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Kinji Fukasaku
"Japan at the dawn of a new millennium. The educational system is rotten by absenteeism and violence. To stop this phenomenon, the government hits back with a new law aiming at re-establishing the adults' order and authority".
A school class is picked up and its 40 teenager students cast away on an island controlled by the Army. Each student is given a survival kit containing a weapon
(tommy gun, hatchet, knife, GPS, crossbow...). They have 72 hours to fight it out between themselves and only one may survive. If more than one survivor remains, they shall all be killed. Confronted to this inconceivable situation, each teenager reacts in their own way (suicide, rebellion or a raging will to win), despite an ineluctable end: only one may survive. "Battle Royale" plays with a very concrete social concern, that is the fear of youth and the growth of violence. The dramatic association of these two contemporary fears is the driving force behind the film's script. We attend a two-hour morbid body count of survivors, seldom allowed to attach ourselves to any of the characters whose personalities are yet precisely defined. A spiral that draws you in from the very start, leaving little room for reflection. We witness a succession of often sadistic and always carefully choreographed murder scenes punctuating the film with a macabre regularity. The murders are shown with graphic details, each scene displaying a brilliant and often bizarre direction of actors who seem to execute some sort of choreography rather than follow the regular rules of acting. The rhythm of the first half-hour is slightly broken by a few scattered flashbacks, and despite a couple of "Hollywood-like" scenes (the film's opening, the vehicle's blow-up), the film's progression and heavy atmosphere are intact: undoubtedly, "Battle Royale" is to be taken literally. Kinji Fukasaku (who already directed over 60 motion pictures) yet obviously wishes to go further and look below the surface of things, especially through the character of the teacher, interpreted by Takeshi Kitano, and the constant parallel between his relationships with his students and his violent attitude towards his rejecting daughter. One thinks of the TV series "The Prisonner" for the total lack of freedom, of "The Blair Witch Project" for the empathy felt towards the characters, and of video games for the rules and the sharing out of weapons. And even though the spectator's reflection is restricted but to a terrible "What would I do instead", the film's energy and especially the performances of the actors command admiration. Aki Maeda (Noriko) and Tatsuya Fujiwara (Shuya) are truly impressive.
The DVD is in the 1.85 16/9 format with both French and Japanese DD 5.1. subtitles. Accessing the bonus seems like fun at first, but soon turns tedious. It includes: Japanese premiere / Beat Takeshi Kitano's filmography / Candidates profile / Rules of Battle Royale / Making of / Interview with Takeshi Kitano (text, no image) / Dialogue between the producer and the director (text, no image) / Soundtrack recording in Warsaw.
Christophe Labussière |
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