Elijah Wood’s favourite exploitation movie: “It’s harrowing and it’s also deeply funny”
Exploitation is one of the most popular genres in film and TV today.
From the dystopian South Korean survival thriller, Squid Game and sexploitation films like 2011’s Sleeping Beauty, to violent exploitation films like Django Unchained and horror films like The Human Centipede, today’s audiences have an insatiable appetite for needless violence and the depraved depths of human suffering.
Perhaps we have become so desensitised to violence on our screens, be it in the news or in films and reels, that the measure of what is acceptable is tending increasingly extreme. But before the exploitation genre became mainstream, one film was pushing the boundaries of what was socially acceptable, and today’s obsession can be traced back to this defining feature.
Battle Royale was a 2000 Japanese film adapted from a 1999 novel by Koushun Takami. Set in a not-so-distant Japan, violence has broken out in schools to an unmanageable extent, leading the totalitarian government to establish the Battle Royale Act, which delineates various grade-school classes being chosen via a lottery to be sent off to an island, where they are forced to fight to the death in uniformed g(l)ory, armed with a weapon and a bag.
At once a rallying rejection of the conservatism of the Japanese government at the time and an exploration of the disillusionment of the country’s youth, the film spawned a new era of exploitation films, introducing a competitive format that turned violence into a game while maintaining a deeper meaning that many under the genre’s sordid umbrella seem to lack.
Battle Royale regularly appears in actors’ favourite films, and for Lord of the Rings actor, Elijah Wood, the film’s deeper meaning is what lends it such a powerful stature. Part of the Japanese New Wave movement, Battle Royale director Kinji Fukasaku was known for stories exploring inequalities in the post-war Japanese state through the use of violence as a recurring motif, with the film being one of his last. Elijah Wood compared it to The Hunger Games, but noted that there was a “real commentary” in Battle Royale, which he argued attempts to get to the heart of what the kids in the film are experiencing, in what ultimately becomes a tale of humanity versus survival.
“F— man. It’s incredible. It’s great. It’s, I dunno, it’s harrowing and it’s also deeply funny, extremely entertaining… And I think there’s real, real commentary in it as well. I think there are certain things the filmmaker wanted to say; it’s not just pure exploitation. It tries to get to the heart of what these kids’ experience is and, ultimately, humanity vs. survival, and what those things mean and having to let go of your humanity if you want to survive,” he noted.
The original novel sold over a million copies in Japan when it was published, and Fukasaku would go on to direct a follow-up film, Battle Royale II: Requiem. In fact, Battle Royale went on to become a genre in itself, in which a select group of people are chosen to kill each other off until only one triumphant survivor remains, inspiring video games like Call of Duty: Warzone and Fortnite—Fukasaku himself went on to branch out into games before his death in 2003—as well as films like The Hunger Games and the TV series, Squid Game.
Quentin Tarantino has been vocal about his love of Battle Royale, and his films, like the Kill Bill trilogy, as well as his more general penchant for extreme, needless violence in films like Django Unchained and Inglorious Bastards, can draw a direct line to the violence of Battle Royale.
There are rumours that Netflix’s hugely successful Squid Game could be adapted into an American series, with American film director David Fincher at the helm. Fincher’s own films are known for their implicit depiction of horrific violence, and, if true, it would be hugely exciting to see what he would do with the iconic format. Here’s hoping!
