It's pretty rare for a film to be effectively banned in America, but post-Columbine, no distributor is going to touch this one with anyone else's ten-foot bargepole. Set in a ruthless future Japan, every year sees a class of teenagers dumped on an island and left to kill each other for three days until only one survives - if more than one lives, they all die. The reasons why are never explained; the class is selected at random, so there can be no deterrent effect, and there's very little media coverage shown so it can't be a new kind of gladiatorial games for a degenerate society. It does, however, remain highly disturbing to see a class of 42 kids whittled down, complete with scorecard, overseen by a teacher (Kitano) who is every bit as much a loser as any of them.
At approximately one death every two minutes, you never really feel anything for most of the participants, who are barely announced before shuffling off this mortal coil, in generally spectacular fashion. That may be the point, though director Fukasaku has claimed he was inspired by his wartime stint in a regularly-bombed factory, and it's a study of what happens to people under pressure. I'm not so sure, but even if merely a stalk and slash film, it's remarkably effective - because when the circumstances are right, the monster could just as easily be any of us.
B
