Violent movies always seem to be a touchy issue for audiences for some apparent reason. Moms and parents will come out from everywhere to bash films for being too violent and being impressionable on kids. We have seen films that have had this backlash like Tarantino's
Kill Bill Volume One and Kubrick's
A Clockwork Orange. As a fan of cinema I feel as if these complaints of extreme violence is a little over the top. One of the points of movies is to take us places that we never go, or sometimes places we don't want to go. As for its impression on kids? That's ridiculous because all it takes is a parent to sit down with their children and talk to them about violence. That's it...a talk. So is violence in movies bad? Of course not! They are some of my favorite parts of movies! Think of
Seven Samurai, Ichi The Killer, and
Oldboy where the movie literally wouldn't be the same without the violence. So we come across
Battle Royale. The film that caused controversy but nevertheless is one of the most popular movies in Japan and growing in the United States. I recently got to see it again while showing it the first time to some of my friends and wanted to share my thoughts on this film. Read on to see what I thought...
Battle Royale is a 2000 Japanese action film based on the novel of the same name which surrounds one class of high school students on a school trip. Not everything is as it seems and things quickly turn dark as the students realize that they have been chosen for the Battle Royale Act. The Act, passed after young adults became more dangerous and a menace to society, forces one class of students every year to fight each other to the death using weapons on a deserted island. As the games begin friends become enemies, little fights at school become reasons for death, and nobody will ever be the same. Who Will Survive the Battle Royale?
