'Battle Royale' Review: Cult Masterpiece!

🔫 Battle Royale 🗡 Review 🔫 9/10 🗡

Battle Royale was the final film by the Japanese exploitation master Kinji Fukasaku, who was bloody 70 at the time, and he clearly put everything he had into it. Despite the 122-minute running time, it's exquisitely paced and balanced, perfectly alternating periods of rest and hope with periods of shock and violence. The huge cast of teens is handled extremely well. Characters unexpectedly reveal new sides of their personalities, i.e. sudden courage, cowardice and rage.

Fukasaku plays the movie for bloody thrills while keeping the sinister message in the background. Viewers will likely find themselves thinking about the movie long afterward, as it grows richer. The final masterstroke is the casting of filmmaker/performer Takeshi Kitano (who acts under a stage name, "Beat" Takeshi), as the former teacher and current ringmaster. He brings a very dark, deadpan humor to his role, as well a quiet thoughtfulness, turning him into one of the great tragic movie villains.