Battle Royale(2000)

Inspired by my recent Hunger Games rewatch to finally see this. I had been under the impression this entire time that the Hunger Games series was inspired by Battle Royale, but after watching this I realized that's not the case and they explore entirely different themes. Battle Royale is messier and more interested in the character stories than constructing a convincing dystopian world.

Unfortunately this did not quite work for me. Its central theme of the adult hostility towards youth just did not hit for me. And there is a little too much teenage angst. I wonder if this would hit harder if I lived in especially the immediately post-bubble Japan when I can feel the state oppression compounded by adult condescension more viscerally, but thankfully I don't have to.