Battle Royale Will Outlast the Hunger Games

Battle Royale proves that satire doesn’t always have to be comical. The “militant irony” Northrop Frye considered inherent in the genre can ridicule in grim ways too. As he wrote in Anatomy of Criticism, “Satire demands at least a token fantasy, a content which the reader recognizes as grotesque, and at least an implicit moral standard.” Battle Royale is that fantasia complete with hyperviolent grotesqueries painting a moralizing fable in blood. Propelled to a quiet popularity in the West by its urban legend level of inaccessibility, the film would really capture the spotlight courtesy of plagiarism allegations surrounding The Hunger Games (2012). Whether accurate or not, Battle Royale will likely outlive its pale imitation.

The film takes place in a dystopian Japan. The totalitarian government annually selects one high school class by way of a lottery. Chosen students are then removed to a remote jungle island. There they receive basic survival gear along with a random weapon. Students are also fitted with explosive collars. They must kill each other until only one is left standing. If more than one person is still alive after three days all the collars will detonate. Either a single individual survives, or they all die.

The dystopian government’s exact reasoning for all this is more rooted in Japanese history at the time than the film’s explanation of curbing juvenile delinquency. Especially when one considers that the loner, outsider misfits immediately jump into the role of ruthless antagonists. Battel Royale is, in a manner of speaking, giving potential school shooters license to commit mass murder. Satirically, though, it all makes a certain sense.

The film is based on a novel of the same name by author Koushun Takami. He drew inspiration from the social situations prevailing in Japan during what’s known as the Lost Decade. After a miraculous economic recovery following World War II, the thriving Japanese economy boomed in the 1980s. This asset price bubble eventually popped “leaving in its wake insolvent banks, discredited bureaucrats, pessimistic consumers, and a host of economic problems that would prove profound.”

Essentially, a carefree era riding a wave of wealth ended in a catastrophic wipeout. Disillusioned students no longer saw a reason to focus on school since education would clearly lead nowhere. Japanese society questioned its own sense of self. From these dire circumstances, with nothing but a grim future on the horizon, Koushun Takami composed the dystopian nightmare Battle Royale.

Despite Takami’s completing the novel in 1996, Battle Royale wouldn’t be published until roughly 1999. This stemmed from its rejection in the final rounds of the Japan Horror Novel Awards for the “antisocial nature of the work.” Apparently, in a competition that rewards fiction featuring graphic cannibalism, torture, and incest, the wholesale slaughter of school children in Battle Royale was a step too far.

The squeamishness in this instance is largely associated with the Kobe Child Murders. At the time, the tragedy involved a fourteen-year-old who murdered ten-year-old Ayaka Yamashita and decapitated eleven-year-old Jun Hase. The countrywide shock still being felt possibly spurred the rejection of Battle Royale the book, but as Irish writer Brendan Behan said, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity except your own obituary.”

Rejecting the novel for having content that was too unsavory essentially guaranteed a publisher picking up Koushun Takami’s work. It also helped feed public interest in the book, which eventually attracted filmmakers. Japanese New Wave director Kinji Fukasaku grew interested in helming a film adaptation after reading the novel.

He said he connected with the material due to his own personal experiences working in a munitions factory as a teenager during World War II. This included surviving an air raid then having to clear corpses following the bombing. A talented director with a varied list of films under his belt, Fukasaku possessed a unique set of skills for bringing the film adaptation to life. In a career spanning decades, he wrote and directed over 60 films. These included samurai jidaigeki (period dramas), space operas, and trailblazing yakuza flicks such as Battles Without Honor and Humanity (1973).

That personal connection entwined with his talent allowed the director to craft a vision that captures the best aspect of Asian cinema. That’s to say, “Japanese cinema takes a more minimalist expressionistic approach, lingering on surface level reality long enough to amplify its intrinsic emotional qualities.” Or, as legendary filmmaker Akira Kurosawa observed, “one of the techniques of modern art is simplification.”

Throughout Battle Royale, director Kinji Fukasaku knows which elements to emphasize as well as which aspects to ignore. Consider when the antagonist Kazuo Kiriyama (Masanobu Andô), sprays a pair of young ladies with an Uzi. As one of them dies slowly, he puts a bullhorn to her mouth so her cries of agony can ring out across the island. Then he pulls the trigger allowing gunfire to roar everywhere. It’s a haiku of violence depicting tragedy, agony, and terrifying sadism all in one scene. And such poetic marvels are spread throughout Battle Royale.

Moments are cut down to their quintessential elements to make them more impactful. Sets and performers only include what’s necessary for the narrative. There’s never anything to distract from what characters are doing. That’s partly because the point is less about plot progression and more concerned with how they’re reacting to their circumstances.

Battel Royale provides a look at the trajectory of a society. The course that Japan seemed to be following during the Lost Decade could be extrapolated as racing towards a dystopian nightmare. Its school system hellbent on making children into vicious cutthroat competitors. Consider how the whole Battle Royale competition is being observed coldly by adults. It calls to mind the book Precarious Japan by anthropologist Anne Allison.

She observed, “The parent who refuses to pamper their bullied child (ijimerarekko), thereby forcing them to become tough as nails, is something of a Japanese ideal.”

