Battle Royale

Think The Hunger Games. Now think of The Hunger Games on steroids. Congratulations. You've only just managed to scratch the bloodstained surface of the mind-fuck-gore-infested trip that is Battle Royale. The hardcore 2000 film was helped along in its cult status by a slew of bannings, with several countries deeming the trigger-happy flick too violent. Deep breath now. Based on a novel of the same name (like The Hunger Games), Battle Royale follows a class of middle-school students slaying other students in battle for survival on a remote island. It's set in not-too-distant future world, a chaotic quasi-contemporary Japan, where elders avenge the youth's lack of respect by killing them off in a battle for survival. The tale follows the character of Shuya Nanahara, who (like every good hero) is attempting his own resurrection from tragedy following his father's suicide. Nanahara's class, 3-B, are taken on a field trip, drugged and transported to a 'briefing room' on a remote island, where they learn they have been chosen to compete in this year's Battle Royale. Collared up, like dogs, they also learn they've got three days to kill or be killed. Breaking the rules will result in their electronic collar's detonation. KA-BOOM.

With a series of gloriously gory fight scenes that would do Tarantino proud (and a very suspicious Kill Bill-esque yellow jumpsuit thrown in the mix), students drop like flies, killed in a myriad of stomach-churning ways – including decapitation, the old knife-in-the-face trick, gun fights and a delightful scene that sees a female student stab one of her male competitors repeatedly in the nuts. It is all so fantastically anti-Hollywood, and remarkably satisfying to watch characters, even those that you feel empathy for, be hacked to death – happy endings and reprieves are not real or reel life. And it feels good. Of course, at the heart of the horror lies a love story (well, several), with the main female character Noriko Nakagawa ultimately escaping from the island with her best friend/true love Shuya, thanks to one of the other students, who managed to hack into their collars and disable their tracking devices (SPOILER: he, like everybody else, dies).

Classic Japanese gore aside, Battle Royale delves deeper into the ramifications of the hypothetical, 'kill or be killed', and provides a much richer and juicier voyeuristic experience across the human sacrificial battle ground than that other student battle flick.

Late Night Kings Cross Library Screening.