In This School, Low-Grade Students Are Forced To Fight Until Only 1 Survive

John Lee

Transcript

00:00Hi, Mystery Recaft here. Today, I am going to explain a Japanese action thriller film

00:07called Battle Royale. Spoilers ahead, watch out and take care.

00:16The Japanese employment system, alongside its government, has collapsed. Students see no

00:22benefit in going to school and getting a degree, which causes the number of high school dropouts

00:27to skyrocket. Most dropouts indulge in one or the other criminal activities. Adults lose trust in

00:33youngsters since most of them have turned into criminals. In times of emergency, the only way to

00:38save society is by eliminating the high schoolers before they get a chance to ruin the country

00:44altogether. In a desperate attempt, the government passes a reform act called the Battle Royale.

00:50According to the act, every year, a class of high school students are put against each other

00:55in a fight to the death. This way, only one out of hundreds of students survives,

01:00which further benefits society. The movie begins as a reporter frantically announces the return of

01:06a schoolgirl to mainland Japan. She has returned after winning a deadly game of Battle Royale.

01:12One might think that a teenage girl who was made to kill her friends for survival might have gone

01:16through hell. But when the camera zooms into her face, she stares at us with a sinister smile.

01:22Then, we are introduced to the protagonist of the film, Shuya. He is a kid in middle school,

01:28traumatized by his mother's abandonment and his father's death. Because of personal problems,

01:33he hardly ever attends school. His friend Noriko, however, is a kind and polite girl. She goes to the

01:39class and is the only one present. Because of the student's bad behavior, their teacher Kitano has been

01:44distressed lately. As he is leaving the class, a student stabs him in the leg just for the fun of it.

01:50After recovering from the injury, Kitano resigns from his post and never looks back at the students

01:56again. One year after the incident, Shuya and Noriko are in high school. Their class is going

02:01on an educational trip. Everything goes well for the first half of the ride. A few hours later, Shuya

02:07wakes up to see that all of his friends are unconscious. The bus driver and conductor are wearing

02:13gas masks. When they notice he is awake, the conductor knocks him out. In the following scene,

02:18he wakes up again and finds himself in a classroom with all his classmates. They gain consciousness

02:24and look around, trying to figure out what is going on. They also have a strange device attached to

02:29their necks that doesn't come off. Suddenly, several helicopters land outside and an army of soldiers

02:35comes out. Alongside them is Kitano, the teacher who the children used to disrespect until he resigned.

02:41He tells a confused class that they have been recruited to take part in Battle Royale. Two outsider

02:47students named Shogo and Kazuo are also in the room who are supposed to take part with them.

02:52The two have already played with their classmates and are more experienced than the others. Kitano

02:57plays a video to explain how the game works but a girl whispers to her friends in the middle of it.

03:02The teacher throws a knife at her and scores a direct hit on her forehead, killing her.

03:07The students panic and finally realize the severity of the situation. They watch the video

03:12attentively after that. It turns out that they are on a remote island with no way to escape.

03:17The students will be given a bag full of supplies that they will have to use for their protection

03:22or to attack others. The callers on their neck are tracking devices and microphones. If they try to

03:28escape or do anything against the rules, it will explode. A guy panics and refuses to listen to the

03:34presentation. Because of the disruption, Kitano presses a button that causes an explosion resulting in the

03:40student's death. If more than one student is left by the end of three days, all their callers will

03:45explode, leaving no winner. The thought of dying brutally like their friend scares everyone and

03:50motivates them to play the game. Following that, the soldiers bring them a supply bag that contains

03:56the same four survival products but the weapons on all of them are different. They hand them the bags

04:01one after another before sending them outside. The newcomers, Shogo and Kazuo, are also given a random

04:07bag but Shogo insists that he get a new one because his is too light. The two are ready to kill anyone

04:13to become the winners, having already killed people they were close to. Shuya finally gets his head in

04:18the game and rushes outside with his bag. Suddenly, one of his classmates who had run out earlier

04:23emerges from the forest. When she gets closer, Shuya notices the arrow sticking out of her throat.

