Date: 18th December 2000

Japanese Teenagers Pack Theaters Showing Violent Movie


Perhaps intrigued by efforts to have it banned, Japanese audiences packed theaters over the weekend to see the violent new movie Battle Royale about a class of delinquent teenagers who are sent to a desert island armed with machine guns. Britain's Independent Television News on Sunday presented interviews with some of the mostly teenage audience, some of whom camped out in front of theaters the night before in order to get tickets. After the film ended, 16-year-old Mayumi Kambara told an ITN interviewer, "It's a movie that makes you think. But I wouldn't want to see it again because it was just too grotesque." Director Kinji Fukasaku expressed anger over suggestions by politicians that the film could incite people to commit acts of violence. "Politicians who don't know anything about movies are just making a fuss," he said.

Source: Studio Briefing