I've just watched Battle Royale for the first time and the film is, as a friend would say, "beyond." The novel (perhaps a bit too dry) and the graphc novel (likely too many abnormally enlarged secondary sexual characteristics) didn't quite prepare me the actual sight of the bizarre eruption of violence into normalcy. One recurring thought of my mine was that of wonder: Why does the plot of my generation's version of The Lord of the Flies pivot upon our elders' desire to put the one against the other in the name of character-building? At least The Lord of the Flies' chaos had the virtue of being Cold War-driven and self-generating.