Battle Royale (2000)

Director: Kinji Fukasaku

Starring: Takeshi Kitano, that schoolgirl chick from KILL BILL and a bunch of kids

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Could you kill your best friend?

Plot: In the near future, when the society of Japan is crumbling, 42 students find that their field trip is actually a military-sponsored game known as Battle Royale. The kids' sadistic teacher, Kitano, sends them to an isolated island and gives them three days to kill each other until only one remains. Two of the kids, Shuya and Noriko, stay together and further develop their already-formed bond. A transfer student, Kawada, sympathizes with the two and chooses to help them. Others develop a plan to bring down the military game, try to find their crush before they die, or lose their minds and go on killing sprees.

My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again? Yep.

This is officially my 800th post which means I've watched 800 (a little more, actually) movies since 10/1/2007 and that's not nearly as many as I would have liked to have seen. I expect I'll reach 1,000 by August.

BATTLE ROYALE is one of those flicks that it seems like only the Japanese have the balls to make. There's no way Hollywood's going to touch this one. Kids killing kids? They're too chicken shit to go near it and if they did, they'd water it down severely. The concept is simple and the opening through to the start of the game are quick and harsh. Overall it's a really fun flick and they make great use out of familiar classical music. It's not as gory as its reputation suggests (yes, I only watch the uncut version) but it's too damn long. TWO FREAKIN' HOURS! The problem is that there's a shitload of kids and there are a lot of back stories - too many back stories and some of them go on far too long. I dig some of them but this is a problem of the weight of it all bringing the whole picture down. Seriously, if it were trimmed down a good twenty minutes and tightened up a bit it would be a much more solid flick and a lot easier to digest and more frequently.