| Thursday, October 18, 2001 |
 | Are you in love with someone?
Yes.
Someone who isn't me?
Yes.
Then let's just stay like this. It won't take long.
Finally got around to seeing Battle Royale on Wednesday night.
It's a superb film. I was emotionally involved throughout, which - given that I have been known to gutshoot animals just to watch then die with a strange half-smile on my face - is no small achievement. Despite the enormous cast, almost every character, however little screen time they got, had a chance to impress themselves on you, and to make their passing relevant as, in most cases, they were killed. And those characters were often shallow, undeveloped, irrational or afraid, or had priorities utterly at odds with the situation, but that's how teenagers work. And yet, at the same time, it's highly stylised. This article relates it both to Japanese school systems, the zero-sum foreign policy of the thirties, and criticises its incoherence in losing the supporting alternate-history narrative of the novel it is based on. But personally, I loved the sheer senselessness of the whole thing - the way the entire operation, soldiers, government training videos and all - could be seen as springing from the deep disappointment of one seventh-grade teacher (Takeshi Kitano, turning in another winning performance). Check this for a passionately-argued view of the film as pitting children not against other children but the adults whose interest in their welfare is tangential at best. And here for attempts to restrict access to the gorefest in Japan, and Fukasaku's inspired response:
Kids, don't worry about the R-15. Just rush into the theater! I made this just for you, kids! I hope you guys have enough guts and wits to make it in!
Nice. Oh, Guardian review here, for a less partisan view.
Personally, I'm still thinking about the minor characters who refused to follow the "kill or die" imperative. The characters who organised, brokered peace, tried to engineer solutions without bloodshed, who communicated and worked against their real enemies. Characters who were brave, resourceful, clever...and it wasn't enough.
Ever get the feeling you may be one of those characters? Tell me.
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