// Personal website of Chris Smith

Films » Battle Royale

Released in

In the future, the Japanese government captures a class of ninth-grade students and forces them to kill each other under the revolutionary “Battle Royale” act.

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My watch history

Poster for Battle Royale

Battle Royale

Watched a dubbed version, I think subbed would’ve been better…

My main thought coming away from this was: that was weird. The plot, while outwardly straight forward, had a lot to say. There’s a lot of flash backs and references and things going on.

The obvious comparison to make is to the Hunger Games series. The latter is a lot more cinematically pleasing, but it feels that Battle Royale approaches the conceit in a much more adult, nuanced way. It doesn’t shy away from the violence or from complexity and ambiguity.