Takeshi Kitano, Tatsuya Fujiwara, Aki Maeda

Japan at the start of the new millennium. The country is in a state of chaos, violence by rebellious teenagers in schools is completely out of control. The government hits back with a new law: every y...( read more  read more... )ear a school class picked at random will be cast away on a desert island to fight it out among themselves. The rules are simple: it lasts three days, everyone gets water, food and a weapon and only one may survive. Then a class on a school trip is kidnapped. When they wake up, angry teacher Kitano tells them that the collar around their necks monitors their position and can be caused to explode remotely at any moment.

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90% liked it

27,724 ratings

Critics

82% liked it

22 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 54 min.

Directed by: Kinji Fukasaku

Release Date: December 31, 2001

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DVD Release Date: January 25, 2005

Stats: 7,910 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (7,910)


  • October 27, 2009
    I'm afraid I'm gonna have to disagree with Tarantino on this one. I could never regard Batoru rowaiaru, with the amount of flaws it has, as the best movie of the last 27 years. It's not even the best movie of 2000, for that matter. If we were talking about mere concepts, then it ...( read more)would be a completely different story. But great concepts don't make great movies. And a movie that screws things up this much in its second part should never deserve the high amount of respect it clearly enjoys among the movie community. As I stated before in several of my comments, I simply cannot understand nor accept that people may be willing to neglect every other aspect of a movie just because it was so original to begin with. What could have been a positively dramatic jaw clenching experience turned into a pile of overused cliches for the sake of an incredibly overrated peace of mind post-feeling.

    This said, it is unquestionable that BR brings with it one of the most interesting and unusual concepts of modern cinema. One I have the utmost sympathy for. What better way for us to educate our current teenage offspring? I don't think there is any. Additionally, for a while, the movie was able to grasp an unnerving sense of realism. It definitely looked quite promising.

    And then, it got rid of most of that.
    Very poor plot development, ridiculously far fetched moments (NOT the usual and appropriate symbolic far fetched moments one tends to find in Asian cinema), a handful of cliches and a pitiful ending were enough to make me feel ill with disappointment. A fight for survival as insane as this one was supposed to be would clearly be incompatible with most of this.

    Now we're in control of everything.

    *puff*

    Now we're not.


    Sad.

    But because of its fantastically uncanny opening 30 minutes, and because I still can't believe how bad it became all of the sudden, BR is one of the very few movies I'm willing to give the benefit of a second viewing after having been left with such a bad first impression, to see if I'm the one missing something here.

    For now, an average rating and this

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    is the best I can come up with.

    On the bright side, this time, the American remake (which, for BR, is due in 2011) won't even have to go far to fuck this one up.
  • October 12, 2009
    The more i think about it the more i convince myself of something: Battle royale was the only way a story like this one could had been made to the big screen, and it was the right approach. After seeing this so many times now i actually have found how well acted most of the kids ...( read more)roles are. When you have 40 something characters wandering around an island not everyone is going to get the spotlight. So, fat nerveous guy is going to get killed near the beginning because, well, he was just the fat nerveous kid in the class. Fukasaku's direction is tight, never distracting, never trying to remind you of how over-the-top the premise is. It focus on it's characters and never lets them go away. It's a serious triumph that should be praised far more from all the things that it get's right.
  • September 4, 2009
    Battle Royale is part social comm entry, part dark vision of the future. I can't help but notice a George Orwell influence too as its much like a modern mix of 1984 and Lord of the flies. It is also darkly humoured and very violent, not to mention absolutely brilliant!
  • August 5, 2009
    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.
  • April 16, 2009
    It was good, but a lot more cuter than I expected :P
    an overall good movie, but I might have been wanting a little more blood and gore :P
  • November 3, 2009
    One of the greatest Japanese movie of all time! Please don't ever let Hollywood remake this amazing movie. Just please.
  • October 16, 2009
    I really enjoyed this. Very different.
  • October 15, 2009
    Battle Royale (2000)

    Also known as Batoru Rowaiaru.

    Remember those terrible, bloody, teen slasher films from the 80s, where wild teens are getting killed off one by one by crazy dudes in masks? Well, that was sort of the same thing that Japanese kids were enjoying too, with th...( read more)is movie. The movie takes place in some weird near-future time where unemployment is high and students have run amuck. The government came up with this lottery to get rid of troublesome teens.

