Jul 10, 2012
SFFILM
Battle Royale (Batoru rowaiaru, Japan, 2000), an outrageous dystopian tale told with remarkable flair and steely candor by Japan’s late maestro of mayhem Kinji Fukasaku and starring Takeshi Kitano, opens August 10 at San Francisco Film Society Cinema (1746 Post Street).
Battle Royale is about a group of teen-agers murdering each other in a gladiatorial contest. If that plot sounds familiar, just be aware that the film came out eight years before Suzanne Collins wrote The Hunger Games. Fukasaku’s epic has also been adapted from a best-selling novel, but tells an even darker and certainly more violent story. In present-day Japan, a law has been passed that requires the yearly selection of a ninth-grade class to be taken to a remote island where they will kill each other until a single survivor remains. In the current iteration, a trio of teens attempts to survive without resorting to violence. Against their gleefully murderous peers, their chances of success are slim. Surreal and blackly comic, with a memorably bizarre performance by Takeshi Kitano in one of the few adult roles, Battle Royale is bloody good entertainment bearing a plangent and admonitory message about today’s youth. Written by Kenta Fukasaku. Photographed by Katsumi Yanagijima. With Takeshi Kitano, Chiaki Kuriyama, Tatsuya Fujiwara. In Japanese with subtitles. 114 min. Distributed by Anchor Bay Entertainment.
Showtimes 2:00, 6:30 pm (Fri, Sun, Tues, Thurs); 4:30, 9:00 pm (Sat, Mon, Wed)
Tickets $9 for SFFS members, $11 general, $10 senior/student/disabled. Box office opens July 12 online at sffs.org and in person at SF Film Society Cinema.
To request screeners contact bproctor@sffs.org.
For photos and press materials visit sffs.org/pressdownloads.
At SF Film Society Cinema, the stylish state-of-the art theater located in the New People building at 1746 Post Street (Webster/Buchanan) in Japantown, the San Francisco Film Society offers its acclaimed exhibition, education and filmmaker services programs and events on a daily year-round basis.
More upcoming San Francisco Film Society programs
Continuing on consecutive Saturdays through July 21: The Story of Film: An Odyssey
Through July 12: Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present
Opening July 13: Ballplayer: Pelotero
Also opening July 13: Bonsái
July 14 only: The Storytellers Show
July 19 only: Dark Horse Filmmaker Todd Solondz in Person
Opening July 20: A Burning Hot Summer
July 20-August 11: KinoTek: Nate Boyce
Opening July 27: Sacrifice
Opening August 3: The Devil, Probably
Also opening August 10: The Moth Diaries Mary Harron’s modern gothic thriller, based on the novel by Rachel Klein, skirts the line between horror film and psychological study while making full use of the atmospheric possibilities of its boarding school setting.
August 11 only: Special Family Screening of James and the Giant Peach
Opening August 17: Love in the City
August 24: Master Class: Les Blank on Documentary
September 15-October 20: KinoTek: Brent Green, sculpture and animation
December: KinoTek: Kota Ezawa, animation