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Saturday, February 16, 2013

Movie Review: Battle Royale [2000]

Posted by at 10:52 PM On to the Previous Post

Plot Synopsis: 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 [IMDB: 7.8/10]

There are but only a few movies ever made for whom you can claim that: 'read the plot synopsis, and you will not be able to ignore the movie' . This Japanese action flick is one of those. I am surprised, pleasantly surprised by the fact that the Hunger Games was inspired from the similar premises as this movie's plot- young people being controlled to brutally killing each other because only one can survive in the end!


The 'smartness' of the movie is that although the killings are rampant and gruesomely merciless, the director manages to put in elements of back-stories within the kill-sequences, not in an emotional way, but in a more complex, closer-to-the-reality way that would make you feel the apathy of the characters, all the while making you judge the one being killed, through the killer's eyes , knowing that in the just next sequence, the killer will be the victim. Though some of the points were a bit superfluous and the overall purpose of the BR Act remains hazy, you can actually forgive the makers because you will be shocked by the intensity of the story.




Some brilliant performances (Tatsuya Fujiwara of 'Death Note' fame surprises again) combined with a steady pair of hands behind the lenses, makes the movie a heart-wrenching tale of agony and survival.You cannot afford to miss it.


My Rating: 8.5/10 



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