| RATING: | 80% |
| TECHNICAL QUALITY: | DVD |
[Batoru Rowaiaru]
A video-game concept that views life as such a brutal game that only a single survivor is ever allowed.
Apparently, the youth of today are so disrespectful of their elders that they need to be taught that life is a dog-eat-dog; every-man-for-himself struggle for survival that denies the value of friendship and love. This analogy of Western materialism is accurate and explains much of the unhappiness such materialism brings. Yet, the students here learn quickly in a manga/anime world where metaphysical, ethical and political issues are stripped to their essence.
The central irony here is that the authorities creating the eponymous game are as disrespectful in their own way as the kids they condemn. The result of which can only be the continued need for the game of Battle Royale.
This is a movie about the inevitable decline of a culture once it decides authoritarian solutions are to be imposed, when free choice is taken by the population to mean any self-indulgent choice. A well-ordered society is one that teaches the suppression of individual will - but what price survival in such a social system? The movie - sadly - never explores this dramatically.
Reminiscent of Punishment Park and an effective reversal of Peter Brook’s Lord of the Flies and distinctly more believable, it is also excellent as a coming-of-age movie for lovelorn teenagers everywhere since it deals with the all-important issue of trust.
Because only a few choose to fight the system rather than go along with its brutality, the lesson is that most people are sheep while a few realize themselves in other ways. The Generation Gap was never as wide as this in cinema before.
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