Battle Royale

Film & Other Media

In Person

Date: May 25, 2012

The folks behind The Hunger Games denied like hell that they were inspired by Kinji Fukasaku’s 2000 transgressive bloodbath Battle Royale , in which teenage boys and girls from a ninth-grade class are plopped down on an island and forced to fight one another to the death. Fer sher. In any case, the IFC Center and Anchor Bay are taking gleeful advantage of the HG phenomenon to give Battle Royale its overdue New York theatrical premiere. Frightened, bewildered, still in their school uniforms, these kids shoot and hack one another to pieces—with lots of arterial spray—while oddball Japanese actor-auteur Takeshi Kitano watches with grim satisfaction. It’s Quentin Tarantino’s favorite movie.