42 Students, Three Days, One Survivor, No Rules.

September 2, 2023 11:32 AM

Battle Royale, revisited [The Verge] “Before The Hunger Games, Fortnite, or Squid Game, the concept of the “battle royale” came from a pulpy 1999 Japanese novel by Koushun Takami. The movie, directed by Kinji Fukasaku and released just a year later, slims down some of the book’s context (scrubbed is the alternate history of Japan winning World War II), but the setup is more or less the same: a class of 15-year-old students are randomly selected to be made an example of. They are dropped on a remote island, given some weapons, and forced to kill each other off until a single person remains — the victor. Kids murdering each other? How cruel! But that’s the point. The violence of the battle royale is supposed to scare the authoritarian regime’s citizens into productive submission. As the students die, the movie counts down the remaining ones, like sport. Battle Royale is mean, and it’s not subtle.” [YouTube][Trailer]

“Like many great thrillers, it’s also fast, funny, and vicious. Battle Royale streams on the Criterion Channel today as part of a monthlong “High School Horror” series. This is a perfect excuse to revisit a work that holds up remarkably well 20 years later. It’s easy to see why the movie is a cult hit: Battle Royale is provocative, violent, and maybe more memorable for its influence on film than the quality of its actual filmmaking. (An endorsement from Quentin Tarantino didn’t hurt, either; he liked one of the actors, Chiaki Kuriyama, so much that he cast her as the meteor hammer-wielding mini-boss in Kill Bill Vol. 1.) It’s a good, deranged time and more committed to its conceit than the many things it later inspired.”

posted by Fizz (38 comments total)

This one’s super lucky.
posted by Artw at 11:37 AM on September 2, 2023 [1 favorite]

I vividly remember the shocking image of the little girl in the first scene, smeared with blood, surrounded by soldiers, clutching a teddy bear - and grinning.
posted by doctornemo at 11:58 AM on September 2, 2023 [1 favorite]

I read the novel 20 years ago, and although it's fairly long (~650 pages), I remember it going by very quickly--a surprisingly good thriller, like the movie counting down at the end of every chapter how many people remain. It looks like it's been retranslated since then. I don't know how well it's held up, but I was pleased to see it in the High School Horror series mentioned here--it's a good month to sign up for Criterion, because they also have Hip-Hop, 70s Car Movies, and Hopping Vampires of Hong Kong.
posted by Wobbuffet at 12:11 PM on September 2, 2023 [1 favorite]

Wow, there’s sure are some… variances… in voice performance between sub and dub.
posted by Artw at 12:41 PM on September 2, 2023

Voluntarily watching a dub is the true horror.
posted by star gentle uterus at 12:53 PM on September 2, 2023 [19 favorites]

FWIW the version on the Criterion Channel is subtitled. I don't see a way to get the dubbed version there. Same goes for the sequel.
posted by Wobbuffet at 12:59 PM on September 2, 2023

they also have Hip-Hop, 70s Car Movies, and Hopping Vampires of Hong Kong.

I started watching the Hopping Vampires collection, Close Encounters of the Spooky Kind is several kinds of amazing, highly recommended.
posted by Pink Fuzzy Bunny at 1:00 PM on September 2, 2023 [1 favorite]

The book was good, reminiscent of The Long Walk by Stephen King/Richard Bachman. It postulates an alternative Japan whose military government survived WWII. Why does the government stage the Battle Royale? To remind the people that it can. The cruelty is the point.
posted by SPrintF at 1:05 PM on September 2, 2023 [8 favorites]

The book was good, reminiscent of The Long Walk by Stephen King/Richard Bachman.

Per the Just King Things podcast the least bad Bachman - they are not fans in general.
posted by Artw at 1:10 PM on September 2, 2023 [1 favorite]

The progenitor of all modern killing-game stories! For some reason, this premise has always appealed to me (in fiction, of course!). It's adaptable to so many themes and plot variations. I'm particularly fond of Spike Chunsoft's sci-fi-heavy game riffs on the idea.
posted by praemunire at 1:54 PM on September 2, 2023

Isn't the joke that techbros always misinterpret the point of dystopian science fiction and try to create it instead of trying to avoid it?

I guess we'll have to wait half a generation or so to see...
posted by clawsoon at 2:27 PM on September 2, 2023 [2 favorites]

Voluntarily watching a dub is the true horror.

