Battle Royale - Kinji Fukasaku

The prologue title card reads:

"At the dawn of the millennium, the nation collapsed. At fifteen percent unemployment, ten million were out of work. 800,000 students boycotted school. The adults lost confidence and, fearing the youth, eventually passed the Millennium Educational Reform Act, AKA the BR Act...."

The BR Act simply involves leaving students on an Island... the students must kill each other until only one is left. One class from the country per year is selected to participate in the program. If after three days a winner is not declared, the explosive collars attached to each student's neck will be detonated. The collars also prevent the students entering certain areas of the field of participation, the "danger zones," with the intention of forcing the students to encounter one another.


This short video explains the rules

The film was labeled "crude and tasteless" by members of Japanese parliament and other government officials after the film was screened for them before its general release.^[12] The film created a debate over government action on media violence. Many conservative politicians used the film to blame popular culture for a youth crime wave. Ilya Garger of TIME magazine said that Battle Royale received "free publicity" and received "box-office success usually reserved for cartoons and TV-drama spin-offs."

Critics note its relation to the increasingly extreme trend in Asian cinema and its similarity to reality television.^[14]

In 2009, Quentin Tarantino listed the film as his favorite film released since 1992. Empire ranked Battle Royale #235 and #82 on their lists of "The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time" and "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" respectively.^[17][18]

Despite rumors to the contrary, the film is not banned in the United States. Rather, there has never been a distribution agreement for the film.^[5]

It has been exhibited at film festivals in North America. Nonetheless, bootleg copies of the film imported from China, South Korea, and Hong Kong have widespread availability on the continent, and a Special Edition DVD of the film was carried to a limited extent by retailers such as HMV and Starstruck Entertainment in Canada and Tower Records in the United States; the legal status of this edition is not clear. Also, the film's UK distributor, Tartan Films, released an all-region NTSC DVD version of the film that is available in North America from specialty outlets. One widely available Hong Kong import is a special edition without English subtitles that contains both Battle Royale and its sequel. Both Battle Royale and its sequel are available on NetFlix, a major home-entertainment distributor in the United States.