--- title: "Battle Royale: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/battle-royale/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/battle-royale" critics_score: 71 critics_reviews: 7 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Battle Royale (2000): what the critics said Critics' score 71 from 7 reviews: 5 positive, 0 mixed, 2 negative. Most critics like Battle Royale, and the praise clusters in the same place: the premise, and what Kinji Fukasaku does with it. Reviewers read the film as a satire on adults’ cruelty to the young, on schools and on government, and they credit its speed, its shock and its odd mix of splatter with comedy and adolescent romance. Fukasaku’s own urgency, several note, is what gives the film its edge. Takeshi Kitano’s teacher is singled out even by those who dislike the rest. The spread is wide. The reservations gather around repetition: killings that start to feel redundant, flashbacks that recur, characters given too little motivation, a tone that slips into sentiment. Slant Magazine finds it smug rather than shocking; Time Out thinks it works as neither satire nor death-sport fantasy; the Evening Standard calls it tedious; Eye for Film calls it the pornography of violence. The dissenters are few, but they are not mild. ## The New Yorker — Joshua Rothman Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 3 April 2012. Battle Royale anticipated The Hunger Games but surpasses it with extreme violence and candor that allow a more rebellious and trenchant critique of adult cruelty toward the young. Its relentless, shocking bloodshed makes it more horrifying and realistic than sanitized counterparts. [Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-real-hunger-games-battle-royale) ## Empire — Kim Newman Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 2000. The critic highlights how the film cleverly establishes its premise and mixes satire with splatter, making the horrors alien and degrading while showing both nobility and beastliness among the characters. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/battle-royale-review/) ## The AV Club — Scott Tobias Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 29 May 2008. The film is a cult classic that taps into millennial anxieties about youth through its high-concept premise of teens forced to kill each other. It succeeds as a metaphor for teenage life, generational clashes, and government control while delivering visceral action, though it has some flaws like repetitive flashbacks. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/the-new-cult-canon-battle-royale-1798214119) ## Evening Standard Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 10 April 2012. The review finds the film tedious and unsophisticated, with unrealistic violence that becomes repetitive and is aimed more at older viewers' schadenfreude than genuine thrills. [Read the review](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/battle-royale-7433130.html) ## Screen Daily 9 February 2001. Festival review. The review notes the film's massive controversy and box-office success in Japan but finds it disappointing for foreign viewers expecting extreme gore, though it could become a cult hit abroad; praises Kitano's menacing performance while criticizing the lack of characterization and motivation. [Read the review](https://www.screendaily.com/battle-royale/404966.article) ## Slant Magazine — Chuck Bowen 20 May 2012. The film squanders its potentially subversive premise with a rocky opening, inconsistent tone, and repetitive killings that become redundant. It fails to develop momentum or meaningful satire and comes across as smug rather than shocking. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/battle-royale/) ## The Guardian — Peter Bradshaw 16 August 2001. The veteran director has composed an extraordinary futuristic nightmare coloured by sadness and crazed tenderness. It is an outstanding work that explores a distinctively Japanese metaphor for imperial destiny through adolescent crushes and yearnings under horrific conditions. [Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2001/aug/16/1) ## The Hollywood Reporter — Maggie Lee 12 February 2011. Festival review. The 3D conversion of the 2000 film retains its raw visceral power and provocative take on the clash between adulthood and youth. The added effects make splatter scenes gorier but the conversion has mixed results overall as it was not originally shot for 3D. [Read the review](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/battle-royale-3d-berlin-review-98974/) ## The New York Times — A. O. Scott Rating Critic’s Pick. 25 May 2012. The film is a shorter, bloodier, pulpier take on the premise later popularized by The Hunger Games, emphasizing melodrama over allegory. It tackles questions about youth and authority with earnest and impish verve. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/25/movies/battle-royale-directed-by-kinji-fukasaku.html) ## Time Out — TR 24 May 2012. The critic finds the film doesn't shape up as effective satire or death-sport fantasy, with bloodless kills and a geriatric view of teenage life; the sole redeeming feature is Takeshi Kitano's performance. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/battle-royale-1) ## Variety — Robert Koehler 22 January 2001. Festival review. Fukasaku delivers a brutal, outrageous and timely film that reframes the story as a horrific battle imposed by adults on children, creating a nightmare vision of the near-future. It offers a visually splendid ultra-violent spectacle that sometimes lapses into the crudely sentimental and glosses over deeper motivations. [Read the review](https://variety.com/2001/film/reviews/battle-royale-2-1200466268/) ## The Skinny — Keir Roper-Caldbeck Rating ★★★★★. 10 December 2010. The review calls the film a key contemporary Japanese release and a pitch-black, teasingly allegorical fable about teenagers forced into a government kill-or-be-killed contest. It highlights the unsettling mix of shocking violence, inappropriate comedy, adolescent romance and pulp philosophy as baffling and unforgettable. [Read the review](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/dvd-reviews/battle-royale-limited-edition) ## Den of Geek — Ryan Lambie Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 22 December 2010. The critic describes Battle Royale as a shockingly brutal yet thought-provoking film and a savage satire on Japan's education system and governments in general. They single out director Kinji Fukasaku's personal urgency and resentment, drawn from his wartime experiences, as giving the film its powerful edge and making it an absolute masterpiece. [Read the review](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/looking-back-at-battle-royale/) ## Eye for Film — Angus Wolfe Murray Fi1m's normalised score 40/100 (inferred from the text). 19 August 2001. Festival review. The critic calls the film the definition of the 'pornography of violence' and notes how director Kinji Fukasaku adds a political dimension to a survival game concept by having students kill their classmates rather than strangers. [Read the review](http://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/battle-royale-film-review-by-angus-wolfe-murray) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/battle-royale.md