I know people love to get snobby about this but I have a terrible time giving 100% of my attention to even things that absolutely rivet me (ADHD is unfun) and dubs help a lot. Two of my favorite horror movies- Noroi and REC- aren't available dubbed, as far as I can tell, and so I don't watch them very often because if I'm going to I have to be in a headspace where I can just laser-focus on them, which doesn't happen all that much. Dubs make it a lot easier to watch a film without having to be in that headspace and make films more accessible to me.
posted by Pope Guilty at 2:37 PM on September 2, 2023 [14 favorites]

I sn't the joke that techbros always misinterpret the point of dystopian science fiction and try to create it instead of trying to avoid it?

The other cliche would be Science Fiction puts a magnifying glass on the present rather than reducing the future.

Have we spent the last few decades destroying the world for later generations whilst simultaneously vilifying them? Well…
posted by Artw at 2:40 PM on September 2, 2023 [7 favorites]

As I discovered to my cost, when Lorraine the schoolteacher stormed out of the showing we went to, this is simultaneously a great movie but a terrible date - especially first date - movie.
posted by Wordshore at 2:45 PM on September 2, 2023 [9 favorites]

This movie is significantly better than it has any right to be.
posted by aspersioncast at 3:54 PM on September 2, 2023 [1 favorite]

Musical biopics that can be spoken of in the same breath as Walk Hard are rare and far apart...

Oops. Wrong thread, wrong movie.
posted by Artw at 4:02 PM on September 2, 2023

Voluntarily watching a dub is the true horror.

Hmmmm.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 4:15 PM on September 2, 2023

I dunno guys, did you watch the linked video?
posted by Artw at 4:16 PM on September 2, 2023

I just reread The Long Walk last weekend (it's really short, maybe 200 pages) and found it held up quite well. Which is kinda crazy since I think it's the earliest of King's writing to see publication. I vaguely remember an interview where he was asked about it and he said that it, Battle Royale, Hunger Games and a couple others I'm blanking on have their roots in Shirley Jackson's The Lottery.
posted by mannequito at 4:27 PM on September 2, 2023 [4 favorites]

Richard Connell might have some opinions about who was first
posted by Jacen at 4:38 PM on September 2, 2023 [1 favorite]

The other well regarded (though not by the JKT crew) is The Running Man, which feels like part of the linage, though probably more the movie than the book.
posted by Artw at 4:48 PM on September 2, 2023

Hmmmm.

After Parasite director Bong Joon Ho’s famous “Once you overcome the 1-inch-tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films” comment, it’s hard to imagine anyone still holding this position.

If you have some mental or medical condition as Pope Guilty says, I guess, but at some point the absolute refusal to engage with non-English media shades into outright racism. Try experiencing a work in the native language, I promise you exposure to non-English dialogue won't kill you.
posted by star gentle uterus at 5:29 PM on September 2, 2023 [4 favorites]

Surely the true horror was the friends we made along the way.
posted by Naberius at 6:07 PM on September 2, 2023 [5 favorites]

The book was good, reminiscent of The Long Walk by Stephen King/Richard Bachman.

I think Battle Royale was the first proper novel I managed to read in Japanese. Takami makes the influence of Stephen King explicit by naming the fictional town in Kagawa Prefecture that the class is from「城岩」(Shiroiwa), a literal translation (calque?) of Castle Rock.
posted by Strutter Cane - United Planets Stilt Patrol at 6:10 PM on September 2, 2023 [10 favorites]

techbros always misinterpret the point of dystopian science fiction and try to create it instead of trying to avoid it

Starship Troopers has entered the chat.
posted by CynicalKnight at 6:22 PM on September 2, 2023 [2 favorites]

If you have some mental or medical condition as Pope Guilty says, I guess, but at some point the absolute refusal to engage with non-English media shades into outright racism. Try experiencing a work in the native language, I promise you exposure to non-English dialogue won't kill you.

You're not doing anti-racism. You're just trying to win an aesthetic argument by making it a moral argument.
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:21 PM on September 2, 2023 [19 favorites]

techbros always misinterpret the point of dystopian science fiction and try to create it instead of trying to avoid it

@AlexBlechman
Sci-Fi Author: In my book I invented the Torment Nexus as a cautionary tale

Tech Company: At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel Don't Create The Torment Nexus
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:23 PM on September 2, 2023 [4 favorites]

If you have some mental or medical condition as Pope Guilty says, I guess, but at some point the absolute refusal to engage with non-English media shades into outright racism. Try experiencing a work in the native language, I promise you exposure to non-English dialogue won't kill you.