04:29It is clear that people have already started killing each other. Noriko also comes outside but before the

04:35two can decide their next move, a guy with a crossbow attacks them. They run away, leaving the

04:40guy to fight another one of their classmates. The couple then ends up in a cave where Shuya checks

04:45Noriko's arm that was injured earlier. Unfortunately for them, their bag contains a pot cover and binoculars

04:52as weapons. Somewhere else, a group of students surrounds Kazuo, trying to intimidate him. They believe

04:58that since he is an outsider, they should kill him first but a guy makes the mistake of approaching Kazuo

05:03with a gun. In an instant, he gets hold of the gun and manages to defeat the entire group

05:09without breaking a sweat. Then, he takes their weapons and makes his way to beat the others.

05:14The pressure of fighting for survival is too much for some students to take. Many of them commit the

05:19unthinkable. After that, we are introduced to a girl named Mitsuko. Unlike the others, the situation

05:26has turned her into a cold-blooded murderer. She kills a friend and doesn't even feel a hint of sympathy for

05:32her. The next morning, Shuya and Noriko bump into a friend with an axe who launches at them. Shuya

05:38makes Noriko run away before fighting the guy himself. The pot cover comes in handy to dodge the

05:44attacks but they soon fall down the hill. In the process, the guy hits himself on the head with the

05:49axe. Shuya looks at him in regret even though all he did was defend himself. Following that, he and Noriko

05:56run away again. This time, they are stopped by a scared guy with a gun. He nervously asks them to

06:01stay where they are, too afraid to actually shoot them. Taking the opportunity, Shogo shoots the guy

06:07dead and takes his gun. He notices that Shuya and Noriko are not trying to harm anyone and agrees to

06:13take them in for more protection. Then, they see two girls calling people for help. They want everyone

06:18to join them and figure out the situation together. Shuya tries to go help but Shogo stops him, knowing

06:24that someone else might have heard them. Hence, the zone is not safe. He is proven correct when Kazuo

06:30appears and kills the girls by showering them with bullets. He makes sure to put the horn in their

06:36mouths for the last shot so everyone would hear the scream and know who to stay away from. In the

06:41following scene, Mitsuko enters a small warehouse to rest but sees a girl inside. She points her gun at

06:47Mitsuko, knowing that she is not one of the good ones. Mitsuko gets on her knees, begging for her

06:52life but she slyly tases her before shooting her dead. In the meantime, a group of guys is fixing a

06:59laptop. They plan to hack the collars and escape the island together. At night, Shogo, Shuya, and

07:05Noriko stay at a tiny warehouse. Shogo reveals that when he played the game before, he was with his

07:11friend. The two were the only survivors but one of them had to die for the other to survive. His friend

07:16pretended to betray him and shot his leg so that Shogo would kill her. Her plan worked but Shogo has never

07:22regretted something more in his life. Since she died for him, he vowed to play again and find a

07:27way to escape. Suddenly, gunshots are heard from outside. Outside, Kazuo is after a guy who is

07:34wearing a bulletproof vest. Since he cannot take the guy down with bullets, he resorts to a sword.

07:39After decapitating the poor man, he hears a noise from inside the house that the trio is in. He puts a

07:44grenade into the mouth of the head and throws it inside the house. Fortunately, the group escapes just

07:50seconds before the explosion. Shuya runs outside to distract him but is cornered in the process.

07:55Kazuo runs out of bullets which gives him the chance to escape. He jumps into the water just

08:00in time to dodge the attacks. The next morning, Shuya wakes up in a lighthouse while being taken

08:05care of by a girl named Utsumi. She and her group of friends ask him to stay with them until they

08:10reunite with the rest of the group. If they stay together, they may have a higher chance of escaping.

08:15One girl from the group was the friend of the guy who died with an axe in his head while fighting

08:20Shuya yesterday. To take revenge, she mixes poison with the food they are about to give Shuya.

