Battle Royale: Collector's Edition (2000) |
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Battle Royale: Collector's Edition (2000) |
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| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Drama |
Main Menu Audio & Animation Featurette-Making Of-The Making of Battle Royale Interviews-Cast & Crew-Battle Royale Press Conference Featurette-Instructional Video: Birthday Version Theatrical Trailer-Original Theatrical Trailer Featurette-Behind The Scenes-Audition and Rehearsal footage Featurette-Special Effects Comparison Featurette-Tokyo International Film Festival 2000 Featurette-Battle Royale Documentary Additional Footage-Basketball Scene Rehearsals Featurette-Behind The Scenes-Behind-the-scenes featurette Featurette-Behind The Scenes-Filming ON-set TV Spots-Special Edition TV Spot TV Spots-Special Edition TV Spot: Tarantino Version Production Notes-Director's Statement Filmographies-Crew-director Kinji Fukasaku Filmographies-Cast-actor Beat Takeshi |
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| Year Of Production | 2000 | ||
| Running Time | 108:30 (Case: 110) | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | Dual Layered | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 1,2,3,4,5,6 | Directed By | Kinji Fukasaku |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Shock Entertainment |
Starring |
Tatsuya Fujiwara Aki Maeda Taro Yamamoto Masanobu Ando Kou Shibasaki Chiaki Kuriyama Beat Takeshi |
| Case | Amaray-Transparent | ||
| RPI | $29.95 | Music | Masamichi Amano |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None | Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) | |
| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.78:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles | English | Smoking | Yes |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
Forty-two junior high school students are on an excursion on a bus. Gassed into unconsciousness, they awake in a strange location where they are told by their former school teacher (and some soldiers) that they have been selected for Battle Royale.
Sometime in the near future, the Japanese government, fed up with the unruly and disobedient student population, passes the BR Act. Each year, a school class is selected at random for the Battle Royale. The students are kidnapped to a deserted island, given provisions and a weapon each, and are given three days to fight to the death. There can only be one winner - whoever is left alive at the end of the three days. They are fitted with explosive necklaces, and if there is more than one student alive at the end of the three days all bracelets explode and no-one survives.
This film tells the story of the 42 students and their fight to the death. Based on a popular novel by Koushun Takami, the screenplay by Kenta Fukasaku (the son of the director) drops most of the social commentary about modern Japan and instead concentrates on the relationships between the students, and a lot of high-level violence and mayhem. And some dark humour. Even without the added dimensions included in the original novel, this is immensely entertaining, though repeated viewings may highlight the lack of any great depth. The leads are likeable, the violence cartoonish rather than confronting and gory, the direction is spot on and there are no dull patches.
While the cast is entirely Japanese, there are a couple of familiar faces. The schoolteacher is played by Beat Takeshi, the deadpan and disfigured star of several Japanese action films as well as western films such as Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence and Brother. He is also an accomplished director under his real name Takeshi Kitano, and his character in this film is named Kitano, adding an ironic touch. Also familiar will be Chiaki Kuriyama, from her appearance as the ball-on-a-chain-wielding assassin in Kill Bill Vol. 1. Incidentally, the case has a sticker that describes this film as the inspiration for Kill Bill. Apart from the participation of Kuriyama and the high body count, I do not see the connection.
The director Kinji Fukasaku made his reputation with a string of yakuza films in the 1960s and 1970s, some of which were just as violent as this one, if not more so. He is deftly able to weld intimate drama and action together without any feeling of contrivance. Despite the bizarre premise, the film creates its own consistent inner world and thus is believable. The pacing of the film could not be better, and the tone remains even throughout, a credit to a 70 year old director working on his 60th film. Fukasaku died in early 2003 shortly after completing a sequel, which hopefully will get a DVD release in Region 4 in the not-too-distant future.
A lot more could be written about this film, and has been, but I recommend you just get out there and watch it.
The film is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced. The original aspect ratio was 1.85:1. The aspect ratio of this transfer is not mentioned on the case.
The transfer is quite murky and not especially sharp. The level of detail available is less than would be ideal, and shadow detail is not very good either.
Brightness and contrast seem to have been boosted so that while the colours seem bright, they are not completely realistic. Flesh tones in particular look inaccurate.
The film itself has been squeezed onto a single layer, so the transfer is at a fairly low bitrate. While this does not result in any obvious artefacts, there is some macro blocking during the occasional fast pans, especially in the forest. Film artefacts are limited to occasional white spots, but these are so infrequent as to be of no consequence.
English subtitles are burned into the print. For the most part these are easy to read, being a bright white and quite large, but there are a couple of instances early in the film where they appear against a bright background and are difficult to read.
The disc is a dual-layered one, but the feature is contained wholly on one layer, so there is no layer change.
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The sole audio track is Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 and is stereo. There is no surround encoding, so even in Pro Logic mode the rears and subwoofer are quiet.
