The Crazies and Battle Royale questions

 The Crazies (2010):

Two examples of events that predate the ones in the film but have a direct cause to them are the plane crash, which while never shown happening in the movie the aftermath is visible as the body of the pilot is found and soon after the plane wreck, and this causes the appearance of the crazies as the plane was carrying a toxin which leaked into the towns water supply. A second example is Judy being pregnant, as this causes her to have a high temperature so that the soldiers believe shes been infected despite her telling them shes pregnant, however the pregnancy's cause happens before the events of the film as we can assume shes a few weeks/months into it.

An example of an event that happens within the films time frame but isn't seen on screen is Russell trying to escape the town before it got locked down. This is shown later in the movie when we see his car on the side of the road with spiked tires given insight into his failed attempt and capture. Another example of an event we don't see happen but see the effect of is the slaughter of all the evacuees, who we first see being given wristbands to say they're safe and ready to go to Cedar Rapids, but last see piled up as burnt bodies in the back of a truck with bullet shells everywhere.

The key plot points in the film that show a classic Hollywood 3-act structure (normality, disruption and resolution) are sometimes hard to spot as there is very few points where the film can be considered normal, however are there in the narrative. Act 1 is from just after the beginning, when we go back to 2 days earlier and the town is going about its day, with a few strange things like Rory and Bill going crazy and the plane crash, but otherwise everything is normal. Act 2 begins with the towns desertion and the army takeover, where it is made apparent something is wrong, furthered by the mass breakout of the infected "Crazies". Act 3 begins with the return to the truck stop, where they have supposedly made it back to normality. while this isn't the case, the mass extermination of the survivors and the bomb dropping leaves no chance of the virus escaping, and Judy and David can get to Cedar Rapids and live in peace. Or can they...

Battle Royale (2000):

Synopsis - 

A class of students on a field trip are kidnapped and taken to an uninhabited island, where it is explained to them by their old teacher that they must fight to the death as part of the Battle Royale Act, which was initiated by the Japanese Government to cull the ever growing number of young delinquents in the country. Each student gets a bag containing a map, food, water and a random weapon. As the movie progresses the number of students decreases, as many are murdered or commit suicide. Eventually the main characters have their first confrontation with the villainous Kiryama, and barely escape, wounded and separated. As Nanahara is patched up by a group of female students holed up in a lighthouse, a standoff caused by a poisoning ends up with them all dead but one, who throws herself off the lighthouse. As the protagonists meet up, they confront Kiryama one final time and kill him. With minutes remaining, Kawada seemingly kills the others, however after the soldiers leave its revealed to Kitano, as he suspected, they'd all survived. After killing him, they leave by boat, where Kawada dies from his injuries. Nanahara and Noriko live as fugitives back on the mainland.

Logline - Students are forced to fight each other to the death as part of a new act imposed by the government.

Main Characters -

Shuya Nanahara - Nanahara is the primary male protagonist in the story, a 15 year old student thrown into the Battle Royale. His motivation through the movie is to keep Noriko safe while also trying to preserve the memory of, and avenge, his best friend Nobu. He resembles the Hero archetype of Propp's characters.

Noriko Nakagawa - Noriko is the primary female protagonist, also a student of 15 years old. Her motivation seems to be primarily survival for her and Nanahara, whom she has feelings for, but also to talk to her old friend Kitano again. She plays the Propp's character archetype of the Princess, as she is the motivation for the Hero as well as the one thing the Princess's Father values.

Shogo Kawada - Kawada is the winner of the Battle Royale 3 years prior, making him around 18 years old. He was put into the Battle Royale as a voluntary wildcard like Kiriyama, as his motivation is to avenge his girlfriend who died in the Program and later gains the motivation to save Noriko and Nanahara as he sees a true bond between them. In a traditional Propp archetype, he would be the Helper, as he is knowledgable in both how the game works and also how to survive it which he uses to assist the protagonists.

Kazuo Kiriyama - Kiriyama is a male delinquent and the secondary antagonist, who has entered the Battle Royale voluntarily. He looks to be around 19 years old, and is pure evil, his seeing the other contestants as nothing more than targets and only ever working alone. His motivation is to kill for the fun of it, with no remorse for his victims. He portrays the Villain archetype of the Propp's character roles.

Kitano - Kitano is the primary antagonist of the movie, despite never really presenting a real threat to the main characters. The former teacher is a male of around 45+ (based on looks and the age of his family members), and serves a tragic mastermind type of villain. His motivation appears to be revenge on the class for how he was treated, however also wants to assure Noriko's survival as he sees her as a daughter. In a traditional Propp's character role He'd be the princesses father and even if some ways the helper.

Genre and themes -

The primary genre of Battle Royale is thriller, more specifically the action thriller sub-genre. This can be seen through the various calling cards of the genre: A race against the clock narrative, heavy violence and a clear antagonist role. One of the primary themes of the film was loyalty, shown by many of the characters forming alliances or staying true to their friends: Yukiko and Yumiko; Nanahara, Noriko and Kawada; the hacker group and also a main side plot was Sugimura's movie long quest to find and protect Kotohiki. Another theme is leadership and courage, shown by the various characters choosing to stand up against adversity, including Nanahara drawing Kiriyama away from the clinic, Yukie setting up the lighthouse hospital with the other girls, Mimura leading the hackers in an attack on the military and also Kitano, who shows leadership amongst the army.

Narrative structure -

Act 1 - Throughout the classical act 1, we're introduced briefly to Nanahara, Kitano and Noriko during what to them is mostly an equilibrium. Nanahara is recovering from his father's suicide, while Kitano teaches his class to only one student, Noriko, before resigning after being stabbed by Nobu. The class embarks on a trip one year later, before being gassed. They wake up in an abandoned classroom, when Soldiers flood the room followed by Kitano. He informs the class they've been selected for the Battle Royale Survival Program and kills Fumiyo. This starts the disruption of equilibrium.

Act 2 - Upon realisation the situation is real, the class panic. After an introductory video the class are sent out one by one onto the island. The rest of Act 2 is the game itself, riddled with murder, mayhem and loyalty and betrayal.

Act 3 - The classical Act 3 starts with the end of the game,. A victor is declared in Kawada and all is seemingly back to normal, and therefore a return to the equilibrium. However a final confrontation with Kitano happens, where it is revealed Noriko and Nanahara were still alive. Kitano tells them Noriko was like a daughter to him, and he'd wanted her to win the game. He threatens to kill her and in defence is shot by Nanahara, revealing his gun to be a water pistol. He gets up and has a final, emotionless phone call with his daughter, before shooting his phone, eating the last cookie and dying. The three survivors escape on a boat, and the film ends with Kawada dying happy that he found friendship and Nanahara and Noriko becoming fugitives once and for all returning to society, albeit in a different way, making a return the equilibrium

While this film can be applied to a classical three act structure as shown above, the film is also more than that and can be easily fit into many other structural formulas, especially those more common in Japanese films that favour the causality over conflict like western narrative structure, and never really reaches an equilibrium from start to finish.

Differences to western media -

A major difference to western media is the aforementioned focus on causality, with the movie being driven by all of the characters' actions and reactions both accidental and purposeful to a resolution over being driven by the motives of a few main characters, which are sidelined for the most part as many of those goals are never reached except for those lucky few. Another difference is the awareness that it isn't real and wants the audience to know they're not there but still feel for the characters, giving the audience immersion breaking dream sequences and even dying breath notes for a few characters to help drive the emotions they want the audience to feel.