Fun topic today. So I'm sitting here watching Battle Royale one with my
boyfriend and there's a lot I find interesting. I find it interesting
that this movie, made in 2000 has had a couple of very successful actors
and actresses. Tatsuya Fujiwara,
Aki Maeda, Taro Yamamoto, Masanobu Ando, Kou Shibasaki, Chiaki Kuriyama,
and Beat Takeshi Kitano are all of the film's starring actors. Beat
Takeshi was a successful actor well before this film came out so I'm not
going to focus much on him today.
Tatsuya Fujiwara has actually had a pretty successful career, starring
in Battle Royale 2, both Kaiji films as Kaiji, and Light from the
Deathnote live actions. He also most recently narrated a short series of
documentaries put out by the NHK called "Human." In Battle Royale he
was the main character, Nanahara Shuya and is currently 30 years old.
Aki Maeda was a successful actress well before Battle Royale 1 and 2,
starring in such films as The Cat Returns, Saikano, and a 2001 Godzilla
movie. For albums, she produced Linda Linda Linda, Boys Be, and Winter
tales. In Battle Royale she was Noriko Nakagawa and is currently 27
years old.
Taro Yamamoto was in Genji: The thousand years love with Aki Maeda. He
was also in Kaiji, Akai Tsuki, Get Up!, and Raccoon Princess. He was
Shogo Kawada in Battle Royale and is currently 38 years old.
Masanobu Ando was successful in The Kids Return, Tokyo 10+01: the parody
of Battle Royale, Sukiyaki Western Django, and Smuggler. I find it
entertaining that he has had one of the longer filmographies despite
being 37 years old as of today, compared to some of those listed above.
In Battle Royale he was the psychopathic killer "Kiriyama."
Kou Shibasaki was the sociopath Mitsuko Souma in Battle Royale. She has
gone on to act in other films including Chakushin Ari (by Miike
Takashi), Shaolin Girl and Ooku. She was originally supposed to be Gogo
Yubari's twin sister in Kill Bill but had prior obligations. She is
currently 31.
Chiaki Kuriyama is 28 and starred as Gogo Yubari in Kill Bill. She was
Chigusa Takako in Battle Royale and has starred in other films such as
Ju-On, and Shikoku. She has also acted in Takashi Miike's Yokai
Daisensou. She even voiced a character in the Sky Crawlers.
I only mention this because if you look at a number of Japanese or
popular American films, there is an increase of longer listing of
cultural references.
Pop Culture
examples can be found on the bottom of the Battle Royale page. It kind
of makes me sad that Japan is so unaware culturally of how America's
impacted their lives for better and for worse. America has given a lot
to the world, and has taken a bit away as well. No country is perfect,
but when a country does things to help another, the least that other
country could acknowledge the help at the very least.
In Code Geass and Battle Royale 2, Japan acts like America wants to see
its downfall when a lot of special treatment compared to its neighbors.
For example, Japan has received the East China Sea, aka the Sea of
Japan, was assisted in being rebuilt right after WW2, and advanced
technologically within only a couple of decades or less. I know I'm not
citing sources to back up my statements, but that is only because I
don't want to spend my evening sucked into research. America is growing
to acknowledge Japan's influence on its culture, through directors like
Quentin Tarantino, language, and video games to list the most obvious.
America's obsessed with Japan. Everything from the country could be a
possible hit in American culture. Its both depressing and impressive at
the same time... at least to me.
Well I'm off to finish my Japanese presentation now. Thanks for reading, bye bye.
