Greatest Bootlegs of the Decade #1: Battle Royale
posted by The Joe
Of course this is #1. What else?
Battle Royale was my very first bootleg, and I’m oh so proud of its accomplishment. You can find it anywhere! Video stores, Amazon, even Netflix rents it out! And you know what? None of it’s technically official.
Contrary to rumors of it being too extreme for American audiences, Battle Royale was never picked up because the Japanese distributor wanted too much money. That’s the same reason you rarely see the Godzilla series as midnight movies. But there was so much hype back in the day, what did we as a good upstanding country that is anti-piracy all the way? We bootlegged it anyway, and deemed it perfectly acceptable. Yay America! And all-region DVDs!
If you’re one of the five people left who haven’t seen the film, you really ought to. Quentin Tarantino named it the best film of the last 20 years, and I’d easily drop it into a Top 10 of the Decade list if I made one. On the outset, the plot sounds like campy exploitation which Japan is currently producing, but there were two secret weapons: one was pop icon ‘Beat’ Takeshi as the lead villain. Forget Daniel Day Lewis, this is the real Performance of the Decade.
The other weapon was Kinji Fukasaku, one of the greatest directors to work in Japan . . . their version of Francis Ford Coppola if I had to simplify it down. And make no mistake, Battle Royale is his Apocalypse Now. Where this would’ve been Corman-esque fodder in lesser hands, the film is both emotionally powerful and totally badass.
A random class of Japanese ninth-grade students are randomly selected by a fascist government lottery. They are kidnapped and forced onto an isolated island, where they are equipped with food, water, a map, and a random weapon. On the island, they have to compete in a violent death-match game till only one victor remains. Failure to follow the rules or participate in the death match results in death by an exploding collar that everyone has to wear.
So in conclusion, boys and girls, be wary of all that negative bootleg talk. Sometimes there are films that are worth it.
Battle Royale – Trailer