Directed By Kinji Fukasaku
Starring Takeshi Kitano, Tatsuya Fujiwara, Aki Maeda, Tarô Yamamoto, Yousuke Shibata and Chiaki Kuriyama
For the film that’s largely responsible for provoking many of the younger generation’s immediate interest in Japanese cinema and helping kick-start the Asian import/remake boom of the 2000s, it’s borderline miraculous that Battle Royale has dodged being snatched up and cannibalised for a US remake. Though not technically banned, the coupling of the film’s kids-killing-kids content and America’s continued tragic relationship with school shootings is usually offered as the overriding reason behind many US distributors’ unwillingness to give the original an official release or greenlight the dreaded, oft-threatened remake.
At the very least, though, the film’s controversy and Stateside unavailability has only helped cultivate and cement Battle Royale’s cult classic mystique and leave its legacy largely untarnished (if you conveniently dismiss the lacklustre sequel and recent news of Anchor Bay’s plans to release a post-converted 3D for US audiences). Over ten years after its initial UK release, Battle Royale remains just as darkly funny, deliriously OTT and overwhelmingly visceral a film experience as it’s ever been.
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Adapting Kōshun Takami’s 1999 novel of the same name, Battle Royale’s high-concept plot takes place in a Japan where, in the face of an uncontrollable youth, the government passes the BR Act – a law which sees one randomly-selected class of unruly 15-year-old high-schoolers taken to a deserted island against their will and ordered to kill each other off until one student remains. If more than one kid is still alive when the three-day counter hits zero, they’ll all be killed, courtesy of explosive collars strapped around their necks.
Given a survival pack each, filled with food, water, map, compass and a randomly selected weapon which ranges in usefulness from automatic weapons to saucepan lids, they’re unleashed upon each other without rules or law. Some refuse to play, others cling to their friendships and plead for peace, while others embrace the murderous game with chilling ease as the body count starts to rise. The game is made even more deadly and terrifying for the students by the inclusion of two ringers thrown into the mix: Kawada, the survivor of a previous year’s game, and Kiriyama, a sadistic player who signed up purely for fun.
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Evoking a number of influences, from Lord of the Flies, The Most Dangerous Game to Stephen King’s “Bachman Books” The Running Man and The Long Walk, Battle Royale juggles a lot of ideas and tonal shifts, but more than anything it’s a film defined by its violence. Straddling the line between action movie and exploitation film, the bloodshed veers between something resembling the operatic balletic violence of a John Woo film and the wincingly painful, chilling kills of a horror movie. The violence is made all the more memorable by the film’s often iconic visuals, but that graphic trend of violence is balanced by a delicious streak of pitch-black humour personified by yakuza movie stalwart/director/game show host “Beat” Takeshi Kitano as the class’ weary, vengeful teacher, and an opening instructional video which spells out the game’s rules to the kids with immensely peppy joyfulness.
The aforementioned operatic violence is matched evenly by the heart-on-sleeve melodrama on display in the cast of young students as school cliques, loves and rivalries quickly become a literal matter of life and death. Though potentially cringeworthy teen melodrama is usually one of the creative death knells of any high-school-era movie (Why hello there, Twilight), here it’s oddly fitting and doesn’t feel too divorced from those adolescent crushes and squabbles that seem so life-defining as a teen. The character we see in each vignette as we flit between teenage killers, survivors, heroes and cowards is by turns darkly comic and touchingly poignant. Each character is instantly memorable in their own way, from the silent, wild-haired psychopath Kiriyama to murderous black widow Mitsuko or cute almost-couple protagonists Nanahara and Noriko, while each vignette injects horror, cruel irony, touching pathos and pitch-black hilarity.
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The graphic violence and sometimes unsettling content of Battle Royale might alienate those of especially delicate dispositions, but Kinji Fukasaku’s swan song is essential viewing for those with even a passing interest in foreign or cult cinema. An explosive, exhilarating, often unsettling work of genius, the film’s deft blending of social commentary, thrilling action, chilling horror movie set-pieces and deliciously dark comedy make Battle Royale a modern-day must-see.
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With an eye towards pleasing the film’s English-speaking fans worldwide, Arrow Video have been kind enough to assemble the definitive Battle Royale package, putting together high-definition transfers of the film’s theatrical and director’s cuts, cramming in an incredibly impressive pile of extras and wrapping it all up in a region-free Blu-ray set. (A DVD version of the Limited Edition set is also available)
The high-def transfer sadly isn’t a revelatory upgrade that you’ll be using to show off your home cinema system, but it is a clear, substantial improvement over prior DVD versions of the film. Though generally soft, the Blu-ray transfer also offers a significant amount of detail not evident on DVD and is easily the best that Battle Royale has ever looked on home video. The Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 audio track is even more impressive, bringing great clarity to dialogue scenes and an alarmingly effective punch to gunfights and explosions.
The major inclusion among the extras is the film’s Director’s Cut. Assembled after the original cinema release, the new cut adds in a trio of “requiem” endings (random deleted scenes awkwardly tacked onto the film’s tail-end) and flashbacks that shed further light on Mitsuko’s motives as she’s shown accidentally killing a man who tried to rape her when she was just a child. A series of basketball game flashbacks used as a framing devise exists primarily to hammer home a “Why can’t we all just get along?” dose of dramatic irony as the students are shown working effectively and enthusiastically as a tight-knit team – a far cry from the chaos, murder and backstabbing that unfolds in the other game. Unfortunately, the Director’s Cut adds bloat and more endings than The Return of the King, but little else. As a curiosity though, it’s a welcome inclusion.
