@wonder2wonder said:

By the way, the real Hiroki did show up later when she was dying.

Yep, I remember. They have that exchange about crushes and it seems she had a thing for him if I remember correctly.

@movie_nazi said:

I may have to take you up on that suggestion because the motives of the government come off as quite contrived and not believeable in the film. It is what to me hurts the story the most. What does the government hope to accomplish by terrorizing children like this? As dull as I find The Hunger Games , at least they came up with a semi believable reason to have children kill themselves in a competition. Here its like, "Children are unruly and don't respect adults. F'em. Lets pass a law that allows us to make them kill themselves for our entertainment and punishment." Like, huh? 🤔

It's been ages since I saw this movie, but from what I recall the whole thing is a dark satire of the actual education system in Japan. We non-Japanese may not appreciate it because it does seem ridiculous, but the education system in Japan (which is run by the government) is brutally competitive.

from wikipedia (Education in Japan)

"Japanese students are faced with immense pressure to succeed academically from their parents, teachers, peers and society. This is largely a result of a society that has long placed a great amount of importance on education, and a system that places all of its weight upon a single examination that has significant life-long consequences. This pressure has led to behaviors such as school violence, cheating, suicide, and significant psychological harm."

So I would argue that Battle Royale, over the top as it is, is far more believable than The Hunger Games or any other social fight to the death, simply because BR is set in Japan where metaphorically it's happening every day.

That said, I wasn't the biggest fan of this movie, probably for the above reasons. My American school experience was closer to that joke of an education we see in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Hm, makes me wonder if Japanese kids watch Ferris Bueller and think wtf?? 🤔

@rooprect said:

@movie_nazi said:

I may have to take you up on that suggestion because the motives of the government come off as quite contrived and not believeable in the film. It is what to me hurts the story the most. What does the government hope to accomplish by terrorizing children like this? As dull as I find The Hunger Games , at least they came up with a semi believable reason to have children kill themselves in a competition. Here its like, "Children are unruly and don't respect adults. F'em. Lets pass a law that allows us to make them kill themselves for our entertainment and punishment." Like, huh? 🤔

It's been ages since I saw this movie, but from what I recall the whole thing is a dark satire of the actual education system in Japan. We non-Japanese may not appreciate it because it does seem ridiculous, but the education system in Japan (which is run by the government) is brutally competitive.

from wikipedia (Education in Japan)

"Japanese students are faced with immense pressure to succeed academically from their parents, teachers, peers and society. This is largely a result of a society that has long placed a great amount of importance on education, and a system that places all of its weight upon a single examination that has significant life-long consequences. This pressure has led to behaviors such as school violence, cheating, suicide, and significant psychological harm."

So I would argue that Battle Royale, over the top as it is, is far more believable than The Hunger Games or any other social fight to the death, simply because BR is set in Japan where metaphorically it's happening every day.

That said, I wasn't the biggest fan of this movie, probably for the above reasons. My American school experience was closer to that joke of an education we see in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Hm, makes me wonder if Japanese kids watch Ferris Bueller and think wtf?? 🤔

😂 Oh man, I got a good laugh on your last statement. They must think we are a bunch of slackers when they see Ferris Bueller (excellent film BTW). BR had quite a few narrative issues IMO but at the very least it was well acted. I always thought when they displayed Jpanese students in whatever medium be it live action or anime that the students were going to some fancy schmancy private schools. Didn't think this was public schools. I always knew that they treat their version of the SATs like the brainiac olympics and go to class 6 days a week which to me is just insane.