Battle Royale

In Japan, things have gone awry in the not-so-distant future. So groups of students are selected by the government to participate in “Battle Royal.” This is a kill-everyone-before-they-kill-you contest on a deserted island. A group of students is on a field trip when they are drugged and collared and taken to this island. There’s a hilarious girl commentator who gives them the rules of the game like it’s a game show, then the 7th grade teacher (Vic Romano) kills one of the students and hamstrings another one to show them how serious this game is. The island is divided into zones. Every 6 hours, the students are read which students have died and are told which zone is now the “danger zone” and must get the heck out of there asap. The collars track their positions and vitals and can also be used to penalize people for causing trouble. As people die, there are stats shown on the screen – very ingenious. The students are given a survival kit with water, food and a random weapon. They have three days to kill everyone else or everyone explodes. There are two “transfer” students who are labeled as “dangerous” thrown into the class, so they’re the ones to watch out for. They are released one at a time and a SERIOUS melee begins. It is a VERY intense movie. You actually feel bad – these are just kids trying to survive, so they get paranoid and jumpy and crazy. One of the best Japanese films I’ve ever seen. This one is a recommender.