![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Be sure to leave plenty of space in my trunk before starting the cross-country drive...
In other news, I finished reading the english translation of Battle Royale. I must say the movie is overall an excellent adaptation of the book. There were really only two major changes made in the movie, and I understand both of them. The first is the way the movie opens with descriptions of rising youth violence and the passage of the Battle Royale act as a method of controlling the violence. That didn't really make sense to me when I saw it, although it at least served to quickly set the stage for the film's plot. The novel, on the other hand, has quite a bit of political subtext that would be difficult to convey in a two hour film. In fact, the novel does not even take place in Japan; it takes place in the Republic of Greater East Asia, a fascist dictatorship that has been in existence at least since the 1940's and possibly since the 1920's. The underlying implication is that Japan won the Pacific War, expanded its territories, and has been sort of an asian Iraq ever since. The Program, as the battle royale is referred to, has been running since 1947 with a new junior high class selected each month. That's nearly 2000 teenagers per year slaughtered, with a student having about a 1 in 800 chance that their class will be selected during their school career. The other major change from the book was the significant expansion of the role of the instructor. Of course, when you cast the legendary Beat Takahashi you are pretty much obligated to use him in more than two scenes. Overall it is an excellent book and I highly recommend it.
In other news, I finished reading the english translation of Battle Royale. I must say the movie is overall an excellent adaptation of the book. There were really only two major changes made in the movie, and I understand both of them. The first is the way the movie opens with descriptions of rising youth violence and the passage of the Battle Royale act as a method of controlling the violence. That didn't really make sense to me when I saw it, although it at least served to quickly set the stage for the film's plot. The novel, on the other hand, has quite a bit of political subtext that would be difficult to convey in a two hour film. In fact, the novel does not even take place in Japan; it takes place in the Republic of Greater East Asia, a fascist dictatorship that has been in existence at least since the 1940's and possibly since the 1920's. The underlying implication is that Japan won the Pacific War, expanded its territories, and has been sort of an asian Iraq ever since. The Program, as the battle royale is referred to, has been running since 1947 with a new junior high class selected each month. That's nearly 2000 teenagers per year slaughtered, with a student having about a 1 in 800 chance that their class will be selected during their school career. The other major change from the book was the significant expansion of the role of the instructor. Of course, when you cast the legendary Beat Takahashi you are pretty much obligated to use him in more than two scenes. Overall it is an excellent book and I highly recommend it.