Battle Royale – 2-1

Battle Royale is a very interesting movie, as it delves into the concept of how people will act in a desperate situation where they have to survive by killing off other people. The idea that the government mandates this Battle Royal Act to kill off unruly children who don’t respect adults is an extreme way to handle the issue. Although, it seems like they devolved to that as the hope and trust for the youth in their generation has dwindled to low standards. Despite this however, there is still hope in the battlefield of the island they’re put in. There is a moment between the main character Shuya and the female main character Noriko have an exchange about their pasts. Noriko can’t really trust any of their classmates on the island as several of the girls bullied her which prompts Shuya to make the remark if she trusts him. She does reply that she trusts him and refers to him as “Shuya” which is only a name that his late friend Nobu calls him by. This cuts to the flashback of Shuya and Nobu in their room, talking about their lives and what they’re looking forward to. A quote that sticks out from their exchange about how their life is going is how Nobu mentions “it’s nice to have someone waiting for you.” The general outcome of the scene is a promise from Shuya to protect Noriko like Nobu would have wanted and that Noriko can trust Shuya (The scene goes from 25:58 – 28:47, of the Director’s Cut). This scene is interesting as the flashback is only included in the special Director’s Cut of the movie, and I think the flashbacks add a bit more context and emotional depth to the characters of the movie. Despite the dread that they’re feeling, there’s still hope, and a goal to survive the battle royale. I think the general idea that the youth try to survive this game is an example of how the youth today try their best to survive the world out there. Andrea Arai makes a good argument about the film in her article about it by stating that “the broader attraction of this film has rather to do with the suggestion of resistance to more insidious forms of indirect violences perpetuated upon individuals, and the young, as the particular object of programs to raise national output and manage the population, whether in moments of high growth or recession” (Arai 376). This pertains to the idea that some of the reception of the movie could have come from the idea of the resistance the characters had against going through with the game. Some characters ended up working together to try to find a way off the island, like students Mimura and Sugimura who try to hack into the collars the participants are wearing. The transfer student Kawada also finds a reason to keep going in the game, as a survivor from the last game and internally trying to figure out why his girlfriend died smiling. Most of our main characters try to hold onto hope to escape from this game, despite the situation they’re in and the helplessness they feel. I believe Battle Royale has a underlying message of holding onto hope past whatever is thrown at you, at least with the Director’s Cut. That message can be found beyond all the violence that occurs in the movie with how the ending leaves off with Kawada finally understanding why his girlfriend smiled as he passes, and the two main characters trying their best to live on hopefully despite being wanted by the government. Battle Royale is certainly a film that has a lot to unpack in terms of the themes and meanings, but that’s what I’ve personally gauged from my viewing of the movie.

Arai, Andrea G. “Killing Kids: Recession and Survival in Twenty-First-Century Japan.” Postcolonial Studies, vol. 6, no. 3, Nov. 2003, pp. 367–79. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1080/1368879032000162211.