Gore 2001

By Tim Larimer/Tokyo

Lucky thing for Richard Hatch that Survivor didn't cast Japanese teens. In Battle Royale, a film released in December, youthful miscreants are dropped on a deserted island. Each is given a different weapon--assault rifle, machete, crossbow--and ordered to kill until only one is left standing. Bloodshed--lots of it--ensues. Education Minister NOBUTAKA MACHIMURA had urged the filmmakers to tone down the brutality, while members of parliament sought to ban the film. The bluster led to long lines outside theaters two days before its premiere. As Japan has seen a rash of violent youth crimes recently, the film hits close to home: the day Royale opened, a 17-year-old boy wielding a baseball bat injured eight. The film's director, KINJI FUKASAKU, 70, known for gangster films and the war epic Tora! Tora! Tora!, is unapologetic. He says he wanted to relate his experience as a teen sweeping up corpses from an arms factory bombed in World War II. Watch out: Series 7, a parody of reality TV in which desert-isle players hunt one another with guns for cash, will soon be in U.S. theaters.

--By Tim Larimer/Tokyo