    Classes of teens lead by, of all people, their teacher, (Beat Takeshi) are chosen to be dumped on a deserted island with an explosive neck device, just the barest of essentials, and a weapon, with the idea that the last teen alive gets to go home. If there are any other kids alive though, then everyone dies. It's a great concept. Sort of like a Saw meets Lord of the Fly, meets Surviving the Game/The Most Dangerous Game. Well, you know what I mean.

    Of course any kind of group of kids imaginable are represented here, from star-crossed lovers, to computer geeks, to crazy loner types, to the beautiful soc. people. Some kids team up and combine forces while some just start in killing everyone they meet. A few even form suicide pacts. Everyone has a different type of weapon too, so they're given things that are totally worthless and others, things like machine guns or knives. Some people tend to hoard other dead kids weapons.

    The teenagers aren't too obnoxious, so it's pretty easy to start rooting for many of them, are curious of their weird survival instincts, and of course, there's a lot of drama as they kill or be killed. Of course it's very bloody, and there's plenty of holes in the plot, but all in all, it's a great, fun movie.
  • October 12, 2009
    Violent, quite irreal, but, well, you can see it... What I have been told is that the comic is much better. In the movie, sometimes is deep, other is just comic, most of the time you say, "Ok, another death, continuye dying"...
  • October 12, 2009
    Dark social commentary doesn't get much more pointed...

Critic Reviews


May 3, 2005
Nick Schager, Lessons of Darkness

Races along with the swift, brutal precision of a samurai sword cutting through cotton. full review

View more Battle Royale (Batoru Rowaiaru) reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments


  • VOS410
    March 31, 2009
    An amazing film with such originality; hollywood too afraid to tackle.
  • neptune881
    July 8, 2008
    The best Japanese Movie ever my favorite character ever in the film is Mitsuko Souma ^^
  • kaneoi
    March 11, 2008
    Hey wassup people. I gotta say big up to the whole people behind this movie i love it!! Was this a controversial film in Japan any Japanese readin' this? & Is the 2nd any better? Comment back...
  • crystalmiko
    September 11, 2007
    abnormal film~crazy mind!!!but i like it.
  • chrismid259
    August 19, 2007
    Yes, they have most definetly taken the rights to remake this. From what i have heared Battle Royale is a very good movie, but it's a common thing now Japan release something original and America snatch it and remake it. Most of American remakes turn out to be alot of rubbish.
  • yellieisarobot
    August 3, 2007
    Apparently New Line Cinema has snatched up the rights to make an American version of BR.(Here for more details: http://www.joblo.com/index.php?id=11650)Thoughts? I think this is probably one of the more idiotic things Hollywood has done. Why mess with a classic?
  • hc100
    June 27, 2007
    Mental ! And I'm not just talking about Beat Takeshi's acting either ! The man himself is up to his usual high standard when it comes to playing mentally deranged individuals. As for the schoolkids.... The death by poison spaghetti is a piece of comedy genuis. I'm sure at some point in the near future the great vampire Hollywood will make a totally lame re-make of this classic but even that won't spoil my enjoyment of this classic Japanese craziness !
  • ailiesavestheday
    June 23, 2007
    i watched this one night coz it came on the tv nd frankly i culdn't be assed to find the remote but i actually i quite enjoyed it.......very dark. good movie
  • ThrghAGlassDarkly
    June 2, 2007
    I saw Battle Royale recently about a month or so ago and I liked it. Which do you prefer 1 or 2? I actually liked the first one better it was more shallow lol. I actually put my pic over Chiaki Kuriyama's character pic and put it on lmy page...yeah dork. lol.
  • codebreaker2001
    May 27, 2007
    I had to watch this on YouTube because the film is not available in the U.S. (unless you spend $30+ to get an imported copy. And I happen to be low on cash). It's pretty good for what it is. Granted, it's more of an action movie than a balance of action and drama (the novel truly got the balance just right on it). Nevertheless, it's a good watch and a recommended one at that.

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

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Battle Royale (Batoru Rowaiaru) 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 »
  • What is the original japanese title for the film 'Battle Royale'?  Answer »

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