Battle Royale trailer analysis

Battle Royale is a Japanese horror/thriller movie released in 2000. Japan is notoriously known for being critical of their youths, filling their lives with rules and also expecting alot from them. Japan also is a country of vast population in a dense area, so I feel that this trailer (and thus the film) is a backlash to this. It's a story of the people in power going too far with the rules, and also plays on the competition that comes with having a over-populated country. I would argue that this trailer puts the movie into the action horror sub-genre, with it also including on the psychological side by playing on the characters and viewer's fears of the parental figure going askew and the fear of the ones you hold close turning against you. The film aroused both domestic and international controversy, and was either banned outright or deliberately excluded from distribution in several countries

As is usual, the production companies trailers are shown at the beginning. These last less than two seconds as are uninteresting to the audience. However, sometimes these can be reflective of the style of film in the way that they are shown. The second logo, I feel, is representative. It doesn't scream 'horror', but it does signify the strictness of japan, and also the harsh school environment and the rules that are explained in the first half of the trailer.

A production company logo.

I feel that within the first six seconds, there is alot of foreshadowing. It starts by showing the student laughing, enjoying good times, and then they enter a dark tunnel, with no visible light at the end, which ends up becoming the subject of the movie and what becomes obvious to the students at a later time.

The starting equilibrium.

Foreshadowing by the tunnel with no light at the end.

The trailer first introduces us to the equilibrium, the students laughing on the bus; a school field trip. It descends into darkness, and then the event occurs and we are introduced to the main character, who is then knocked out by a parental figure of power. The main character recognises the event before the other student due to this, but the event is explained to the viewer, and the characters, through a teacher telling them that they are to play a game to kill each other. This therefore creates panic, and the trailer proceeds with the characters attempting to fix the event, by shooting and bloodily killing each other in fast succession, or playing the game, in other words. Therefore, this film does follow Todorov's theory of films having a defined narrative structure.

Shots, as with the majority of horror trailers, start out longer; in the first half they are around three seconds long each, as this gives the audience time to identify and get acquainted with the characters and the story. Shots in the first half are mainly either long shots or medium close ups, with them being static in movement. I feel the dramatic change of shots comes when the teacher announces the 'Battle Royale', and the camera pan around him - this gives the viewer a sense of things revolving around that man, and also of him being in power, and of course disorientating the audience.

After this break, a soundtrack is introduced which completely contrasts with the nature of what is being displayed on-screen; a piano classical piece to accompany the story of death. I feel this is to make the movie appear even more creepier, by re-enforcing that to some, this is just a 'game', and it gives an odd sense of calm to the audio, while the visual is dramatic. Shots from this point on become faster, they increase tempo, and also rely more heavily on ECU's to display fear in the character's faces, and there is also alot more movement in the scenes, which again speeds up the drama and threat.

An action shot with the camera tracking the character.

Dialogue is not used during the second half of the movie, with it focusing on the chase and action scenes with the sounds being provided by the soundtrack/score and also by the explosions and gun shots shown on screen through diegetic sound. The break in this comes right before the end, where the score cuts out and it closes in on a scene of two girls promising that they'll always be friends. This, however, is followed by a dramatic use of light in an close up of a female shining a light underneath her chin, and giving the camera a malevolent look, creating a creepy image straight after this heartfelt promise, which makes the viewer think this promise is hopeless, and gives the movie as a whole a desperate, hopeless feel.

Sound is this trailer is mainly non-diegetic, with it being provided by a soundtrack and a score placed on top of the clips to enhance the mood. There is dialogue in the trailer, but it is mainly asynchronous, closing in on the students expressions to the speech than the speaker.

In the trailer, Propp's theory is not fully recognised  In watching the trailer, the villain's are the people in power (teachers and the government), the hero is portrayed as the victim in the first half of the trailer, but is shown as more courageous during the second half, the helper and the princess are the same person, and can be seen in one scene running with held hands, and also the dispatcher is the same person as the villain  the evil teacher also sends them on their 'quest' to kill each other. It seems like these character types can be applied, yet not in the conventional way.

