I don't remember when exactly I got introduced to Battle Royale. The Director's Cut DVD dropped in Nov 2004. Kill Bill released in theaters in 2003 and the DVD in April 2004. In all likelihood, I probably picked up Battle Royale while on my Chiaki Kuriyama kick. I mean, Japanese horror phase. (Ok, I might have a thing for crazy chicks.) The movie also features Beat Takeshi, of whom I'm also a fan. I think I still have a copy of Brother, his movie with Omar Epps.

Side note: The first Hunger Games book came out in 2008. I don't want to wade into that war here, but if you know, you know.

Battle Royale is one of those movies that sticks with you, in a very Lord of the Flies kinda way. It raises questions on the limits of personal loyalty and relationships in extreme circumstances. Part of the novelty for me was that this was a different type of horror. It wasn't like the monster or slasher movies that I was used to. This was about the horrors that people are capable of visiting upon each other. The government program, the adults, and even the students themselves.

The lighthouse scene is particularly memorable.

Soon after watching this movie, I went to paintball for the first time. We had a large group of people, some I didn't know, because that's how you make a private rental cost-effective. Everyone dressed in camo coveralls and took a large group photo.

Kinda like the class photo in the movie.

And then we went into the woods to shoot each other. Yeah, they're not real bullets and no one was getting hurt, but the movie's images kept playing in my head. Like, could we ever end up in a world where I will have to consider killing a friend in the name of survival? Or them me? Mind you, I have good friends. They've never done anything to make me think they'd hurt me. But that's one of the points. We're talking about people in extreme circumstances.

That was back in 2004. Now we're in 2026 and it's like, "Um. Yeah. Maybe."