Narrative Structure: Battle Royale (Fukasaku, 2000)

Synopsis 

Japan has a widespread issue of children not respecting authority and adults. The government's response to this issue is to have one 9th grade class, picked at random, to fight to the death on an abandoned island for 3 days. Class 3-B were told they were going on a school trip, and when they were on the bus they were gassed and brought to the abandoned island. 

When they wake up, they are greeted by their old teacher, Kitano, he explains the concept of battle royale to them and then sends them on their way. The first day sees many deaths, a few by suicide, many by one of the transfer students, Kazuo Kiriyama, who had joined the competition voluntarily. The movie mainly follows two students Shuya Nanahara and Noriko Nakagawa. After the first night they team up with Shogo Kawada. Who is the second transfer student from the class. Shogo Kawada tells them he knows a way off the island because he’s been there before, but for their safety he can’t tell them about it. 

While they are hiding, they get attacked by Kiruyama, Nanahara distracts him so the other to can make a quick escape. Nanahara narrowly escapes Kiruyama by jumping in the sea. Later, HE wakes up in a lighthouse being taken care of by a group of girls. After one of them trying to poison him they end up shooting each other. Nanahara meets up with the others again and they kill Kiruyama. Shogo Kawada pretends to kill the other two so they can all get off the island. Although Kawada dies on the way off the island.

Logline

40 children, 1 island, 1 winner.

Main characters

Nanahara: 

age: 16

gender: male

Dramatic motivation:wants to protect  Nakagawa

Nakagawa:

age: 16

gender: female

dramatic motivation: good friends with Kitano

Kawada:

age: 18

gender: male

dramatic motivation: wants to know what his girlfriends dying smile meant.

 Battle royale is a thriller/ action film, there are many different themes in this movie, it's mainly thriller but the are elements to comedy. It is also very emotive at times.

This film differs a lot from the typical hollywood narrative, although you do you a protagonist, there are more than one antagonist, Kitano and Kiruyama. There is a climax and a resolution. The film has a similar narrative to a typical hollywood film, for example, the movie starts off with an equilibrium, there is a hero (Nanhara) who is given a quest, goes on an adventure, and in the end there is a different established equilibrium. Although this is very similar the way it's told it very different, and could be a bit confusing for some viewers.

The Dialogue can seem a bit weird and unnatural, which could possibly ruin the immersion, although most of this is just lost in translation. Maybe language specific to culture is used.