Battle Royale

A minor sensation in Japan where questions were asked in parliament, this noisy and bombastic adaptation of a recent pulp novel doesn't shape up as satire or death-sport fantasy. In the near future, the authorities respond to an epidemic of juvenile delinquency by hijacking one problem class each year to an island and ordering the kids to kill each other, leaving only one survivor. This year's choice is Class B from Zentsuji Middle School, apparently because one pupil knifed teacher Kitano (Takeshi, the sole redeeming feature). The opening shows that the massacres are big media events, but the kids here have never heard of the game before. Maybe that's why their kills are so bloodless and lacking in hardcore nastiness. Or maybe the problem is simply that veteran Fukasaku is past it. His view of teenage life (flashbacks to happier days strumming guitar in the school dorm) is positively geriatric.