Reading Albie's new blog kinda makes me feel slack for not blogging enough, even though I usually say there's nothing of interest to blog about (which I suppose is why this blog is so cobwebby), and Del's blog is usually essay-length, deep explorations of thoughts and feelings. I'm trying to open my mind a bit more, understand people and myself a bit more, and try a few more things I would usually be hesitant about.
Well anyway, recently I watched a Jap movie called Battle Royale. The general storyline is that Japan's government has disintegrated, and schoolkids are running amok causing havok everywhere. Then they introduced the Battle Act, where every year, a random school class is selected for this Act. Then their teacher, with the military, busses them off to the middle nowhere, dump them on a deserted island with various weapons, and make them kill off each other. The students are stuck on the island for 3 days, each equipped with an electronic collar which tracks their location and heartbeat, and if more than one collar remains active when the 3 days are up, they will automatically explode. The game ends when there is only one student left alive. Or everyone dead.
Of course my first thoughts upon watching the movie was "Why the heck are the Japanese government promoting more homocidal teenagers into the society?!!?" But it's a movie so just go with the flow.
The movie itself is pretty good, all the young actors doing a pretty good job of being scared, confused, murderous, etc. Some of the situations are kind of amusing, probably not intended to be, but it was. E.g. There was a clan of 5-6 girls who took over a lighthouse, and were all living together quite well for two days, until one of them tried to poison a guy they rescued, which another girl ate by accident. Another girl freaked out, and tried to gun everyone down, leading to everyone picking up guns and shooting everyone else. The girl who did the poisoning of course was left alive, who then proceeded to throw herself off the lighthouse. And the guy who just woke up was like O____O to a room of dead bodies. Seems like such a girl-thing to happen *shruggz*
Some of the weapons that were given out were pretty funny. Included ones were semi-automatic guns, pistols, grenades, bullet-proof vest, shot gun, katana, tazer, poision, pot lid, binoculars, GPS tracking device, paper fan, sickle, axe, crossbow, flick knife, loudspeaker....etc
After the movie it incited a lot of "what if" situations in my mind. If my class and I were in that situation, what would I do? At the start of the game, a few people (usually couples) forfeited by suiciding by jumping off the cliff into the ocean, or hanging themselves. I have a feeling that probably wouldn't be the option I'd choose, but I don't think I'd be one of those trigger-happy individuals who killed for the fun of winning.
The summer course I'm taking at the moment of Business Law and Ethics, and in many ways it has really opened my eyes. One of the hypothetical questions asked in class has stayed with me til now: "Should we do something because we can, or because it's the right thing to do it?" So if you believe in "One should not kill", should we refrain from taking other people's lives even if it means we might lose our own? Or are these rules forgotten in abnormal situations so we can do things we wouldn't normally even think about without considering our morals? How would we be able to trust the people around us? Even the people we thought we good friends?
