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Batoru rowaiaru
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Batoru rowaiaru (2000) More at IMDbPro »

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Overview

User Rating:
8.0/10   43,656 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
No change in popularity this week. See rank & trends on IMDbPro.
Director:
Kinji Fukasaku
Writers:
Koushun Takami (novel)
Kenta Fukasaku (screenplay)
Contact:
View company contact information for Battle Royale on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
16 December 2000 (Japan) more
Tagline:
Could you kill your best friend? more
Plot:
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. full summary | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
more
Awards:
7 wins & 7 nominations more
NewsDesk:
(4 articles)
Lists of Doom Xiii: Bubble of Bury Your Dead
 (From Fangoria. 23 May 2009, 9:14 AM, PDT)

Ten Horror Movies You Should See Instead of "Friday the 13th"
 (From JustPressPlay. 16 February 2009, 11:44 AM, PST)

User Comments:
You'll get it if you know modern Japan more

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)
Tatsuya Fujiwara ... Shuya Nanahara - otoko 15-ban
Aki Maeda ... Noriko Nakagawa - onna 15-ban
Tarô Yamamoto ... Shôgo Kawada - otoko 5-ban

Chiaki Kuriyama ... Takako Chigusa - onna 13-ban
Sosuke Takaoka ... Hiroki Sugimura - otoko 11-ban
Takashi Tsukamoto ... Shinji Mimura - otoko 19-ban
Yukihiro Kotani ... Yôshitoki Kuninobu - otoko 7-ban
Eri Ishikawa ... Yukie Utsumi - onna 2-ban
Sayaka Kamiya ... Satomi Noda - onna 17-ban
Aki Inoue ... Fumiyo Fujiyôshi - onna 18-ban
Takayo Mimura ... Kayoko Kotôhiki - onna 8-ban
Yutaka Shimada ... Yûtaka Seto - otoko 12-ban
Ren Matsuzawa ... Keita Îjima - otoko 2-ban
Hirohito Honda ... Kazushi Nîda - otoko 16-ban
Ryou Nitta ... Kyôichi Motobuchi - otoko 20-ban
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Create a character page for: ?

Additional Details

Also Known As:
Battle Royale (International: English title)
more
Runtime:
114 min | Japan:122 min (director's cut) | South Korea:120 min | USA:121 min (director's cut)
Country:
Japan
Language:
Japanese
Color:
Color
Aspect Ratio:
1.78 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Dolby Digital

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Ai Iwamura, the actress who played Mai, the smiling winner, only appears for about five seconds as her character. She was then asked to do some stand-ins for some of the girls in the class briefing scene. In that scene, she appeared as following characters: Noriko Nakagawa, Haruka Tanizawa, Hirono Shimizu, and Izumi Kanai. The total time of her appearances as a stand-in exceeds the time of her appearances as her actual character. more
Goofs:
Revealing mistakes: Utsumi is breathing when Shuya finds her body in the lighthouse. more
Quotes:
[first lines]
Reporter: This year Zentsuji Middle School number 4's Class E was chosen from among 43,000 Ninth grade classes. This year's game, said to be more blistering than the last - - Oh look there! There she is! The winner's a girl! Surviving a fierce battle that raged two days, seven hours, and 43 minutes - the winner is a girl! Look, she's smiling! Smiling! The girl definitely just smiled!
more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in Thank You for Smoking (2005) more
Soundtrack:
Dies Irae more

FAQ

Was this film banned in the US?
What is the relevance of the girl seen at the beginning of the film?
Is the Battle Royale supposed to symbolise anything or is it just a gore-fest?
more
49 out of 60 people found the following comment useful:-
You'll get it if you know modern Japan, 14 May 2004
Author: Todd Kuhns from Nara, Japan

Most of the reviewers here speak from their own viewpoints, i.e. non-Japanese westerners, and they praise/knock the movie based on its violence, plot, etc. That's fine. But through their ignorance of the culture this film springs from, they are missing its subtleties.

I've been teaching in a Japanese high school for three years now. Once I saw this movie, I could instantly appreciate its skill and surprising frankness at commenting on some of the sad and strange realities of Japan's modern youth.

Japan is a culture obsessed with youth. Almost everything here is tailored to the under-30 (and much younger, actually) crowd. For example, most westerners watching Japanese TV will be surprised at how childish it seems. The things that seem childish to your average American junior-high student are very appealing for a Japanese high-school student. Girls in their 30s desperately try to be "cute" to attract guys. Adults and children alike read comics by the droves, and sometimes pops up a strange, not-too-well-hidden undercurrent of pedophilia.

This movie takes the heavily cliquish, often childish, and often incomprehensible (to me) social system of young Japanese boys and girls and gives them guns. This is the natural result. Take it from me, the characters and situations are very realistic.

This gets mixed with the growing anxiety among the older generation at the rising rudeness and rebellion of the new generation in a culture that values politeness above all else. From a frustrated and humiliated teacher; to students killing each other over seemingly unimportant squabbles; to the overly-cutesy, peppy training video that perfectly mimics nearly any show on NHK these days -- this film subtly and brilliantly comments on half-a-dozen issues that weigh heavily on the minds of Japanese people today. That's why it was such a big hit in Japan.

Maybe you just have to live here to get it. I give it 5 stars.

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Message Boards

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Recent Posts (updated daily)User
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