Death Game (DVD) Review
Forced to fight with random weapons once again a star from Battle Royale returns!
Rikuhiko Yuki (Tatsuya Fujiwara – Battle Royale) is a part time worker, while scanning through newspaper advertisements looking for the right job a kind looking young woman (Haruka Ayase – Cyborg She) approaches him. She tells him that she also is looking for a part time job and asks for his opinion about a few notices she’s found online on her phone, looking at them one catches his eye. A job that will be an incredible amount of money but is vague on details of what is required. Fast forward and these two both applied for the job and were accepted. As two of ten random people they are driven as one group to a remote mountain facility and forced to walk down a long spiral staircase to their final underground destination.
These ten are to take part in what is pitched to them as a psychological experiment. The first thing they see through the doors is the common dining room, this is where the rules are explained and they realize exactly what they’ve gotten themselves into. The deal sounds simple enough, at the beginning their are ten participants with various personal and social backgrounds. These include your average workers but also a doctor and an alcoholic. In seven days the experiment will end or when there are only two survivors. When harm is done to another member (and the only harm is to kill) their body is placed in a room filled with eight metal coffins built into the floor. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves, when a person is killed there are three sides, the victim, criminal and detective. Each receive double pay. The more you kill the more you earn, even if you’re caught. If the self-appointed detective comes to a theory that all agree on by voting who the perpetrator was the criminal will be locked up and the detective given his bonus too. The only other rule is that each person must be in their room after 10pm.
You see, in this closed facility each participant has a separate bedroom and in their room is a large chest that can only be opened with a unique keycard each person has. In the chest is each members strength, a unique weapon provided to them at random in Battle Royale style. Poison, a pistol, knife, they are all possibilities. While some are strong others are weak so no-one will risk revealing what their weapon is and risk becoming easy prey. A ceiling mounted robot with two claw arms patrols the halls at night and will eliminate anyone who is found outside their room.
Promising to do each other no harm and be happy with the base incredible pay it isn’t long before the first bullet ridden body is found and the paranoia begin properly. Fingers point at everyone from the housewife the victim suspected of being a criminal to the quiet longer who not only was the last to arrive at the scene but also laughed as he looked at the corpse. In bedrooms with no locks and the body-count on the rise they wonder who is killing who and what an ever increasing counter on the wall has to do with their filmed experiment.
Death Game is like a lot of death survival game films. Death Race may be a good recent example but you’ll never find a better one in the original classic Battle Royale especially given one of it’s stars is the lead here. It isn’t that strong in terms of blood with the front cover art a little misleading in that respect which may have put some off thinking perhaps it was a horror title. What’s focused upon here to it’s favor is the aim towards being a murder-mystery. Apart from one early on killing you don’t know exactly who killed who until near the very end so it works as a classic guessing game and does so well. With everyone wanting the bonus and learning this isn’t the first time the larger reasoning comes into play. As far as the actors and role are concerned, the characters are well fleshed out even with just minor back stories given in sample size bites of exposition. As far as the actors Tatsuya Fujiwara in this is similar to his recent performance in the reviewed Kaiji – The Ultimate Gambler as a sane man in an insane situation. Haruka Ayase manages to play a role that’s reserved but more complex as the film progresses. Perhaps it’s some residual feeling from our recent review of her performance in Cyborg She but even when she’s emotionless you can’t help but be on her side which helps the character here tremendously.
Presented on a single DVD in the original Japanese language with English subtitles there are no bonus features on this release which is a little disappointing given the terrific ensemble cast and especially the leading pair we’ve become fast fans of.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Anyone into survival games films where a group of random strangers turn on each other in a desperate attempt to stay alive will love it. A great addition to the genre and certainly worth a place on the shelf. Find it on Amazon.co.uk today!
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