Battle Royale – Lord of The Flies Comparison

The Japanese action movie Battle Royale is loosely based on the book Lord of The Flies by William Golding. In the movie a class of Japanese students is chosen for the Battle Royale program. The objective of this “game” is that the kids are taken to a deserted island and given 3 days to kill each other until only one survives. The kids are allowed to use any kind of weapon they see fit and it is very gruesome and twisted. In the book Lord of The Flies the kids are being evacuated from Britain because of what I would think is the Second World War. While flying over an island the plane is shot down and the boys are made to fend for themselves they at first and try and start trying to build huts and go to hunt for food. After a while the kids start to realize that they might not be rescued from the island and that they will probably die before any one knows they are gone.

The characters in Battle Royale can also be compared to the characters in Lord of the Flies.

The two main characters in Battle Royale are a guy and a girl who can go by the names Jeffrey and Jackie for reference purposes. In Lord of the Flies the main characters are all guys; their names are Ralph, Simon, Jack and Piggy. The one who tries to introduce a democratic system is Ralph but Jack is all about the hunt and that they need food more then anything. Piggy and Simon also agree with Ralph but they are both killed close to the end of the book by Jack and his hunters because they have gone crazy and mad with hate. Jeffery and Jackie both feel that the game is inappropriate and choose not to kill each other but Jeffery vows to protect Jackie until he is unable to any longer. They later meet another character named Kawada who has been dragged into this game and is now playing for a second time. Jeffery is similar to Ralph because of his beliefs and how he insists on no violence and that the game is stupid and barbaric.

Jackie is kind of like Simon because she agrees with Jeffery and also chooses not to kill any one but instead wait until the game is over. Kawada is like Piggy just not fat. He also thinks the game is stupid but in the end turns on Jeffery and Jackie so he can win or so you think. There is another character in the movie whose name is Kiryjo or something like that. He is something like Jack because he wasn’t chosen for the game as part of the class or dragged in like Kawada…he signed up for fun!. Jack’s only desire is to hunt for food and then later goes crazy. From when Kiryjo is introduced in the movie until he killed he just runs around killing all the other kids in a rather twisted but funny manner.

The setting of Battle Royale is on a deserted island somewhere in Japan and the kids are put on the island while in Lord of The Flies the kids are stranded there when their plane is shot down by a bomb or something. The movie takes place at the turn of the millennium and The Lord of the Flies takes place roughly around the 1950s Both the book and the movie take place on an island but in Lord of The Flies it’s already a deserted island while in Battle Royale the island has been deserted for the purpose of the game. The island in Battle Royale has buildings like a lighthouse and a medical center while in Lord of The Flies the island has nothing on it at all, no buildings or anything.

Based on my comparison and taste I say that the movie Battle Royale is a million times better then Lord of The Flies because there is more action and in my opinion the book wasn’t one that I would particularly chose to read for my own pleasure. I wouldn’t recommend this movie for people that are disturbed easily because there are many twisted scenes that show ninth grade kids dying in very graphic ways. So I end this by saying that Battle Royale owns compared to Lord of The Flies but it is still different in many ways but similar in many ways as well.