1- Two examples of events that cause later events in the film, which occur before the film 'starts':
It is often common in movies for events to occur before the 'beginning' of the film's runtime which end up being important and affecting the plot we see going forward, causing later events to occur. 'The Crazies' is an example of one of these movies, with one example of one of these happenings being the cause and reason for the people in the town acting strange and becoming murderous, leading to the rest of the events that occur throughout the plot. It is revealed during the first act that there is a plane below the town's lake waters, due to it crashing there many years before the film's setting; it's also later revealed that this plane contained a bio-weapon which was intended to be used on one of the countries America was at war with at the time in order to "destabilize" them. This is the reason the town's population became 'crazy', as the bio-weapon in the lake leaked into the water supply infecting everyone. Another example would be our two protagonists' survival to the end of the movie. Due to Judy being pregnant (which is the event caused off screen), David goes back to save her and escape, avoiding both himself and her being killed by the government at 'QuickPhil's', as it is revealed near the films end that both the infected and healthy were taken to be murdered.
2- Two events from the 92-minute film which happen in a different time and space to the one we are shown:
Similarly, there a some events from the movie which happen in a different time and place to what we are being shown on screen. These types of events can either be big and important pieces of context to the plot, or small and relatively unimportant for us to see, hence why we don't. Although Russel is quite an integral character to this film's story and he is on screen for a majority of it's second half, we as the viewer are not shown quite a lot of his journey throughout the movie, such as when the government take him from his home to bring him to the high school along with the rest of the town, his escape from said situation, and the story he mentions later on about his tyres getting spiked and his escape from that too. There are also a few occurrences at some of town's businesses before the population is thrown into panic, such as at the blood tests for Roy from the first act and the man at the funeral parlour, being only shown the results of the test coming out as zero and the man having his eyes and mouth already sewn shut respectively.
3- Key plot points in the film which I would associate with the three-act structure:
Three plot points from this movie's plot which I would say seem to match up to the main idea of a typical 'three act structure' start with the scene where David makes the decision to shoot the random member of the town who is seen as acting incredibly strangely, walking onto the baseball pitch in the middle of a game. This is the first time we are subtly shown how something is weirdly affecting members of the area, and results eventually in many other examples of people acting similarly, which we then find out is due to an illness which has come from the plane corrupting the town's water supply. Act two's key plot point is likely David deciding to attempt to save his Judy when they are separated from each other once the virus has become in need of 'contamination'. Without this moment, Judy would have been killed, and as we learn towards the end of the film's runtime. so would have David, meaning that none of the events of the movie we see from this point onward would have even been able to take place. Finally, the final act's key plot-point is the moment David and Judy manage to escape their town before the huge bomb goes off and manages to kill them, leading them to survive until the end of the film's runtime (even if the fate of their lives from that point onward is questionable).
Battle Royale (2000):
1 - Synopsis summarising the narrative of Battle Royale + a logline for the film:
'Battle Royale' as a whole has quite a simple premise which can explained within quite a short logline - a group of young Japanese students are sent against their knowledge to an island, where they are commanded to fight to the death until only one is left alive in a set amount of time, otherwise they will all be killed. As the movie starts, we are shown that a near-future Japan has found itself in quite a serious recession, which is what initially inspires the following events of the movie. Due to this recession, the government decides to create the 'Battle Royale' idea for the country, with one revolving around a a middle school class. The class's students are placed on a school bus for what they believe to be a 'school trip', only for the bus and all the students in it to be knocked out with a gas send through it, all waking up on an unknown, private island with their teacher, Kitano, and two others who they are told are 'transfer students'. They are all explained the rules of the 'game', with only one of them allowed to be left alive by the end of the three days they are set, with the transfer students also taking part, certain zones to change in danger every few hours which is announced to them all over the island, and that if there are more than one left alive, they will all be killed by the bomb inside their neck bracelets. Shuya's friend is killed as to set an example to them all, before they are all individually sent out to the island, each being given their own unique 'weapon'. From this point onwards, two students from the class, a boy named Shuya who's father is seen to have committed suicide earlier in the movie, and a girl named Noriko who was seen to be the only person who would turn up to Kitano's lesson every time, act as our main two protagonists for the entire game. Throughout, many of the students' deaths, kills and betrayals are shown to us, with a list of who has died each day being listed at the end of each day. Our protagonists end up befriending and teaming with one of the transfer student, Shogo, while the other transfer, a volunteer named Kazuo, is on a killing rampage. Shogo explains that the transfers are actually winners from previous years, put back into the game. While the killing is constantly going on, a group of boys from the class are attempting to come up with an escape plan, as are our now three protagonists. Once everyone but them have died, the three end up tricking Kitano into believing that only one of them is left alive, which he does end up seeing through, but due to his like for Noriko being his best student, he allows the three to take a boat and escape the island, ending the game. Shogo ends up dying on the boat, leaving Shogo and Noriko to be the only survivors, now declared fugitives and on the run...
2 - Who are the main characters and what are their: names, genders and ages, roles and dramatic motivations? Do they conform to Propp’s defined character types?
