Torn straight from today's headlines and accented with a sick sense of reality (as only the Japs can do) comes the highly controversial and though-provoking film, Battle Royale. Unfortunately for most moviegoers, the sensitive subject matter has kept it from our shores, but this film must deservedly be recognized, eulogized, and even prophesized here on these blood-drenched pages.

It's the dawn of the new era. Well, not really, because the youth of today will always seem fucked-up to the generation that came before them, but for fantasy's sake the government has just signed into law the Battle Royale act in hopes of combating the rise in juvenile violence. To add injury to insult, they have selected (for amusement purposes only) a class of 9th graders for a deserted island death battle. Here, each student is given a weapon, which can range from an Uzi to a pot lid, but all is fair in love and war, or so the naive may think. Soon, some of these miscreants even begin to enjoy the taste of blood as their sadistic side shines through. Arrows through the neck, a switchblade to the balls, a stun gun, sickles, suicide, and poison… you name it - kids die that way! But fear and paranoia still prove to be the greatest tools of destruction in this winner-takes-all survival-of-the-fittest splatterfest. Reality sucks and so does being a loser in this game of death.

Battle Royale is easily one of the best and most violent films to come out in years. It's brutality-with-a-message approach, although not original, delivers on all cylinders while leading the gorehound down a path of blood-soaked enrichment. Is it social commentary for what awaits us all? Hopefully!

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