Battle Royale review

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The near future. Forty-two Japanese school kids are dumped on a remote island guarded by soldiers. Naturally bewildered, their teacher (Takeshi Kitano) explains that they're this year's victims of the Battle Royale Act, a bill designed to halt violence in schools. The up-shot being that they're each given a weapon and three days to kill their classmates...

Needless to say, Kinji Fukasaku's violent, delirious picture has caused a seismic shudder, its juxtaposition of gushing claret and 15-year-old players proving too much for American distributors in a post-Columbine world. But taken as a brave, unflinching satire - of both reality TV and Japanese society - it's an incredible concept, a film that'll nail-gun you to your seat gasping in shock.

In execution (ho-ho), however, it's a different matter, an excess of characters and plot holes causing this loaded weapon of a movie to occasionally jam. But then who's going to worry about fodder extras when you've got teenagers going head-to-head with stun-guns and axes?

The Total Film team are made up of the finest minds in all of film journalism. They are: Editor Jane Crowther, Deputy Editor Matt Maytum, Reviews Ed Matthew Leyland, News Editor Jordan Farley, and Online Editor Emily Murray. Expect exclusive news, reviews, features, and more from the team behind the smarter movie magazine. 

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