Battle Royale, first time watcher

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Battle Royale, first time watcher

Post by Silentwolfdog »

Was out shopping for stuff and happen to see a simple blu-ray director's cut version of this movie. Figured it's time I give it a watch after hearing good stuff about it. Somehow all those years and people talking of it, I managed to avoid spoilers for most part, lol.

So today I watched it. And...why is it so loved by many? I don't get why people admired this movie. And is it bad that some parts are so comedic that I just have to laugh? Sure people die in horrible ways, but it's also sort of silly.

So why is this movie so popular is what I don't get, I don't see anything special about it. Am I too desensitize to violence and ideas similar to this, that it doesn't seem to shock me anymore? Plot just seemed very simple and mixed up.

I mean sure, it's not a bad movie, but not an awesome movie. Maybe it got overhyped that I set my expectations too high? Dunno.
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Re: Battle Royale, first time watcher

Post by Catastrophe »

I think it is more because the book is such a critical success. The movie is just the most accessible version to western audiences.

Give the manga a try if you can. It is my favourite version of the three.
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Re: Battle Royale, first time watcher

Post by Silentwolfdog »

Oh, didn't know that. Cool, I will look into that, thanks.
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Re: Battle Royale, first time watcher

Post by Lunagel »

I think it's also because it's the main inspiration for other "kids have to fight each other to the death" type films like Hunger Games.
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Re: Battle Royale, first time watcher

Post by [kuronogantzryu] »

It inspired tons of other media so it's famous.

I didn't think it was all that either after watching. A decent movie but not exactly Golden Globes material.
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Re: Battle Royale, first time watcher

Post by Phoenix512 »

As with every book to movie conversion, it loses a bit as it tries to fit into something that takes 2 hours to watch. There was some significant back story about the system that lead to Japan having one class being selected to fight to the death. Also most of the students' character development was non-existent since you can't fit all of it in two hours. I remember watching it on a VHS tape that I got off of eBay and thought it was pretty good at the time.

The book was translated and released in the US and suggest reading that.
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Re: Battle Royale, first time watcher

Post by XIII »

The main issue at hand here is time, 2000 was a very different time to today and peoples views on violence and damaging sights have changed greatly

Battle Royale was release based in 2000, back when school massacres werent common place, where not much violence was in movies or tuched on sensitive topics such as this, back then this was one of the most shocking films to come out, heck when I first saw it back in 2001 with a crappy 320x240 real video rip, I was shocked and slightly disgusted by it, but now my perception to that has been weakened due to real world events that actually make this film seem very tame in comparison, even your view of this would have been weakened by events that have taken place in the real world, heck even video games will have distorted your perception of this as a lot of video games now contain far more violence and destruction than this film. the biggest crux of this film is the age it was released in compared to how we are now, and sometimes, I think its for the worse that we have become how we have and how desensitized to this kind of stuff we have become.

I think had you seen this back when it first came out, you would have found it a very shocking brutal film to watch, cause that was what is was back then, now the film lives on as a cult classic that occasionally gets bigged up too much, or compared to films it shouldn't be compared to,

I am glad you have watched it thou, it is a pretty good cinematic work that should be viewed by more as a guide of what was once shocking but no longer is, and if you get time, read the book, I will once the dam thing is cheap enough to buy

I would also say to watch the follow up film Battle Royale 2, sure people say its not as good as the first, but it does add to story and shows what happened to the protagonists of this film, it is worth watching just too see what came next.
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Re: Battle Royale, first time watcher

Post by Masked Rider »

There are some points that I was going to make, but Azazel beat me to it. Yes, in 2000 we were all in a different state of mind and school killings were not a common occurrence as well as ultra-violent movies. Back in 2003, a friend of mine lent me his VCD copy of this movie and said it's good for a laugh (relating to the original point that some of the scenes are unintentionally funny). I watched it with the mind set as a simple shock movie and it delivered. If it's your first time viewing this without reading the original novel, reading the manga, or even knowing much about it, then yeah, you may just view it as a bloodfest flick and wonder why it's praised.

It wasn't until I watched it the second time that I paid more attention to the theme (government rules and its attempt to control society) that I became more intrigued. And after reading the translated novel and reading the manga to better understand the characters, I have a much better appreciation of the movie. It also helped that there was a Korean release of this movie on DVD that provided additional scenes. So yeah, I'm a fan of the movie and needless to say, quickly bought the Blu-ray when it was released.
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Re: Battle Royale, first time watcher

Post by Silentwolfdog »

I feel a bit strange comparing school killings to this. Since it isn't about killings happening at school and since school killings become big thing in late 90's (at least in America) which means it's before the movie.

But I can see points made in posts. Kinda sad that it shows that I am used to violence like that.

I will try to find the book and watch second movie, but not anytime soon. I think I may have overdo with children killing children theme lately, watching Lord of the Flies, reading The Hunger Games, then watching Battle Royale all in one year. Now I just wanna take break from all this heh.

But other than that, it makes me wonder how actors felt being in that movie. Especially coming from Japanese actors, since unlike US, Japan isn't a culture of violence. So in some ways it makes it unique that Japan came up with such story and made movie as well.

Also, I think I am a bit nervous about watching second movie, because I don't want to see two characters who survived first one to die in second one...ahh but I should watch it to find out fate of the survivors.
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