Tag - battle-royale

 
 

BATTLE ROYALE

Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 7, 2014
'Battle Royale' wins the game for hungry fans
I should probably start this review with somewhat of a disclaimer. About 10 years ago — not long after Kinji Fukasaku's film adaptation of Koushun Takami's controversial novel "Battle Royale" became a cult hit overseas — I bought a screen-printed poster from a London-based design studio called Airside. The design featured a highly stylized frame grab from the film, of a schoolgirl being thrown into the air as she is shot in the back, the crimson of her blood contrasting vividly with the tan and white of her school uniform. It's a disturbingly beautiful and iconic tribute to a great film, and it hung proudly in my living room for years.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books / ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES
Jun 7, 2014
Battle Royale: Remastered
Set in May 1997, in a fascist version of Japan known as the Republic of Greater East Asia, "Battle Royale" follows the fate of 42 junior high-school kids who have been forced the take part in The Program — a sadistic game created by the government that randomly picks a ninth-grade class, arms them with various weapons and forces them to fight it out till the death. The "winner" is the last one standing.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Books
Jun 7, 2014
Battle Royale: Angels' Border
Among all the violent death scenes in "Battle Royale," there's one that stands out: the lighthouse shootout that leaves a group of schoolgirls lying dead in a pool of blood. It's a tragic, senseless event that proves that given the right mix of fear, distrust and hopelessness even the best of friends will kill each other to survive — even if it is by mistake.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Mar 22, 2013
Kids with guns on film, blasting at the culture gap
Contemporary Japanese films are often extremely violent; the lives of ordinary Japanese, much less so. According to a multinational study by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Japan's homicide rate in 2009 was 0.4 per 100,000 population, for a total of 506 deaths. Similar figures for the United States were 5.0 and 15,399, respectively.

Longform

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