Under the Radar - Great films that may have passed you by: Battle Royale

Battle Royale - Kinji Fukasaku - 2000

It’s hard to sum up the premise of this film better than the opening prologue:

“At the dawn of the millennium, the nation collapsed. At fifteen percent unemployment, ten million were out of work. 800,000 students boycotted school. The adults lost confidence and, fearing the youth, eventually passed the Millennium Educational Reform Act, AKA the BR Act...”

In a near future world where adults are trying to regain the respect of the rebelling younger generations, a new programme is established whereby classes are arbitrarily selected to compete in the Battle Royale; a sadistic, kill or be killed game ,which can only have one winner.

Living on The Only Way is the Real Chelsea Shore

I’m not reality TV, I’m not ITV2, and I’m simply not interested in watching posh/rich/shallow people bumble through their lives without a care in the world, which is why I’m annoyed that yet another vacuous docusoap has graced our TV schedules with its presence.

Made in Chelsea is the latest addition to this new craze of fly on the wall documentary dramas following the lives of ‘ordinary’ people. It centres around some of London’s young elite, and affords viewers a ‘candid’ (not scripted scenarios in the slightest), triple-A insight into the way they live their rich and glamorous lives. Do we really need (or for that matter want) another?