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Extremely bloody, extremely funny

Ever since I heard about Bat­tle Royale, I've want­ed to see the film … Quentin Taran­ti­no has called it "the best movie since 1992," so it's prob­a­bly not sur­pris­ing that it's both extreme­ly bloody and very dark­ly fun­ny. The premise: Adults fear the rise of youth, and each year they put the most bad­ly behaved kids on an island and force them to bat­tle each oth­er to the death. 

Battle Royale - Batoru RowaiaruLike Tarantino's movies, the set­up is quick and effective.
Battle Royale - Batoru RowaiaruThe humor dark­ens: A baby-voiced Japan­ese teen explains the rules of the game, includ­ing the fact that the col­lar worn by con­tes­tants goes "boom" under cer­tain circumstances.
Battle Royale - Batoru RowaiaruEach "play­er" gets their own weapon. As the plot unfolds, the "play­ers" learn who has what, and fig­ure out how to work with what they have.
Battle Royale - Batoru RowaiaruFinal­ly, there are lib­er­al amounts of blood, and much killing. Mixed with the sar­don­ic dia­logue, it's easy to see why Taran­ti­no loves it so much.

Despite the nihilis­tic milieu, the sto­ry focused on tra­di­tion­al stuff — loy­al­ty, trust and friend­ship; and in the end, it was actu­al­ly sort of sweet, much sweet­er than bleak 60's and 70's films like McCabe & Mrs. Miller or The Wild Bunch. Worth see­ing, just for that weird juxtaposition.