"I'm not trying to be a snob, but I'm going to be a snob."

I never had a problem with subs, but in this day and age of finding all kinds of offerings in languages I don't understand, there are plenty of entertaining movies and shows that aren't really worth the effort of subs. I don't always want to watch important works of art. Sometimes I just want to be entertained.
posted by 2N2222 at 8:43 PM on September 2, 2023 [1 favorite]

he liked one of the actors, Chiaki Kuriyama, so much that he cast her as the meteor hammer-wielding mini-boss in Kill Bill Vol. 1.

Maybe this is a technicality, but I think the weapon that Chiaki Kuriyama wields in her role as Go-Go Yubari in Kill Bill Vol. 1 is more of a callback to Master of the Flying Guillotine.
posted by jonp72 at 9:18 PM on September 2, 2023 [1 favorite]

After Parasite director Bong Joon Ho’s famous “Once you overcome the 1-inch-tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films” comment, it’s hard to imagine anyone still holding this position.

This comment is clearly about being able to watch non-English films released only with English subtitling, not about the wrongity-wrongness of choosing a dub over a sub.

I prefer a sub to a dub myself under most circumstances, but I don't kid myself that I'm experiencing a sub "in its native language." I'm reading a translation! And subs are only suitable for times when you can give the screen your full attention. Can't really fold laundry and read dialogue at the same time.
posted by praemunire at 12:54 AM on September 3, 2023 [2 favorites]

That the novel is set in a world in which Japan won WW2, and the lives of young people are ritualistically and violently sacrificed to preserve the state, make me wonder whether Takami intended a commetary on and an exploration of Mishima's vision of an ideal Japan.

The Britannica link mentions a detail of Mishima's life I’d never heard before, that he was found physically unfit to serve in the Japanese forces during WW2.
posted by jamjam at 3:34 AM on September 3, 2023 [2 favorites]

I've still never gotten around to this, but damn, I probably should.

As far as subtitles and attention issues, I've found I struggle with the focus needed for subtitles more and more. That, and more often than not, movies and television have become something I have on when I'm doing something else. I get more movie watching done while making sausage or slicing bacon than I do when I have actual free time, at the cost being unable to give subtitles the actual focus they need for me to follow along. I first really ran into this with Narcos, which I was really enjoying, but when I tried to watch it while cooking, I realized I just couldn't keep up with it. At the time (which has kind of become the norm for me), cooking is just about the only time I really have for watching much of anything. Sadly, that's meant I can't really watch much subtitled foreign language media. Am I not giving film and television its proper due by not locking my eyes to the screen? Yes, probably. Do I wish I had the time (and frankly, the ability to focus long enough)? Hell yes I do. Until that happens, though, I end up needing to skip a lot of subtitled non-English media. And, since I, too, hate dubs with the passion of a riled up movie nerd, yeah, that limits my intake.

On the other hand, you would not believe how lousy Amazon and Netflix Japan are about providing subtitles other than Japanese for non-English media. Both, for example, had Drive My Car. Neither had it with any subtitles other than Japanese. Same for Parasite, and an absolute shit ton of other movies that I'm willing to bet a minor appendage have English subtitle options on other regions of the same services. Frustrating as fuck.
posted by Ghidorah at 4:13 AM on September 3, 2023 [3 favorites]

Regarding subs vs dubs, I enjoy subs for Japanese films. I understand a little Japanese and it is sometimes entertaining to see how something was translated into English.

Example: in Fushigi Yuugi, there's a scene in which Chichiri, the monk character, is pursuing a bad guy only discover the way blocked by a boulder. His line, in Japanese, is "Shimete!" ("Closed!"). But the stress he puts on the word makes it sound like "Shimatta!" (something like "Damn it!"). Another character even comments, "Are monks supposed to talk like that?"