Then there’s the character Motobuchi (Ryou Nitta), who jumps out of the bushes blasting a pistol while screaming, “I’m going to survive! — and get into a good school!” This is darkly comedic to a certain degree, but the way Fukasaku arranges things there’s a chance to see him tragically spiraling into madness as well as the mingled contempt and pity on those he’s trying to kill.

Such critical metaphors illuminate the mosaic that is Battle Royale. This portrait of a world gone mad offers the dark mirror societies often fear to look in. Reflected back is a series of criticisms and implications they can’t stomach.

Additionally, the film could easily be seen as a dark parody of the social relationships in high schools. The teen victims of this dystopian exercise quickly divide into friend groups, cliques, and stereotype brackets. Some break out of these confines over the course of the film while others embrace them.

What’s most interesting, though, is the way people justify their actions. There’s a group of five young ladies, who resolve not to participate in the game no matter what. Earlier, protagonist Shuya Nanahara (Tatsuya Fujiwara) killed Tatsumichi Ôki (Gouki Nishimura). Unaware he did so accidentally, Yûko Sakaki (Hitomi Hyuga) attempts to poison him while he hides out with these same ladies. When her actions inadvertently kill someone who took the pacifist pledge, those who swore not to participate in violence immediately start killing one another. Shamed by what happened and realizing Shuya is just another pawn in the game, Yûko Sakaki takes her own life. Essentially, Battle Royale shows how peace is an option until panicking people sense their own doom. Then it’s everyone for themselves.

While it may strike some as an obvious observation, Battle Royale makes it plain in such moments that the goal of a dystopian regime is not to bring out the best in people. The game is unlikely to produce sane survivors, content to take up quiet office jobs. Imagine trying to sit through a meeting that could have been an email with the screams of your slaughtered schoolmates echoing through your head. It’s just a countdown to suicide or snapping into another killing spree.

Granted, fans outside of Japan aren’t likely to relate to the full spectrum of allusions, allegory, and metaphors peppered throughout the picture. Battle Royale is partially inspired by specifically Japanese cultural elements. However, plenty is intriguingly universal. High school is a nightmare for any variety of reasons, and those criticisms which come across clearly are relatable regardless of one’s cultural background. Plus, when the kids start going through their gear, some discovering guns while others pull out frying pans, there’s a layered metaphor there about the circumstances some people are born into that is wonderfully appealing. And even if one doesn’t get anything deeper than them kids is screwed, the film remains wildly entertaining.

The genius of Battle Royale is its ability to be enjoyed at any level of depth. The surface contains a simple action-adventure narrative. Viewers are free to probe the depths as deep as they want. Since it isn’t a necessity for enjoying the movie, the film works for a variety of audiences. Fans of flicks like Hard Target (1993) are as likely to be entertained as enjoyers of Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal.

After all, though the infamous essay may not delve into splatterpunk descriptions of cannibalism, it’s still laced with shocking statements. Consider the passage, “I have been assured by a very knowing American… that a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled.” Making an Irish infant into a fricassee or ragout benefits from being comically absurd. That softens the hideousness of the proposal. It doesn’t, however, take away from any grotesque implications. Battle Royale, on the other hand, ruthlessly spills buckets of children’s blood to paint its point in vivid detail. As satire, it may not be funny, yet it remains critically pointed.

While one could argue The Hunger Games contains similar warnings about dystopian regimes, it’s composed of clichés and tropes more than satirical criticisms. Furthermore, whatever clever insights it wants to share are muddled by a mix of too many topics. The franchise wants to be a romance, a story of feminist triumph, a warning, and the tale of a successful rebellion against oppression — a collective victory paradoxically led by an individual. Battle Royale is simply about how society warps people for the worst, and audiences bear witness to this in haunting hyperviolent set pieces.

Suzanne Collins denied ever having heard of Battle Royale until she turned in her book. I’ll concede there are enough differences in the two narratives that plagiarism is a harsh allegation. Hacky rip-off feels closer to a potential truth, but it is possible she never knew about Battle Royale.

Conceptually, there is a kinship with any fiction inspired by Richard Connell’s short story “The Most Dangerous Game”. Everything from Turkey Shoot (1982) to Predator (1987) to The Hunt (2020) — there’s a long list of flicks inspired by the tale. Then there are a variety of last-man-standing dystopian bloodsport pictures such as Death Race 2000 (1975), Series 7: The Contenders (2001), and The Condemned (2007). Therefore, it’s not improbable someone could independently conceive of a similar most dangerous lord of the flies slaughter story.

There’s also the fact Battle Royale was not necessarily well known. Although the film would resurface on DVD, the studio trying to capitalize on Hunger Games heat, prior to that, the only way to get the movie involved certain acts of internet piracy. Knowing about it, let alone seeing it constituted a kind of cult film shibboleth denoting the elite.

Films aren’t better because they’re foreign. They do, however, offer compelling perspectives unique to their cultural backgrounds. These can be illuminating glimpses of how people are the same all around the world, while also shifting points of view in ways that expand awareness, not only of ideas but how they can be expressed. As such, Battle Royale has a depth that’ll make it endure.