Great book, great movie I usually have significant trouble with the adaptation of a great book into a movie- they miss elements that the reader may have found to be key- the emotional propulsion is lost, the motives are blurry, the poignance is compromised. Movies have a time limit, a book does not. However, given these constraints, I think Kinji Fukasaku did a really good job at maintaining the integral elements that make Battle Royale so fascinating. I think reading the book is pretty instrumental at fully grasping the concept that is delivered in this film. One one level, it is pretty basic- 42 classmates have 48 hours ( I think it is 3 days in the movie) to kill one another . They are dumped on an evacuated island, given a random supply of weaponry (could be a fork, could be a machine gun) and maps of the island which marks the rotation of the "forbidden zones"- forcing movement, which forces interaction between the students. Only one can survive, or the metal collars they are equipped with will explode at the expiration date of the game. One another level, it raises a lot of philosophical questions about life and death, societies and politics - humanity in general. It is definitely a violent movie, and it is definitely absurd in some ways- but I don't see how we could see it any other way, the concept is so extreme. A government regime that forces 14 year old kids kill each other. However, it is the tension area between the violence and absurdity that is most compelling- Do we cease to see something as dark, ominous, wrong- because of our familiarity with it? Are questionable ethics or values cloaked in rules, hidden in smiles, lost in our inability to change it? What does our compliance mean, ultimately?
I think the book deserves the kudos to raise these questions, and I think the movie does a great job at delivering these concepts with visual punch. The cast was great, they were all quite young- and they were phenomenal at capturing the fear, the hysteria, the calculations of these kids, and it is always cool to see Beat Takeshi in a film.