The reason Kinji Fukasaku wanted to direct ‘Battle Royale’
The Japanese action-thriller Battle Royale is one of the most championed movies of the 21st century, drawing international acclaim, even from the likes of Quentin Tarantino. It was directed by Kinji Fukasaku from a screenplay by his son Kenta Fukasaku adapted from Koushun Takami’s 1999 novel of the same name.
It tells of a group of high school students who are made to fight one another to the death as part of a government programme designed to curb juvenile delinquency, which is said to have been on the rise at the beginning of the movie. Battle Royale is one of the bloodiest, most shocking and harrowing pieces of cinema ever made and caused a great stir upon its initial release.
Kinji Fukasaku once explained that he was drawn to directing the film because when he read Takami’s novel, it reminded him of the time he worked as a munitions factory operative when he was 15 years old during World War II.
The director stated: “I immediately identified with the 9th graders in the novel Battle Royale. I was fifteen when World War II came to an end. By then, my class had been drafted and was working in a munitions factory. In July 1945, we were caught up in artillery fire.”
He continued: “Up until then, the attacks had been air raids, and you had a chance of escaping from those. But with artillery, there was no way out. It was impossible to run or hide from the shells that rained down. We survived by diving for cover under our friends.”
Fukasaku went on to explain how he first came into contact with dead human bodies, of which there are many in the film. “After the attacks, my class had to dispose of the corpses,” he noted. “It was the first time in my life I’d seen so many dead bodies.”
The filmmaker added; “As I lifted severed arms and legs, I had a fundamental awakening … everything we’d been taught in school about how Japan was fighting the war to win world peace was a pack of lies.”
At the core of Battle Royale, the film (starring Takeshi Kitano), there is the notion that adults simply cannot be trusted; they are devious and do not have the best intentions of the young at heart. This idea was undoubtedly influenced by Takami’s novel and Fukasaku’s experience in the war and found its way into the film.
“The emotions I experienced then – an irrational hatred for the unseen forces that drove us into those circumstances, a poisonous hostility towards adults, and a gentle sentimentality for my friends – were a starting point for everything since,” Fukasaku said. “This is why, when I hear reports about recent outbreaks of teenage violence and crimes, I cannot easily judge or dismiss them. This is the point of departure for all my films.”