There are arguably five main characters throughout the runtime of this movie. These are, Shuya Nanahra, Noriko Nakagwa, Shogo Kawada, Kazuo Kiriyana and Kitano.
As stated above, Shuya is the male student who, along with the female student Noriko act as our main two protagonists for the entire game until they manage to escape at the end. Shuya's father commits suicide a year before he is sent to the island, who on top of his best friend, Kuninobu, who is killed by the explosive necklace in front of the whole class, is one of the many people he cares about to die in front of him. Due to Kuninobu telling him that he had a crush on Noriko, he sees it as his job to look after her for him during the game and keep her safe.
Noriko acts as our other protagonist, sticking with Shuya throughout the entire game as much as she can and looking out for him as much as he does for her. She is seen by the teacher ahead of the whole, game, Kitano, as his favourite student, due to her being the only student to actually turn up to all of his lessons back when he taught the class and not treat him badly like many of the others did.
Kitano, as just explained above, sees her as his favourite student. This leads to him giving her special treatment during certain moment so the game, like letting her escae with the two others at the movie's end and not hurting her like a lot of the other students. It seems to be how the students treated him while they were his class a year before the game, such as Kuninobu stabbing his leg, which causes him to be so heartless and evil towards them during the game, allowing it to even take place in the first place.
Shogo is one of the two "transfer students" as they are first described to the students before the game begins to also take part. He was once apart of a previous 'Battle Royale' game to happen to one of his classes, in which he survived until the very end with his girlfriend before she ended up encouraging and causing him to kill her so he would survive and win. He ends up joining Shuya and Noriko midway through the movie, helping them to survive and stay safe, also helping with their plan to trick Kitano into letting them leave and actually escape near the film's end.
Finally, the other 'transfer student', actually ending up to be a simple volunteer to join the game and kill opponents, is Kazuo. Kazuo is shown to be a ruthless murderer throughout the entire game, unloading an excess of ammo from his weapons into any of the students he finds set on winning the game. He is not given a ton of backstory, unlike the other main characters, but still plays quite a large role in the story and our protagonist's path in the plot, until being killed near the very end of the game.
3- What genre is the film? What themes does the film exemplify?
This film can be fitted into multiple similar genres, such as thriller, action, adventure, drama and a little bit of sci-fi as well. The movie is set slightly in the future in a reality where a recession has caused the government to resort to their "BR ACT", which is where the slight science-fiction comes into play, as well as obviously the drama and thriller. Following the two/three protagonists about and hoping they survive at each issue they run into is where the adventure comes from, as well as the thrill of seeing them get out of dangerous situations and all of the killings and intricate deaths is where a lot of the action resides.
4- What happens in each of the three acts? Can you apply the realist / Classical Hollywood Narrative to this film?
In terms of a typical three act structure, I believe that it would be accurate to determine the key point of the film's first act to be the moment the students wake up on the island, completely unaware of what they are doing there or how they even got their in the first place. Before this point in the movie, we were given slight bits of backstory to a few of the characters who would go on to be integral to the movies main story, as well as the backstory to why the country had gotten to he point of deciding on this BR ACT to begin with, The second act is where we are introduced to our arguably third protagonist, Shogo, along with seeing the many murders of one of the story's villains, Kazuo, and multiple assorted scenes from the rest of the classes students; some of the scenes we are shown based on characters who we as the audience do not know a lot about are intricate kill and death scenes, while some of them on the other hand are scenes of a group of hopeful male students attempting to create a plan to escape the island sliver and learning more about the pure evilness of the game, such as the fact that all the bomb-necklaces they are wearing have microphones inside. In the final act, the three students we watch throughout the whole film manage to leave the island safely, with Shogo dying on the boat, and Kitano staying on behind on the island for a bit. Unlike a lot of films we are used to in the West which follow a typical 'classical Hollywood narrative, the movie doe not end in a particularly happy way, where even though Shuya and Noriko manage to survive the game, all of the other students, including a lot of them who were friends of our protagonists, have still died, with the two who escaped even now being labelled as 'fugitives' and having to live the rest of their lives (as far as we know) on the run. It is debatable however if the film's plot is one of 'realism' or not, as even though the idea of having children fight to the death is of course a very unrealistic scenario, especially one like the one shown in the movie, it could be argued that due to the movie being one that takes place in the "near-future", it is excused as being a showcase of what a 'potential' future may look like that.
5- How does this film differ, in regards to narrative, to 'typical' western films and TV shows? Think about characters, dialogue and narrative structures.
Many scenes in the movie are with characters who we as the audience have either only met a very few amount of times or have not seen at all before and know nothing about. Many of these exact scenes also end with shots of solely text on screen, telling us who has been killed and a few details about their death - these kinds of text shots aren't very common in western movies, unless they are in the form of time-passing for example, of which only appear often quite sparsely. During this movie also, it takes place all in one place for the most part - the private island the game takes place on. Other than the scenes before and after the characters get to the island, as well as a few flashbacks, everything takes place across the island during the game. We are also not given a massive amount of backstory to each character, with a lot of the film revolving around the spectacle of the kills more than our involvements in the characters, as we do not know much about them for us to make a connection with them.
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