yea, i never really understood why Battle Royale gets so much criticism. Its meant to be ridiculous and seen as completely exaggerated. If anything, its a caricature that emphasizes certain aspects of our contemporary history through a satirical context.
….also hell, it can be some good pointless but damn entertaining fun!
Maestro Monster, have you read the Manga? It’s class A for hysterical maimery and psycho-shock, a real crawl between the ears and take up room rent free in your brain kind of book. It’s like a STUPID missile that flies under the brain radar and then explodes in ways unforseeable.
I’ve read parts of it, but I have read the original novel which from what I could gather, was very similar to the adapted manga.
there’s a novel? by Koushun Takami …just looked it up > denied in the final rounds of Kadokawa Mystery Novel Prize for “controversial content”. I didn’t know that. So the film’s an adaptation of the novel or the manga? or neither/both?
Novel came first and the manga and film were both adapted from it. The Film obviously strays away from the original story, while the manga stayed fairly faithful and actually further fleshed out the backstories to multiple characters.
Either way, I like to believe that the novel itself was written in the tradition of Japanese manga in its absurdity, so the idea still stands.
I knew that this was a novel and a Manga as well, but have been too wrapped up in other things to be able to take the time to sit down and investigate either. I really liked Battle Royale. T, I think you’re completely in the statement that “Battle Royale is just a vanity mirror held up to that fact, while we paint our faces for more serious war.” It really beautifully captures the brutality of the world in general, and what I found most interesting is the fact that while the film is indeed a mirror, it does so in a way that the general public will be disgusted by. It makes it seems so primitive and reprehensible, and while I think that the general ideas may be lost on many people, I think that it subversively (or obviously if your aware) mocks human nature, which is always a good time.
I really enjoyed Battle Royale as a film, and I have read the original novel. Its not a masterpiece, but reading the latter I felt that the author wanted to write an enjoyable but incredibly dark story and did succeed. Its worth getting hold of.
T
It’s interesting how this film divides opinion. It’s a manga adaption – think MPD Psycho, or Ichi the Killer: they are extremely difficult to get right on film. The books are of course much more violent and psychologically complex than either the studios or the human actors seem to be capable of expressing. It’s all about archetype, reduced symbolic gestures, fear and primal storytelling.
Yeah, there’s no good shots, no good acting and the plot’s so massacred it’s little more than sushi slivers. But like sushi, even a sliver is a rich sensory experience. Battle Royale feeds the part of my brain that doesn’t always want to think critically in the language of -isms. It plays with the Id, and the Id likes to know what lies beneath.
The world is violent and stupid. Battle Royale is just a vanity mirror held up to that fact, while we paint our faces for more serious war.