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Battle Royale.

Anyway, according to the ratings, only 36 people have seen it. The movie itself is based on a manga, but making it live action was a neat twist, in my opinion.

The Live Action movie is in the "not anime but related section." If you look at the Battle Royale that's listed in the anime section, it's an animated version.

lianncoop wrote:

The Live Action movie is in the "not anime but related section." If you look at the Battle Royale that's listed in the anime section, it's an animated version.

the Anime known as Battle Royale has nothing to do with the movie/manga/novel Battle Royale.

Does anyone know exactly why this is in the anime section?

Now that I look at it, I have no idea what Tony K. was looking at because the only thing I see is Battle Royal High School, which as you said, has no relation to Battle Royale.

In my opinion it is very beautiful movie, but I really don't get what all this controversy over it being violent is all about. Personally I didn't really find it violent at all and was in no way disturbed by anything in the movie. But then again it does take a whole damn lot to disturb me with such things; actually I think it is more or less impossible. Ultra violence and tragic loss of life always had kind of kind of the opposite effect on me in that I find them to be very humours. Needless to say I was laughing all the way trough the movie, if I remember right.

By the way, a second Battle Royal movie has already been made although I have yet to see it.

Who would've thought:
spoiler[There'd be a movie where kids were allowed to brutally kill each other and what not by any means necessary on a remote island?]
I would say "excellent" or "masterpeice," but I'm afraid people may question me for my taste in gore and violence.
If not or you think I'm crazy for liking such a movie, you don't have to reply or anything.

I think it's a weird movie just because of the plot, but I think there's a hidden message like "rebel against authority" or "don't trust anybody" or something like that.

In the beginning of the new century, the country fell apart. The Japanese economy collapsed, the unemployment rate skyrocketed, and all grownups lost their confidence. Therefore, the children came to feel contempt for parents, teachers, and authorities. Disorder in classrooms, stabbing of teachersm and boycotting of school became a widespread epidemic.

Japanese juvenile delinquency has gotten more extreme and ghastly, especially recently. In May of 1999, a 17-year-old boy kille a housewife with a knife. A few days later, a boy the same age hijacke a bus and stabbed a woman to death. In August, a 15-year old boy massacred a whole family in his neighborhood. In December, a 17-year old boy tried to blow up a video shop with a bomb. Their motivations were far beyond our understanding. The bomber said that he just wanted to destroy humans. The housewife killer said, "It didn't matter who she was, because I needed to know how it felt to kill people." The busjacker said that he wanted to follow the housewife killer. Adults thought these kids might be confused and couldn't tell the real world from virtual realities, like movies and video games. That's why Eirin (Japanese equiv of MPAA) thought the script of Battle Royale wasn't appropriate for young people.

Fukasaku, meanwhile, had the reverse idea. He thought today's teenagers needed to know the difference between real killing and DOOM. In order to do that, violence in Battle Royale should look as disgusting as possible. Fukasaku, the direct who's said, "I'm not interested in 'action entertainment' at all. What I want to make is a film about what violence is,' started to shoot the film without any self-restrictions or compromise...

<regarding scenes Eiren wanted to cut> Fukasaku refused to cut any of them: "Getting the go-ahead from Eirin means that the movie is wholesome, harmless, and boring. I'd rather accept a bloody R-15." The pobrlem is, the movie was made for kids under 15. The resolve this contradiction, the 70-year old director declared, "Kids, don't worry about the R-15. Just rush into the theater! I made this just for you, kids! I hope you guys have enough guts and wits to make it in!"

<regarding the scrolling window at the beginning of the movie> This was not fiction, but a real situation Japan had been undergoing ever since its bubble economy burst. Now the tables were turned. The audience was being blamed by the movie.

As a solution, the government (in the movie) creates a death game, called Battle Royale. Teacher Kitano forces his students to kill each other, but in the end, he wants to die with the one student he really loves. That is his way to take responsibility for failing to bring up his students decently. Maybe he is wrong, but he's better than the audience, who avoided their responsibility and laid the blame on the media.

Nobody kicked their seat or walked out in a rage during the screening. Some of the audience might have been ashamed of themselve.s They might have though BR was just another trashy exploitation movie cashing in on graphic violence, but in fact the film presented a very serious and strong political message to them. When the movie ended, unexpectedly, some of the audience applauded.

Hiroshi Kawaguchi, a 39-year old rep from the Liberal Democratic Part, confessed he was deeply touched by the movie. "Even though I've seen a lot of body-count movies, like A Better Tomorrow and Natural Born Killers," he said, "Battle Royale is different from them, I think. It gives seriosu and earnest commentary about family, friendship, education, parenthood, and love. I was really impressed. I think it should be shown to junior high school students."

<responding to an attack on the movie about how the film was too violent> Fukasaku calmly-- but it was easy to hear the deep anger in his voice-- answered Ishii (a rep of the Japanese Liberal Democratic Party), "Do you really want to the government to control movies? DO you really want to get back to the time of World War II, when the government really made children kill people?"