FACETS Film Trivia is back at 7pm on Thursday, August 29th with our classic brand of infotainment quiz show fun, followed up by an after-trivia screening of Kinji Fukasaku’s Battle Royale (2000) presented in partnership with Anime Club.

A class of junior high school students are randomly selected by the Japanese government to fight to the death on a remote island.

Set in a dystopian future where a totalitarian Japanese government is dealing with a massive economic recession and soaring crime–especially amongst hopeless youth–Battle Royale is a shocking commentary on government’s reactionary violence towards its fear of younger generations. Controversial on its release, the film became a hot topic of conversation surrounding violence in the media and violence and youth. Initially released in 2000 in Japan, it didn’t have a non-festival theatrical run in the US until 2011 due to fear of lawsuits in the wake of the Columbine High School massacre.

The film was immediately condemned and praised to the highest degrees on its release: members of the National Diet of Japan–their legislative branch–called it “crude and tasteless” yet it was still nominated for 9 Japanese Academy Awards, winning 3. As deeply poetic as it is shockingly violent, the past quarter century has shown Battle Royale to be proof that pulp exploitation can be raised to the level of high art.