'Battle Royale' schoolboys busted for brawling with teachers
2004.05.26
A group of 10 Tokyo schoolboys inspired by the bloody movie "Battle Royale" were arrested following a gang fight with teachers prompted by the children's occupation of a Tokyo school's PA room, police said Wednesday.
Then 10 boys, all pupils at a public junior high school in Ota-ku when the incident occurred in March, were arrested for obstruction of business and trespassing.
A 24-year-old male teacher embroiled in the brouhaha sustained a broken bone after he was kneed in the chest during the clash.
Documents accusing one of the boys of inflicting bodily injury have been sent to prosecutors.
All 10 boys are still studying. Their identities cannot be disclosed as they are still minors, but they admit to allegations against them and being inspired by "Battle Royale," a 2000 film about junior high school pupils forced to hunt down and kill their classmates.
"We just loved the movie and wanted to run the theme song over the school PA system," one of the arrested boys told the police. "Before we graduated, we wanted to create a legend."
Horrified Ota Ward Board of Education officials promised to take steps to prevent more outbreaks of school violence.
"We're treating this case with the deepest seriousness," a board spokesman said. "We're going to be even more thorough with the instructions issued to schools in the future, work out ways to strengthen the bonds between homes, local communities and related organizations and do what we can to make sure something like this doesn't happen again."
Police said that on March 12 the 10 boys used a spare key to sneak into their school's PA room. They turned on the PA system to full volume, then released a cacophony of sounds including a mobile phone's ring and the theme music from "Battle Royale." Mimicking one of the most famous lines from the movie that inspired them, one of the boys exhorted pupils at the school to "all kill ourselves."
Their occupation of the PA room lasted about five minutes, police said, as five teachers burst in to stop the boys, only for a fight to break out in which the teacher was injured.
Directed by late auteur Kinji Fukasaku, "Battle Royale" tells the story of a class of unruly junior high school pupils transported to a deserted island and forced to kill each other until only one remains.
Chiaki Kuriyama, one of the stars of "Battle Royale," found her way to Hollywood, playing schoolgirl assassin Go-Go Yubari in director Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill Vol. 1," a movie dedicated to the memory of Fukasaku. (Mainichi and wire reports, May 26, 2004)
They apparently like the theme song for BR too...