Kinji Fukusaku’s Battle Royale

The generational divide in Japanese culture/cinema is a fertile trope for many storytellers. Stories of youth rebelling against adults and the established order, and even posing a very serious and devastating threat, provide the context for films like Akira (1986). The failure of adults to pass the values and responsibility for society is also a central theme to Akira Kurosawa’s King Lear adaptation Ran (1985). There may be no greater film exploring this divide and the inability of the previous generations to bridge that gap than Kinji Fukusaku’s Battle Royale (2000).