Battle Royale

Battle Royale (バトル・ロワイアル, 2000) is a Japanese action thriller — watch online on iFILM. Directed by Kinji Fukasaku for Toei Company, this adaptation of Koushun Takami's controversial 1999 novel drops an entire class of ninth-graders on a deserted island with one rule: three days, one survivor.

Each kid gets a bag with food and a random weapon — one might draw a shotgun, another a pot lid. Shuya Nanahara (Tatsuya Fujiwara) refuses to play along. Noriko Nakagawa (Aki Maeda) stays close. Mitsuko Souma (Ko Shibasaki) has no such hesitation. And their former teacher Kitano — played by Takeshi Kitano with eerie calm — watches the whole thing like a man who stopped caring long ago. Chiaki Kuriyama turns in a scene-stealing performance years before Kill Bill put her on the global map.

Fukasaku shot the film at age 70, pouring into it decades of rage at a system that chews up the young. Several countries banned it on release; it went on to shape a generation of filmmakers and writers, from The Hunger Games to Saw. Stream Battle Royale (2000) online on iFILM.