Battle Royale (2000)

Battle Royale is a Japanese movie directed by Kinji Fukasaku and based on a best-selling novel by Koushun Takami. It was released by Toei in Japan on December 16, 2000.

On November 20, 2010, Toei released Battle Royale 3D, a new version of the film with all new CGI effects and 3D conversion process which was overseen by Fukusaku’s son, Kenta Fukasaku.

The story revolves around a sadistic law called the “BR Act” which is intended to assert control over the increasingly rebellious youth of Japan. Under the law, a high school class is selected at random to participate in an annual Battle Royale. The students are knocked out with gas, transported to a secret island, and and fitted with explosive collars to keep them from escaping. They’re given a set of basic rules and told they must kill each other until there’s only one survivor. With that, they’re each assigned bags with basic survival supplies and a random weapon of varying effectiveness—from a fork to an Uzi submachine gun.

Stacking the deck against them even further, two mysterious older boys—Kawada (Taro Yamamoto) and Kiriyama (Masanobu Ando)—have volunteered for this year’s Battle Royale for very different reasons.

Much of the story portrays the different ways each student reacts to the predicament. Some panic, some take the pacifist route and defiantly refuse to participate, and a few even relish the opportunity to kill other students.

The majority of the movie focuses on “Boy #15” Shuya Nanahara (Tatsuya Fujiwara) as he turns all his energy toward protecting his love interest, Noriko (Aki Maeda).