Rent Battle Royale (2000)

Cult Japanese Action - Battle Royale review by GI

If you want to know where the idea for The Hunger Games came from here it is. This Japanese cult film is a taut action film set in a dystopian near future where the fear of social collapse and a rise in violent youth crime forces the government to pass the Battle Royale Act in an attempt to bring moral and adult authority back into society. Under the legislation a class of teenagers are taken to a remote island and given a variety of weapons and forced to fight until only one survivor remains. They have necklaces attached that explode if they fail to comply with the 'game'. Friendships, loyalties and morality are all brought into question as some of the kids quickly resort to killing whilst others attempt to maintain their humanity and find another solution. It's in this that the film is focused, the philosophical debate around whether people, in desperate straits will resort to their base animalistic nature and murder or are humans inherently good and would refuse to participate even if it meant their own death. As a piece of cinema this is both exciting and shocking with strong bloody violence. As an action film it's really good and an example of foreign cinema that has been a huge influence, it's a firm favourite of Quentin Tarantino and his Kill Bill Vol 1 (2003) bears a stylistic similarity. Certainly a controversial film although it's not gratuitous in its depiction of violence but definitely a film worth checking out.