Recently I came across two (actually three, because "Gantz" came as two movies) Sci-fi movies from Japan.
Both movies were based on popular Manga. Both had strong video game influence and were violent. And, in both movies, people's lives were surprisingly cheap. "Survival" was a key word for both.
[The "Daruma (Dharma)", the first round trial for survival in "As the Gods will". Its "game" is basically "Red Light, Green Light". You may move while it turns its back to you and chants a phrase. If you move when it finishes chanting and faces you, it will blow up your head. You live if you push a button on its back within a time limit]
Both movies came out after the Earthquake and Tsunami in 2011, when 20,000 people died and the Fukushima nuclear plant almost went meltdown.
Pop culture, including movies and manga, picks up (or even predicts) the spirit of the time. 2011 was a time when they were trying hard to make sense out of the large number of deaths, and when social anxiety was high. The heavy atmosphere was not unlike after the 911 in the US. These movies and manga may be picking up the dark tone in the settings.
In both movies, all too sudden you are in situations your life is at stake. The trials are basically games whose rules you don't know well. Instructions were sketchy. You figure out the rules at an expense of other participant's lives. The reward is your survival. You clear the game, you get out of it, but you'll move to next game and repeat the process.
Business people were talking about a notion of "gamifying" some time ago. You might find some similarity in the gaming process to real life.
When I think about the ending, it's apparently happy ending. Main characters would survive after trials. But think twice. What did you gain? You were alive before the trials, and you are alive after the trials. It's the same place. You lost many who were dear to you in the course of events.
Did I enjoy the movies? Sure. Weird or ridiculous as they seem, they were quite entertaining in a strange way. These movies may be even educational. You may have learned the value of life thanks to the dead. It takes a lot of senseless deaths to understand the value of life, I guess.
Your innocence is lost by the trials. You carry on, now knowing the dead and their unfulfilled wishes. In war time, or among people who lived long enough seeing many deaths, this attitude may be common. You have seen it and cannot unseen it. And you got to deal with it hereafter.
I was not sure if Japan's "spirits of time" had gotten this dark.
[Black ball called Gantz. Fueled by alien technology, it collects "dead" people and sends them to dangerous missions to kill aliens/targets. It supplies weapons and protective suits for the mission, (loosely) specify the target, sends you off, and scores your performance if you come back alive.]
Did I say it's violent? In the manga version of Gantz, there are a lot of sex, nudity and violence. Now you are warned properly.
