read more politics could be considered the logical conclusion of reality TV. The concept is a kind of cross between The Running Man and Lord Of The Flies. All the usual High School shenanigans are involved, but the introduction of lethal weapons throws the cliques, crushes and rivalries into a whole new light! The young cast are all great and Fukusaku was a veteran of Japanese Yakuza films and therefore a dab hand at stylized violence; the unrelenting drama and action of a type of slasher film where EVERYONE is the killer means it's virtually impossible to get bored! The sentiment can get a little heavy handed in places but Takeshi Kitano's surreal and sardonic host pops up at strategic intervals to routinely steal the show and stop the schmaltz before it goes too far. Certainly not as profound as it thinks it is, but it's a wonderfully entertaining and unique film that's destined to become a cult classic. Just avoid the dismal sequel (completed by his son after Fukusaku's death) like the plague.
  • JonathanHutchings
    April 2, 2012
    JonathanHutchings
    Japan's most controversial export in years has already achieved a certain cult status do its grisly violence and audacious plot, but as much as I wanted to like it, the bottom line is Battle Royale is just not that good. The basic narrative is razor-thin, the characters are extre... read moremely underdeveloped, and any attempt to say anything meaningful or moving is ham-fisted and obvious, which quite simply isn't good enough for a film as in-your-face as this. The repetitive killings tend to obscure its attempt to establish a message, instead of highlighting it.

    The brutal violence, also, is slightly undercut by a sense of satire and irony as the filmmakers nod at cultural issues (children out of control, first-world laziness, etc.) but nothing ever gets beneath the surface, leaving us to merely "enjoy" the film as an action thriller in which a group of fairly anonymous teens murder each other in increasingly gruesome and inventive ways. I almost think Battle Royale would have worked better as an exploitation film, but its commitment to thematic concerns (however flawed they were) effectively prohibits it from ever being so. Ultimately, what you have is an attempt at a serious arty film, but it comes off as being a relatively entertaining slasher B movie that seems desperate to be more important than what it really is.
  • c0up
    March 31, 2012
    c0up
    'Battle Royale'. Teen melodrama overload and absurdly violent, with a tone that was too muddled for me.

    The film tried to address a lot of "big" issues, but I couldn't go with any of it because it felt like a spoof that wasn't one. The whole motivation behind forcing the studen... read morets to kill each other was "you're mocking adults, this will teach you a lesson". If this was meant to be taken seriously in any way, it failed, and if it wasn't, then the humour angle didn't work either.
  • fb1664868775
    March 25, 2012
    fb1664868775
    Long before "The Hunger Games" novels and film took America by storm, this terrifying ultraviolent film was a visceral moviemaking punch to the gut. With "Games" sharing so much of it's mythology with "Battle Royale", it's easy to imagine Suzanne Collins had this film playing on ... read morerepeat while writing. Give credit where credit is due.
  • axadntpron
    February 27, 2012
    axadntpron
    Overly-dramatic, overly-violent, and wildly-entertaining, this exercise in excess is quite the experience.
    Being the object of scorn by the adults of Japan, unruly teenagers are chosen at random to kill each other off one by one on a nearby island. Their once care-free living, f... read morelipped upside-down in a way that will change, or take, all of their lives. From the the music to the acting, this film is boisterous, which puts an even more surreal spin on an already oddly enrapturing experience.
    Yet, rather than just have this be an empty vessel of shock and awe, director Kinji Fukasaku makes some interesting observations on generational conflict. The adults of this world say that the students deserve this due to their mockery. Yet, Fukasaku shows that what the kids are really guilty of is mimicry. Many instances in the film show how these kid's capability for love and violence are shaped by their parents. In fact, the kids that we do get to know are just trying to get by in a world that they inherited from the older generations. In other words, the arena that was already built for them.
    Sadly, any recent spat of reviews are sure to judge this film against the release of the titanic "The Hunger Games." However, as much as I myself like the Hunger Games novel, there are some very striking similarities aside from the whole government sanctioned death brawl that are sure to raise some brows. The seemingly professional fighters, the constant death announcements, & a character fighting for his sister, are other instances of eerie similarities between this tiny cult film and the Suzanne Collins behemoth. While not a blatant rip-off, one wouldn't be surprised if Collins had used this movie as a reference when conjuring up her story. Honestly though, it doesn't bother me much. There is room enough in this idea for two stories. Even though this one I'm sure was aimed to critique the masses, while the other will be to please.
  • paulkoh110
    December 27, 2011
    paulkoh110
    Made my stomach sick but I had to finish it. Its great and shows us the moral flexibilities of children. Its not just an action movie. Its something that can actually be interpreted towards human nature. A great find and probably worth a second viewing if you're up to it.
  • fb619846742
    December 6, 2011
    fb619846742
    An excellent, extraordinary action film concerning a group of junior high Japanese students who are taken to a deserted island where they are forced by one of their teachers to fight to the death until there is only one man (or woman) standing. What sounds like a sick exercise in... read more pointless violence is actually a thrilling, completely arresting view of a society gone straight to Hell. Think "Lord of the Flies" times a million, with an impact so great and a message so strong it will definitely leave one thinking a lot about society. The main point is not the violence and the great fight scenes, moreso the societal message that preaches the importance of letting youth be youth, with a swift jab to the Japanese parents to stop pressuring their kids to become geniuses, and show sympathy for their teenage angst and early struggles in life. Definitely not a film for all tastes, but it becomes a surprisingly deep and powerful tale as the film progresses. Definitely one of the better movies of the 00's, and without question worth a view.
  • fb1216165431
    September 10, 2011
    fb1216165431
    A class of ninth graders was selected and forced to play a game of survival due rampant youth violence and delinquency in Battle Royale with confronting elements of politics, rebellion, and ethics. Controversial, gloriously disturbing, and brutally precise.
  • StarCrossedVoyager
    May 11, 2011
    StarCrossedVoyager
    From the beginning this was a brilliant film that slowly became a romance. It was difficult to watch how these friends just started killing each other and although some of them gave it a try to remain friends and look out for each other, the only people who really did were Nanaha... read morera and Noriko. Brilliant characters. The thing that ruined it for me was the "twist" where Kawada supposedly "killed" them when it was only them three left. I didn't understand the point of this. I couldn't get if he really did use them or if it was just to make the audience think he had killed them. The teacher must have known that he was faking otherwise he wouldn't have sent the troops off. I don't really understand the teachers relationship with Noriko. He obviously liked her but then he gave up his ilfe for her? Also at the beginning I thought that the girl who won that game was Noriko so it was quite confusing. It was difficult to tell them apart and to remember all the characters so that was a down point. Brilliant.
  • WrenchLT
    April 13, 2011
    WrenchLT
    Although I feel it's slightly over-praised, this is still one of the best movies to come out of Japan in recent years. Violent, dark humoured, but also moving too. It's a real brave and original film that, despite the controversial subject matter, is worth a watch at least once t... read moreo appreciate the intended message of the movie to put the shocking nature of the story into perspective. Then once you've grasped the meanings and messages of the film you can then watch it again with a more sadistic mindset and enjoy the ensuing bloodshed as friends and classmates selfishly kill eachother off to be the soul survivor of the Battle Royale Program.