There is nothing wrong with the audio transfer, apart from not being in surround. Dialogue is clear and the audio is clean and detailed, much like many a stereo transfer I have heard. Audio sync seems to be good.
Original music is provided by Masamichi Amano, but the most striking music is excerpts from classical works, including Verdi's Requiem, the Blue Danube by Johann Strauss the younger and the Radetzky March by Johann Strauss the elder. The music not only sounds good but also adds an epic feel to the film.
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Accessing the extras may be slightly confusing. Selection of this option from the main menu takes you to another menu where you select English subtitles on or off. Select either option and the extras menu is displayed. There are a lot of extras on two pages.
Unless otherwise stated, all extras have optional English subtitles and are in 1.33:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. Most have some aliasing present.
The Main Menu has some minor animation, with the Requiem of Verdi for a musical underscore.
This documentary shows a lot of behind the scenes footage, plus interviews with cast and crew members.
A press conference with the director and some of the actors where they make statements to the press about their thoughts about the film. Worthwhile watching for Takeshi's humorous short monologue at the end.
For Kinji Fukasaku's 70th birthday the crew made a send-up of the instructional video from the film. This also shows the on-set celebrations.
The trailer has burned-in subtitles, and watching this sets the optional subtitles to Off, so if you watch another of the extras you need to turn them on again. 1.78:1 and 16x9 enhanced.
Raw footage from the auditions and rehearsals for the killing sequences.
This is one of the better extras. It shows several scenes from the film, mostly involving people being shot, then shows the original footage and the composites separately, so you can see how the final effects were built up. This has some of the film's music as background.
The director and cast appear on stage talking about the film at the Tokyo festival.
Much like a shorter version of the main documentary, though with different footage, this looks like a featurette preview for TV or the cinema.
This is a rehearsal for the basketball scene that was included in the Special Edition of the film, but not in the version on this disc.
Similar to the shorter documentary, with more behind the scenes footage.
More behind the scenes footage. There are no English subtitles.
This is a TV trailer which is letterboxed, but I expect it was meant to be seen letterboxed on TV as the end is full screen.
Not directed by Tarantino, just a Japanese commercial with a few snippets of Tarantino praising the film thrown in.
Three text pages by the director stating why he made violent films.
Detailed filmographies of the director and star.
There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
All three versions of this film are available on DVD outside Australia, though there does not appear to be any US Region 1 release at the moment. Only the original international version and the Special Edition are available with English subtitles.
Original version
A UK Region 0 edition from Tartan has much the same transfer as the Region 4 judging by the reviews, but has far fewer extras. The subtitles are burned in.
A second release from Tartan, also Region 0, has Dolby Digital 5.1 audio and the same extras as the first release, but is NTSC format and has an improved transfer. It has removable English subtitles.
A Hong Kong Region 3 edition has DTS 5.1 and Dolby Digital 5.1 audio, but has almost no extras and is not 16x9 enhanced. Apparently the subtitles have spelling and grammar errors.
Special Edition
A Korean Region 0 release from Starmax features the film in 1.78:1 and has DTS 5.1 audio. It has different extras from the Region 4 on a second disc, but the extras disc has no English subtitles. The subtitles on the feature are apparently difficult to read.
A Korean Region 3 release from Cream is basically the same as the Starmax, but the extras have English subtitles, and the subtitles are easier to read than the Starmax.
Tartan have released two versions of the Special Edition, each of which have the same extras as the Region 4 but on a second disc. The first version has Dolby Digital 5.1 audio and comes in a metal tin. The second version also has DTS 5.1 but no metal tin. Both have removable English subtitles.
Just to complicate matters:
In terms of the Special Edition cut of the film, the second Tartan release with DTS sound looks the best bet.
In terms of the original international version of the film, the second Tartan release has better sound, and judging by screencaps I have seen a better transfer than the Region 4, but it is NTSC and has little in the way of extras. This is one case where if you want quality video and sound and a range of extras, you will need to buy more than one set.
There is also a Region 4 rental release, which I have not seen. Reports on this release are unclear, in that it may be a 1.33:1 pan-and-scan transfer or simply not 16x9 enhanced.
A very good film presented on an overfilled DVD - this should really have been on two discs. Still, it is worth a look if you are interested in what all the fuss is about.
The video quality is not the best.
The audio quality is satisfactory.
The extras package is pretty good.
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| Extras | |
| Plot | |
| Overall | |
| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Pioneer DV-S733A, using Component output |
| Display | Sony 86CM Trinitron Wega KVHR36M31. Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to DVD player, Dolby Digital, dts and DVD-Audio. Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum. |
| Amplification | Yamaha RX-V596 for surround channels; Yamaha AX-590 as power amp for mains |
| Speakers | Main: Tannoy Revolution R3; Centre: Richter Harlequin; Rear: Pioneer S-R9; Subwoofer: JBL SUB175 |