Japanese films where they be live action or animation always seem to have a certain quality, a certain quirkiness that makes them appealing no matter what the subject line or whether the main story is any good or not. Battle Royale has a fantastic premise and is very enjoyable. Its very brutal too with these pupils turning on their friends and even the pupils who wanted to create a team to overthrow the army are ruthlessly murdered. Once the film ended though I did have some questions that were thrown up. Firstly, at the beginning we see a girl who has seemingly won the game yet by the end of the film she hasn't won anything instead 3 main characters escape with one passing away. Then the remaining two are on the run for murder. Did she really win the game? Or had she committed some crime to show how bad society had become? Either way it didn't explain it in the film. Secondly, it was hinted upon that the girl who survives has some sort of 6th sense when she has a vision of the teacher being alone, then just after he has an argument with a family member. She also sees him in the forest, but perhaps he was a hallucination?. Again, it was something which made the film seem deeper but it gave no valid reason for this. Sure, we don't have to see a pay off for this but at least give us a reason! Its never mentioned at the end that she has these new abilities whether with dialogue or acting. Thirdly, the pupil who won the game last time suddenly turns on our heros and seemingly wins the game. The army disappears and all that's left is the teacher and its then that the trio turn up for their revenge, all seemingly friends again. Now it appears that he knew what the other pupils had figured out, in that he knew how to stop the army from hearing them. Therefore, wouldn't it have made sense for him to figure it out, or let the others in on the secret? Instead in the film we see the other group figuring it out and then their discovery seemingly disappears with them when they'r killed. Fourthly, what was the deal at the end with the teacher having a fascination with the girl pupil? Was he infatuated with her? Was it his daughter? Was she meant to win? Its never explained. Finally, I could deal with the cheesy way the film pans out, for instance it takes quite a few rounds of lead to kill certain people but it was questioning the viewers intelligence when the teacher seemingly gets shot then gets up to answer the phone
and then collapsing. It was as if the people in the film were looking at the viewer as equally perplexed. Despite all this, I did enjoy the film but it seemed to include things just to make it seem deeper, more intellectual but it gave no reason for this. Were this an Hollywood film, or if it is seemingly re-made then its critical that they do another draft of the script because it clearly needs one. It needs a bit more focus, needs to be tighter otherwise it will get lambasted by the critics and the general public. Perhaps the fact it isn't Hollywood explains peoples lenience on the holes within the film?
Review of Battle Royale