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Critic Reviews

Sara Stewart
May 25, 2012
Sara Stewart, New York Post

Stylistically it's a beauty, with khaki-uniformed waifs fighting for their lives to a crashing classical score. Full Review

A.O. Scott
May 24, 2012
A.O. Scott, New York Times

Awful deaths (and hysterical reactions to them) punctuate declarations of love and friendship, revelations of treachery and heavily armed expressions of angst. Full Review

Eric Hynes
May 22, 2012
Eric Hynes, Village Voice

It may suit a certain worldview, but Battle Royale's cynicism is still a form fantasy-a balm as well as a bomb. Full Review

Maggie Lee
May 22, 2012
Maggie Lee, Hollywood Reporter

3D conversion of a classic teen massacre thriller raises the gore level. Full Review

Robert Koehler
May 20, 2008
Robert Koehler, Variety

Departing from two decades' worth of domestic and personal dramas and returning to his roots as Japan's maestro of mayhem, Kinji Fukasaku has delivered a brutal punch to the collective solar plexus wi... Full Review

Rob Vaux
May 25, 2012
Rob Vaux, Mania.com

A gloriously entertaining ride, provided you have a taste for dark material and don't mind the occasional poke in the ribs. Full Review

Joshua Rothkopf
May 22, 2012
Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York

Forgive the film its small flaws of histrionic performances and cheap execution for the giddy rush of its banal, Verhoevenesque atmosphere... Full Review

May 22, 2012
Film4

A wonderfully exciting, incredibly idiosyncratic actioner. Full Review

Chuck Bowen
May 20, 2012
Chuck Bowen, Slant Magazine

Maybe Battle Royale's ultimate punchline is its inexplicable ability to fool some people into taking it seriously. Full Review

Brian Gibson
May 10, 2012
Brian Gibson, Vue Weekly (Edmonton, Canada)

Battle Royale's dystopia reflects a hyper-tech Japan still deeply concerned with social cohesion and the value-gaps between the generations. It's the disturbingly dark social frame, not its bloody can... Full Review

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Facts

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    • Shuya Nanahara: NOBU! [Nobu's head explodes]
    • Kitano: So today's lesson is, you kill each other off till there's only one left. Nothing's against the rules.
    • Shougo Kawada: There's a way out of this game. Kill yourselves together, here, now. If you can't do that, then don't trust anyone... just run.
    • Chigusa: God, can I tell him one more thing? You look really cool, Hiroki [dies]
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Battle Royale 3D Trivia

  • Tagline: "Could you kill your best friend?"  Answer »
  • Quote: "[Picks up axe] This one is SUPER lucky!"  Answer »
  • "At the dawn of the Millenium, the nation collapsed. At 15% unemployment, 10 million were out of work, 800,000 students boycotted school. The adults lost confidence, and fearing the youth, eventually passed the 'Millenium Educational Reform Act'...AKA: ________." Is the tagline to which film??  Answer »
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