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The set’s individual special features are all offered in Japanese with English subtitles. The extras are as follows:
Disc 1 – Theatrical Cut (Blu-ray)
The film’s original trailer.
A lengthy collection of behind the scenes footage, it’s a fairly unstructured set of raw footage, but offers a fun look at the production and an enlightening insight into Kinji Fukasaku’s work process; the guy was a hardcore perfectionist, and it’s hard not to have new-found respect for the young actors after seeing them pushed to re-do takes dozens of times and still remain stereotypically cheerful.
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Disc 2 – Director’s Cut (Blu-ray)
The theatrical trailer used to promote the Director’s Cut re-release in cinemas.
A short promo spot featuring approval from everyone’s favourite banana-faced auteur.
A behind-the-scenes collection of footage and on-set interviews as Kinji directs the young actors for the Director’s Cut basketball game reshoots.
An entertaining and informal chat with “Beat” Takeshi, covering his thoughts on the film, why Fukasaku wanted him for the role, why the character shares his name and what his own school life was like.
Exactly what it says on the tin: Amano Masamichi conducts the orchestra as they perform and record many of the cues and character themes from the film’s fantastic score (if anything, it kinda makes you wish the score itself was thrown in as an added bonus).
In this cute, funny inclusion, the film’s peppy instructional video host returns to deliver a birthday message to director Kinji Fukasaku and provide the rules to directing the film, followed by a birthday serenade from the cast.
Fukasaku and the main cast briefly introduce a screening of the film at the TIFF.
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Disc 3 – Special Features (PAL DVD, Region-Free)
The cast get together to chat to the press, fresh off the set (they’re still in costume, and Kawada’s even lugging his shotgun around).
Kinji Fukasaku and the core cast offer their thoughts to the audience before the film’s premiere screening, along with a funny written message from Takeshi Kitano, who couldn’t attend (“Hi, I’m Takeshi Kitano and I played Heiji Zenigata in Battle Royale!” sails over the heads of the audience, sadly).
Another fun collection of behind-the-scenes footage similar to the ‘Making Of’ documentary on Disc One.
A short TV spot followed by a fairly lengthy TV ad for the film.
A very quick TV spot.
A promo for the film and/or a behind the scenes programme titled ‘What Would You Do?: Battle Royale’ before it aired on Sky’s PerfecTV.
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The film’s amazing and hilarious instructional video in its entirety as a standalone video.
The cast of students rehearse many of the film’s scenes, including the ‘Explaining the rules’ classroom scene, along with glimpses of audition footage and stunt rehearsals.
Amano and his orchestra do their thing again, this time with different tracks from the score.
A short, to-the-point feature that examines the step-by-step process of putting together the film’s effects shots, from the exploding collars to subtle background composite shots.
A more structured press promo featuring interviews, behind-the-scenes looks and clips from the film.
Even more raw behind-the-scenes footage, with some overlap between Disc One’s ‘Making Of’ Documentary.
A collection of trailers for director Kinji Fukasaku’s yakuza films Battles Without Honor and Humanity, Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Deadly Fight in Hiroshima, Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Proxy War, Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Police Tactics, Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Final Episode, Street Mobster and Graveyard of Honor.
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Along with the special features contained on the three discs, the set offers a few more physical exclusives:
Written by Stefan Hutchinson and Barry Keating and illustrated by Steph Stamb, the comic centres around two students who discover ahead of time that their class is to be this year’s selection for the BR program.
The booklet includes the essay ‘A Battle Without An End’ by Tom Mes (‘The Midnight Eye Guide to New Japanese Film’), a printed interview with Director Kinji Fukasaku, ‘Today’s Lesson is…You Kill Each Other’ by Jay McRoy (Japanese Horror Cinema’) an extract from Koushan Takami’s original novel (Exclusive to the Limited Edition), original promotional material including a director’s statement and cast and crew biographies (Exclusive to the LE)
Exclusive to the Limited Edition, this booklet assembles concept artwork and drawings for the set.
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All in all, Arrow Video’s Blu-ray is an amazingly impressive and completely exhaustive collection of special features for the film, topped off with an attractive HD transfer that greatly improves on prior releases. For even the most casual Battle Royale fan, this set is a necessity.
The Film:
The Blu-ray:
Battle Royale (Limited Edition) is out now on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK.
For those who might’ve missed out on the Blu-ray Limited Edition (sadly, it already seems to be out of print, though the DVD Limited Edition set is still available), Arrow Video are releasing a standard edition of the set on February 28th 2011, containing everything on the Limited Edition, aside from a shorter booklet and no artwork book or postcards.
Click here to order the Limited Edition DVD from Amazon.co.uk.
Click here to pre-order the Standard Edition Blu-ray from Amazon.co.uk.
(Note: The images above were captured and saved at a reduced quality, and though they give an idea of how the film looks, they aren’t intended to reflect the true quality of the Blu-ray image itself.)