The English subtitles, though, translated this as "Aw, shut!" Which I think neatly captured the meaning and intent of the original.
posted by SPrintF at 8:02 AM on September 3, 2023 [11 favorites]

There's also The King Must Die by Mary Renault, named as an influence by Collins herself in an NYT interview.
posted by mmmbacon at 8:25 AM on September 3, 2023

Sometime mid 2000s. I have meandered home from attending my first ever outdoor rave, it's 4AM on a fragrant morning, a night of unbelievable adventures behind me. Gently coming down I turn on the TV and there's little Asian girls making food, well a Japanese film, that seems interesting, then before you know it they have knives and utzis out and WHAT IS THIS (... later kids start playing Fortnite and I'm like why its just that movie but with less gore)
posted by yoHighness at 11:02 AM on September 3, 2023

I once survived being in a scenario like that.

It was a supposedly pvp-free multiplayer MineCraft server. I joined it because the pvp servers were annoying but I still wanted to try out multiplayer with people I didn't know. I played for a week or so, before it was announced that there was a public event for everybody on the server and we should all log in at a certain time to participate. And since I figured I owed the owner of the server some cooperation for making a nice world for me to play in, I duly showed up to discover that he had planned a hunger games style battle and we had all logged in, to find ourselves inside holes two blocks deep - player height - that would couldn't get out of, on a floating island high above the world we had been playing in.

He explained the rules, that it was a battle to the death with a prize of great loot for the winner and a few people groaned, but more people were enthusiastic and I said, "I don't wanna," and he said, "Please, just be a good sport."

So when the timer got off, we all got a bump somehow to help us leap out of our hole, and I am SUCH a bad player I missed the moment to jump and stayed stuck in the hole. This is how I survived the initial few attacks. I was hard to see, hard to hit and didn't look like someone they needed to take down fast. By the time the owner of the server bumped me out of the little hole, the rest of the players had started dispersing, and most of the fighting equipment laid out for us to battle with had been grabbed.

I didn't grab any weapons, I went running for a place to hide. But the owner of the server had designed his floating island so that you couldn't break blocks, meaning I wasted a fair bit of time trying different places to get some type of block, any type that I could use to make a wall to hide behind. I had no other strategy in mind because my combat skills suck so bad that fighting would have been a very quick victory over me for any other player. But eventually I did find a way to move a block so I could get out onto one of the fancy loops that made the outer ring of the floating island. And this time everyone was talking, exclaiming and giving battle shouts and swearing, I was dead quiet; Prey animals do not want to be heard. Everyone who was killed got teleported to the award ceremony chamber.

It took twenty minutes or half an hour to get to that final combat between the last two really good players, after much shouting and excitement. By the time one of them finally won everybody had forgotten I existed. Once they announced a winner, I figured I was a leetle tiny bit safer, so I started exploring the very rim of the island, sneaking along, hiding as much as I could, from one precarious rim to another until finally I found what I was looking for.

Far, far, far below was water, two or more tiles deep.

They were just in the middle of a happy award ceremony when I finally spoke up. "Wish me luck," I said.

Huh? Whaddya mean. Where are you? You're dead. Someone killed you!

"No, they didn't. I'm still alive." I'd have been teleported to the award ceremony chamber like everybody else if I were dead. The proof I had survived was the fact that I was still out there.

Let me tell you, I was frigging terrified. If I missed that one spot that seemed like it was probably deep enough, what looked like more than a hundred tiles down, it would be instant death. But if I stayed all they had to do was figure out where I was. The winner was about to walk over and kill me. So I jumped.



The owner of the server was PISSED. Yes, I aimed the jump correctly. He said I had cheated. I wasn't supposed to break blocks, not that his rule prohibiting it had been mentioned to us, and I wasn't supposed to hide successfully, even though half the other players had attempted it before they died.

I kinda got dis-invited to the server after that.

My life has given me a lot of really good memories. That is one of them.
posted by Jane the Brown at 2:41 PM on September 3, 2023 [14 favorites]

Dubs preserve the actor's performance better than subs because, though the vocal delivery is lost, the timing matches the actor's movements and expressions better than text appearing at the beginning of the shot apprehended at whatever time the viewer happens to read it. And vocal expression often needs to be "translated" to be understood correctly just as much as words do.
posted by straight at 9:07 AM on September 4, 2023

BR’s cultural antecedents have become such a staple of the pop culture landscape that we seem to have become numbed to the ideas they try to engage with, to the point that supermarkets sell ‘Squid Game’ branded kid’s frozen foods (sorry for the a: Twitter link, b: self link). There’s also Netflix icecream too, but since it already has two flavours I’m sure the product line will be cancelled any time now.
posted by MarchHare at 3:55 PM on September 4, 2023