08:25However, her plan fails when a girl eats the food before she can be stopped. The effect of the poison

08:31soon starts to show and she dies vomiting blood. The girls panic and start blaming each other for

08:37poisoning the food. A girl gets her hands on the gun and fires at all of them. The chaos ends with the

08:43death of everyone except for the girl who poisoned the food. Shuya knocks on the door having heard

08:48gunshots. He is received by the girl who apologizes to him and runs to the top of the tower. Shuya goes

08:54inside and is distraught to see all of his friends dead. He runs after the surviving girl only to see

09:00that she too has committed the unthinkable. Somewhere else, Noriko gets a dream about having

09:06a heart-to-heart conversation with Kitano. She had always respected him unlike the other kids and

09:11sympathizes that he was never respected. At the same time, Kitano gets a call from his family who

09:16does not care about him. His own daughter calls him, insulting him before hanging up the phone.

09:22He has always been treated terribly in his life which is one of the reasons why he volunteered

09:26to be a part of the Battle Royale program. Later that day, Shuya comes looking for Noriko and Shogo

09:32even though he is severely injured. Noriko also wanders around the forest and bumps into Mitsuko who makes

09:38fun of her for hiding behind men. She is about to attack her but runs away after seeing Kitano

09:44approach. At the same time, Shuya meets them but falls unconscious. Kitano gives Noriko his umbrella

09:50and leaves without saying anything. He is kind to her because she was the only person who was nice

09:55to him during the lowest time of his life. At the same time, Mitsuko meets a girl at a warehouse

10:00crying over her friend's death. She kills the girl but is attacked by Kazuo seconds later. Just when he

10:06thinks she is dead, she tases him and counter-attacks with a sickle. Kazuo, who is already prepared with

10:12a bulletproof vest, doesn't die from the attacks. In turn, he pushes her away and finally shoots her

10:18dead. In the following scene, Shogo, Shuya, and Noriko are on their way to the warehouse where the

10:24hackers are staying. The hacker is still trying to gain control over the caller devices while the others

10:28are preparing explosives with the materials they found around the island. They plan to kill the military

10:34and Kitano which is their only chance to escape. After a lot of work, the hacker passes through the

10:40control system and disables the tracking device from all the callers. The group of guys then load

10:45a vehicle outside with explosives but before they can move, Kazuo arrives and ambushes all of them.

10:52In a desperate attempt to kill Kazuo, a guy lights up the explosives and dies in the ensuing explosion.

10:58The trio runs out and sees the dead bodies of the only friends they had left. Kazuo is

11:04still alive but has lost vision in both of his eyes because of the explosion. He fires randomly

11:10but manages to get Shogo in the shoulder. Still, Shogo attacks Kazuo repeatedly and eventually

11:17kills him. Following that, the trio goes to the shore where Shogo reveals that he was only pretending

11:22to be their friend because he wanted them to protect him. Now that they are the only ones left,

11:26killing them would benefit him the most. With that being said, he shoots at the last couple

11:31and wins the game. Kitano hears the noise and declares the game is over. The soldiers do not

11:37take much time before returning home, leaving Kitano alone on the island. The next morning,

11:42Shogo finds him exercising. They go inside where Kitano finds out that Shogo's collar is disabled.

11:48Shuya and Noriko come inside, pointing a gun at Kitano and revealing that they are still alive.

11:53However, to their surprise, Kitano already seems to know that. He shows them a picture he painted of the

11:59battle where Noriko is the sole survivor because she is his favorite student. He points a gun at them

12:06but is shot dead before he does any harm. As he dies, Kitano reveals that his gun was fake and he

12:12didn't want to live anymore. Following that, the survivors take a boat to mainland Japan but since

12:18Shogo has lost a lot of blood from the injury, he passes away on the way. In the last scene, Shuya and

12:24Noriko are seen walking around a city determined to lead a happy life.

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