Battle Royale

Overview

Battle Royale is a 2000 live-action film based on a novel of the same name by Koushun Takami, which was also adapted into manga format. The film is set in an alternate history in which Japan has become a fearful, totalitarian country. Afraid of opposition from its youth, the government enforces the Battle Royale program, wherein each year, one random class from one random school is chosen to partake in the program. The students in the chosen class are transported to a remote location and forced to battle each other to the death until only one remains. If more than one student is still alive after three days have elapsed, explosive collars locked around the remaining students' necks will go off, killing everyone. The goal of the program is designed to teach those who watch it humility and respect, and to instill a fear in children of defying authority.

The chosen class that the movie follows includes the students Shuuya Nanahara, Noriko Nakagawa, Takako Chigusa, and others in a total class of over forty students from the Kanagawa Prefecture. Having been told that they are going on a class trip, they are sedated during the bus ride and transported to a small island where the program is to take place. Once there, they find that they have each been fitted with explosive collars, that their teacher has been killed, and that they have no other choice but to kill each other if they wish to leave alive. Shuuya, the main character of the film, looks for a way to escape this fate.