One to Watch - Battle Royale
Battle Royale is the film that many claimed was the inspiration behind The Hunger Games, this Japanese Sci-Fi presents a warped future, in which each year a class of students are taken to an island to fight to the death. Unlike The Hunger Games, the film does not present the audience with special effects or a fully fleshed out universe, instead opting for sheer realism as a method of providing substantial social commentary. The commentary in question is what makes Battle Royale stand out as a brilliant piece of cinema, it is not merely an exploitation film complete with over the top gore and black as the night humour, it goes further by establishing a relationship between the Battle Royale universe and ours. The entire film is played out in a news report style, which reminded me of the kind of reporting you would see in a war, again pushing realism over spectacle.
There is action and gore to be had of course, the action scenes in particular excellently played out, most noticeably the infamous lighthouse scene. Rather than providing entertainment, these scenes invoke emotions usually felt during a horror film, with the combination of ultra violence and the deaths of children conjuring images of the future in which this kind of thing could potentially happen. The sturdy link between the film and reality is perhaps Battle Royale's most impressive feature, providing effective commentary on the nature of television and the mediated world. If you're into thought provoking films, or indeed action films, you should check Battle Royale out, it may just be your new favourite film.
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