There are so many films in Japan that concern children killing their classmates that they are practically their own subgenre. Having only seen a few of Takashi Miike’s films, I can’t authoritatively say how As The Gods Will fits within his oeuvre of crazy violent films, but it certainly carves out a place alongside brethren like Battle Royale.

The 2014 film (still playing the North American festival circuit) starts in media res as a class of high school students is winnowed down by a cartoonish daruma doll playing a lethal game of red light/green light. If anyone moves when the doll is facing them, their heads explode in a shower of bloody marbles. The game only ends when one of them pushes the button on the back of the doll’s head, but it is quickly revealed that this is merely the first of many dangerous encounters that the children will face if they are going to survive the day.

How this daruma game began is eventually explained via a brief, perfunctory flashback, but the larger narrative implications are never fully resolved. For some reason, an omniscient force has targeted high school students around the world for a series of deadly games. The title of the film suggests that God is behind it (survivors are nicknamed “God’s Children”), though the giant white squares that appear in the sky like spaceships in Independence Day could also suggest aliens. Whatever – or whoever – these beings are, why they present as culturally-specific cartoons and why school kids are being targeted goes unexplained; expectations that these contextual questions will be answered are dismissed by the narrative as unimportant.

What is important is the visceral experience. As The Gods Will is a high octane violent action comedy that leans heavily on Battle Royale. The similarities to that classic text are difficult to suppress, particularly characters and plot are considered: in addition to televised murder games, there is a crazy student who kills other kids, an unspoken love that is revealed under duress, and contextual flashbacks to pre-game times to establish character traits and connections. The presence of all-powerful creatures who present in animated form is reminiscent of Assassination Classroom, although the effect is less stylized and the overall action is less ridiculous. Amusingly enough, the games themselves are routinely simple children’s games. The lesson is simple: teens use their basic intellect, fitness, imagination and teamwork to survive. Those who cannot rise to the occasion are blown up, eaten, or smashed into pulp.

At the center of this is Shun Takahata (Sota Fukushi), our lead character and the only individual As The Gods Will invests substantial time and insight into. Shun is the audience surrogate, we’re privy to his thoughts and feelings via both flashback and voice over. Alas due to the heightened nature of the film’s narrative and the fact that there is always a new game on the horizon (at approximately 6-7 the film is overstuffed), it’s difficult to carve out time to make the character memorable. Shun’s main contribution is feeling guilty for wishing away his boring life before the game, but even that is more than we learn about his love interest Ichika (Hirona Yamazaki) or resident psychopath Amaya (Ryunosuke Kamiki). It’s arguable that deep characterization is less important in a film such as this, which lives and dies on the amusing nature of its bloodshed, but like other films that introduce large numbers of characters solely to murder them off, it becomes difficult to invest in newbies when we barely know anything about them and 95% of them exist as flesh fodder for the next game.

With that said, if you can put aside the lack of character development, As The Gods Will is a fun time at the movies. Miike knows what audiences want and he’s more than happy to deliver the goods – in both the humour and the gore departments.

As The Gods Will screened at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival.