Movies - Kazuo Kiriyama

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	Movies - Kazuo Kiriyama

Kazuo Kiriyama is a character in the best-selling Battle Royale novel and mangas by Koushun Takami. He is also a character in the movie with the same name, played by Masanobu Ando.

Major Differences in the Novel, Film, and Manga

Personality

In the movie, Kiriyama is an enigmatic character introduced as the sociopathic transfer student, who signed up as a volunteer for the Battle Royale program. In the movie, his only apparent motive is given by Shogo Kawada, who says he signed up "for fun". Not much else is known, as the wild-haired Kiriyama says nothing and only smiles with glee as he murders his classmates with assorted weapons such as a submachine gun, sword, and grenades.

In the novel, a sharp contrast is given, as well a more debatable motivation in Kiriyama's actions. Having suffered from a brain injury during a car accident while in utero, he lost the ability to process basic human emotions such as remorse and fear, which made him indifferent to the suffering of others. This also makes him an efficient, Terminator-esque killer, with no morals to keep him from callously murdering his classmates, even the members of the local street gang he is in charge of.

In the manga, Kiriyama is much like what the novel depicted, mercilessly killing his classmates with neither hesitation nor regret. One of the more notable differences is that Kiriyama suffered cerebral damage when he was a child, no more than six years old, in a car crash that claimed his mother and his humanity. This event is made clear in volume 14 in a sequence where a dying Kiriyama flashes back to his earlier (and happier) years. Also, the manga depicts Kiriyama as a near perfect genius, from his incredible talents when he was a child to his wide range of knowledge as a junior high student. He has been seen reading books about human anatomy and martial arts and has the ability to quickly grasp anything not yet familiar to him.

The Street Gang

In the novel, Kiriyama's designated weapon was a knife, and he most likely killed the other members of his street gang by deception, then stealthy physical force, before acquiring his signature weapon, an Uzi submachine gun. In the movie, Kiriyama is not a leader or member of a street gang and is forced to dispatch them, led by classmate Mitsuru Numai (Boy #17), in an extremely violent manner, such as spitting gum into the face of one student and mowing down another girl with gunfire as she begs for her life.

Classmates Murdered

Regardless of whichever adaptation of Battle Royale, Kiriyama is responsible for many deaths on the island during the events of "The Program".

In the Original Novel

Boy #9: Hiroshi Kuronaga, fellow gang member - throat slit with knife

Boy #10: Ryuhei Sasagawa, fellow gang member - throat slit with knife

Girl #5: Izumi Kanai - throat slit with knife

Boy #17: Mitsuru Numai, fellow gang member - shot four times with MAC-10

Girl #6: Yukiko Kitano - shot multiple times with MAC-10, finished off with Walther PPK

Girl #7: Yumiko Kusaka - shot multiple times with MAC-10, finished off with Walther PPK

Boy #14: Sho Tsukioka, fellow gang member - tricked into a Forbidden Zone, collar detonated

Boy #12: Yutaka Sato - shot in the back with MAC-10

Boy #19: Shinji Mimura - shot in the head with MAC-10

Boy #4: Toshinori Oda - shot in the head with MAC-10

Girl #11: Mitsuko Souma - shot in the head with MAC-10

Girl #1: Mizuho Inada - shot in the shoulder and head with Beretta 92FS.

Boy #5: Shogo Kawada - shot in the back with Walther PPK

In the Manga Adaptation

Same as the novel version, with the following additions:

Girl #8: Kayoko Kotohiki - shot in the head with a Walther P99

Boy #11: Hiroki Sugimura - shot in the stomach and head with Colt M1911

In the Film Adaptation

Same as the novel version, with the following addition:

Boy #2: Keita Iijima - shot multiple times with Uzi

Kiriyama does not kill Mizuho Inada (Girl #1).

Weapons

In the novel he receives a knife as his original weapon and he takes his MAC-10 and Walther PPK from his gang, the grenades from Yumiko Kusaka, a revolver and Class III Kevlar vest from Toshinori Oda and a magnum from Mizuho Inada.

In the film, it's pretty different. He receives a paper fan, then takes the Uzi from Ryuhei Sasagawa. He then takes the handgun and grenades from the rest of the street gang, a sword from Yumiko Kusaka, a Class III Kevlar vest from Oda, a Colt M1911 and a stungun from Mitsuko.

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