In 1999, there was a story being written for a mystery writing competition was passed over due to it's severely controversial content.  The following year, the movie off the same story had been made.  Enter BATTLE ROYALE! This movie was banned from the Japanese public at one point.  It then went underground, and released on DVD in a couple different versions.  The full one is the 122 minute director's cut.  What's this movie about?  Oh read on...

Our story opens to what looks to be a rescue attempt of a little girl, when actually she and she alone is the sole survivor of a government sponsored "game" called Battle Royale. Our hero is Shinya, a high school student who comes home one day to find his father has hung himself. Now, not having any family left, he stays with his best friend Nobu. The two are looking forward to going on their final school trip before graduation. All is not as it seems as Shinya notices quite a few military vehicles on the way...

The students awake from their slumber only to find that not only are they no longer are they on the bus, but they're in a room with two people they don't recognize, and they have these metal necklaces that won't come off. What's going on here?!? Then their home room teacher arrives by helicopter and explains to them that they have been selected to play "Battle Royale". The object is to be the only one left, in order to leave the island. The game goes on for three days, and if there isn't a winner by then, ALL the necklaces will detonate, and no one gets to go home. It's everyone for themselves. No best friend, no rules, and no mercy. From here on out, they are alone in their survival.

I had heard so much about how gory this film is, and it's true... they don't miss a moment. It's not a horror film in the sense of scaring you like Ju-On or Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but more in the "Oh my god, someone really DID make a violent film about kids with guns!" It's a shocker. Having done some homework, I hear that there was an animated version that actually has quite a bit of sex and nudity along with the violence already at work. I have to say that this is definitely a movie that you'll never forget if not for the opening moments, but with all that's happened in the world today, to some... we may be headed somewhere closeby... right there next to Lord Of The Flies.

– Brian K. James