The Commissioning Process & The Role of the Writer

Narrative Structures - Battle Royale and The Crazies

Film Analysis


Battle Royale


Q1. Produce a 150-250 word synopsis summarising the narrative of Battle Royale and then produce a logline for the film


Abducted from a school bus, 40 students are gassed, and the bus re-directed to a deserted island. Kitano, the leader of this government act, briefs them on why they were taken from their ordinary lives with a video recording. No sooner had they been informed of this; they were given bags of weapons to defend themselves. One-by-one, students are killed by those who were once their friends or in some cases, by their enemies. Those who remained loyal to their friends/ loved ones created packs to help one another and figure a way to escape the chaos. Unfortunately, the last three, a couple, and a previous contestant were left, and the rest dead. But as the game states, only one can live to tell the tale, so the previous contestant tries to trick the leader into believing he is all that’s left, before revealing that the truth and attempting to kill him before any more damage is done. Both men involved are wounded, but eventually the leader dies whilst eating an Asian dessert treat.


Q2. Who are the main characters (up to 5) and what is their a. name, gender and age, b. role and c. dramatic motivation?



Mitsuko Souma (male)


One of the most dangerous players in the game



Hiroki Sugimura (male)


searches for his best friend Takako Chigusa and his love interest Kayoko Kotohiki



Shuya Nanahara (male)


Shuya becomes the leader of a terrorist organization known as Wild Seven which is named after is nickname from baseball, formed by survivors of previous Battle Royales.



Noriko Nakagawa


schoolmate is the only student attending class



Kitano (female)


explains that the class has been chosen to participate in this year's Battle Royale as a result of the BR Act, which was passed after 800,000 students walked out of school. The orientation video cheerfully instructs the class to kill each other for three days until only one student remains.





Q3. What genre is the film? What themes does the film exemplify?


SCI-FI/THRILLER


Themes:


Sci-fi elements:



Alternative world (deserted island/ jungle)


Dehumanization (students who were once friends/civil, are turning against each other in a life or death situation)


Journey (the end goal is to be the last ‘man’ standing)


Thriller elements:



Heightened feelings (from both the on-screen characters and the audience) of suspense, excitement, anxiety and



Main antagonist/vastly superior to the rest (leader of the operation/ kidnapping of the students)


Group of protagonists (wanting to escape/ end the game once-and-for-all)


Plot twists throughout the film


School drama (lessens the fearsome quality by adding a more child-like twist)


Q4. What happens in each of the three acts? Can you apply the realist / Classical Hollywood Narrative to this film?


Exposition



Abduction of students/ game begins


The leader kidnaps a bus full of students and takes them to an island, in which they are all given a bag of weapons and an explosive collar around their necks. Unfortunately, the man-in-charge can trigger if they choose to not follow the rules of the game. Once all has been elaborated to the new faces of the game, each student is expected to defend for themselves, until only one payer is left.


Development



Killing one another for survival


The bulk of the actions takes place during this stage, whereby the history of the characters is revealed in a sequence of flashbacks and conversational exchanges. Alongside that, the numbers of students rapidly decrease with each day that goes by (3 days to be exact as mentioned in the brief)


Resolution



Three remain, the rest are no more// the leader is killed, and the trio sail away// one dies along the way to ‘victory’ due to a wound that occurred when trying to kill the leader.





Q5. How does this film differ, regarding narrative, to 'typical' western films and TV shows? Think about characters, dialogue and narrative structures.


DIFFERENCES:



SPOKEN DIALOGUE


Language: mandarin (subtitles are available, but no English is spoken throughout the entirety of the film)



CHARACTERS


Opposition/ signs of dehumanization: it is not uncommon for characters to change their behaviour due to the circumstances they are in, however in this case, the human-side is stripped away from almost everyone, even when they are on their last breath.



NARRATIVE STRUCTURES


Protagonist/ first person narration: as well as being shown clips of each students past, audiences can also pass judgements simply by listening to/reading the narratorial descriptions of these events and what is happening within the game from the main characters. This is particularly useful in helping solidify the audience's understanding of the films story.


Flashbacks: rather than showcasing what was happening in the lives of the characters before the game had even begun, it was instead, intertwined in with their screen time on the island to highlight characteristics, motives and any other information that may be relevant to what they are doing at the time of the flashback.





Narrative Structures and The Crazies (Eisner, 2010)



Give two examples of events that cause later events in the film, but which occur before the film ‘starts’






List two event from the 92-minute film that happen in a different time and space to the one we are shown



Identify key plot points in the film that you would associate with the three-act structure








Act 1 set up/ normality


The Crazies doesn’t follow Todorov’s Classical Hollywood Narrative Structure. First thing we see is a burning town and we don’t see any people. This draws the audience in and gets the hooked as they will want to know what happened. This is an unusual setting and not the normal equilibrium. The audience sees what is going to happen in the future. We then go to ‘2 days before’ in which we now have the equilibrium of the people of town playing a baseball game. The disruption is when Rory comes onto the baseball pitch with a gun the sheriff (David Dutten) assumes he is drunk as Rory is a recovered alcoholic and the sheriff shoots him and kills him. At the time they do not know that Rory has the virus which is the overall disruption.


Act 2 confrontation/disruption


Act 3 resolution/ restroation of normality

Script Proposal

Script Proposal