'hero'

'princess'

'victims'

'villian/donor'

The trailer is 1.44 minutes long, and within it contains 64 shots. In the beginning the shots are longer than usual for a trailer, as they set up the equilibrium, and then they get faster and faster as the trailer progresses, getting the viewer's senses heightened. However, throughout the trailer there are several longer shots, for example, a close up of a female raising a gun with a smile on her face, and these are always followed by a rapid succession of shots, in this case the outcome, and this works to disturb and shock the viewer. To slow things down and then speed things up leaves the viewer never knowing what's going to happen. At most, these lingering shots are still only 2 seconds long, as to not lose the viewer's attention.

In this trailer, the Claude Levi-Strauss theory is not completely present. The good/evil argument is not present because the ability to rebel is taken away. If looked at from afar, you could place the teacher at the beginner, who makes the students play the game, as the evil force, however it is still the students who are doing the killing. There is however a binary opposition; student/teachers or the young/old, which further scares the viewer as it takes a parental figure as the villain.

There is no obvious 'final girl' shown in the trailer, only glimpses of a female shown with the main character. However, this film does go against the gender stereotypes of females being the weak character's in horror movies, with several scenes in the trailer showing females killing and smiling whilst doing so, thus becoming the villain.

 It turns the violent slasher movies of the 70s, which contain mainly killings of helpless women on their head, with the females being in equal statures of power as the males. I feel that therefore the audience does not connect with the females in the trailer, but instead with the main male character, as he is the most repeated character in the trailer.

This film portrays the females as equivalent to males, with their being no typical 'male gaze' as commonly associated with horror movies, and the females shown are not shown as sexual objects. However, the females doing the fighting and ones getting injured are the more powerful characters, and also the more sexually attractive and outspoken, which fits in with the theory that those who stray outside of conservatism are the ones first to die.

 The final girl (the princess), shown in the trailer with scenes running with the male, is pure and innocent and so escapes with the aid of the hero, which thus portrays the 'final girl' as weak and helpless, which contrasts with the other strong females shown in the film.

The hero/victim with the weak, innocent 'final girl'/princess.

Scenes/locations are changed during the second half of the trailer in almost every shot, with the result becoming a jumpy effect, jumping from one location and event to another, giving the audience the feeling of multiple events happening at once, and also the feeling of no escape, heightening the fear. This jumpy cut effect however, conflicts with the music used at the time, which is classical. As I explained before, I feel this is done to disturb the audience, and give the feeling of something that's highly unusual and wrong a sense of normality and peace, which also confuses the viewer and leaves them further wanting to watch the movie. Again, during the second half of the movie, the camera is highly mobile. Several of the shots are tracking and panning shots, increasing the speed of the trailer and also the panic. They focus of following the characters through the scene, or following their actions.

An ECU of a character during an action scene.

There is no 'past' shown in this trailer, no dark reason for this game to be happening, nor a reason, which goes against the genre conventions, but makes the audience wonder as to why this is happening, and adds threat to the viewer, who would most likely be teen; the teenage audience is the biggest for the horror genre. The teen connects with the teen characters on screen, and thus senses a real threat. However, the majority of the trailer is shot at night, and on an isolated island so it follows, more than challenges, these conventions.

Throughout the first half of the film, static cuts is used alongside the movie clips about it 'never been seen before' and it being 'controversial', which makes the viewer want to see it to see whether it lives up to the promised hype. The background on these stills is of a broken glass effect tainted in dark red, which runs with the usual horror conventions of pain and darkness.

The halfway point is sectioned by a large period of black in the trailer, immediately after the title of the movie 'Battle Royale' is announced by the villain, connecting the idea of the movie and also of the 'game' with darkness and hopelessness.

The static shots continue through the second half, although with the broken mirror effect instead forming the stamp formation 'BR', the logo for the 'game' and appearing almost military. Quotes and sentence reviews are shown in equal sections again in the second trailer, from famous, trustworthy sources, which again heightens the viewers expectations for the movie.

It ends by explaining the rules of the game, '42 students', '3 days' '1 surviour', to sharply shock the viewer and wind the trailer down, leaving them again with the sense of hopelessness and a feeling of direty to the situation. This is contrasted with the scene played out at the very end, with the two female friends promising to always be friends, of course, which the viewer has learnt will never happen as ultimately at least one of them will have to die or kill the other.

The title of the film is shown at the end, as with typical with horror movies. In capitals the words 'Battle Royale' are presented on a background of black, with the faded 'BR' logo appearing in the background, appearing bright in red against the black. Red and black are commonly the main colours used in conventional horrors as red connotes blood, violence and anger, whereas black connotes evil, sadness and death, which both relate and connect to this movie.