I had no idea what to expect from this movie. All I knew was that Gogo from Kill Bill, Vol 1 was in it, and that her role in Torantino's movie was partly a reference to Battle Royal, so when I found out that the premise was that 40 Japanese school children (grade 7) were dumped on an island by the government, given random weapons, and forced to kill each other until only one was left, I was expecting something mindlessly violent and without redeaming value.
Holy shit was I wrong!
The whole movie is one big analogical representation of the radical violence of early life, and of the brutality of our education system. Basically, they shifted an Ideological State Apartatus (education) into a Repressive State Aparatus (incarceration with a little military thrown in). The film is definately not for the faint of heart. It contains the signature level of blood and violence we've come to expect from Japanese cinema, but the elements all build towards a model of sociological condition imbued through state-sponsered education that is bleak to say the least.
In fact, Battle Royale is a wonderful example of exactly the kind of analogical narrative representation that sci-fi is capable of (though it's not science-fiction by my definition; it's more like modern fantasy, but not quite that either). The point of a movie like this is not to read it in anything like a literal, realist way. The point is to figure out how the film's elements reflect on real-world elements, find the key to translate the symbolism, and then it unfolds in your hands like... hm... I want to use origami to maintain the Niponese theme, but origami isn't supposed to unfold so that doesn't work. Dang. It unfolds. We'll leave it at that.
I'm a little suspicious of such a simple, 1:1 relationship as what I've described, but given how simple the plot is and the film is meant for mass appeal, I think it's justified. There are, no doubt, more complex elements I could pick out on multiple viewings, but in as much as it's even worth our time to figure out what the artist "meant" to do, I'm fairly certain I have done just that.
And now I'm off to drink...
Posted by orion at August 28, 2004 9:29 PM