If you’ve never seen it, it’s a brilliant movie. Absolutely great. See it at all costs.
That said, I’m watching the sequel right now. It’s quite disappointing, I have to say. It’s not bad, it’s just… not as good. By a long shot. :(.
Edit: the more I watch, the more convinced I am that this is Battle Royale Reloaded.
The original is great. I couldn’t wait to own it on DVD so ordered up the UK edition complete with uber-cool metal collector’s tin.
I liked Battle Royale quite a bit. It’s a great mix of teen movies, Lord of the Flies, and reality TV, with a little bit of adventure game inventory management thrown in. Beat Takashi was superb and he has one of my all-time favorite [spoiler!] death scenes.
I’d love to see an intelligent American remake, but I suspect it would have to be a fifth-rate throwaway thriller. In fact, it looks like Mindhunters might be along those lines. The closest American movie is probably Series Seven, but it’s nowhere near as good as Battle Royale.
So what’s wrong with the sequel, extarbags? Does it have any redeeming value?
-TomConsidering the original can’t even get a release here I seriously doubt we would ever see an American remake. In the aftermatch of Columbine no studio would touch this with a ten foot pole.
Great movie, though. I bought the Region 0 Korean Special Edition. Director’s cut of the film and its supposed to have better sound and video than the UK edition.
Out of curiosity, is there a special reason why Takeshi Kitano is being credited as Beat Takeshi in the US?
Beat Takeshi is one of his working names.
And the problems with BR2, supposedly (and hopefully I’ll be seeing it this weekend), are that the original writer/director died in the middle of filming. His less-talented son was allowed to take over.
I didn’t know of a UK edition, but I didn’t get the Korean edition because I can’t be sure that it’s not pirated. Let me ask you this: english dub? Also, how good are the subtitles?
The director, yes. But his son is credited as a co-writer for both movies, and the original director didn’t write either.
His stage name, Beat Takeshi, is what he’s credited as in acting roles. A throwback to his comedy performance days. His given name is what he goes as when writing or directing.
Didn’t they just show this on MTV?
In the aftermatch of Columbine no studio would touch this with a ten foot pole.
It had nothing to do with that. There were several distributors interested but the Japanese rights holder grotesquely overestimated the U.S. audience for the film and asked for way too much money.
Er… no.
You know what they call this movie in France? Battle Royale with Cheese.
I read through the first few volumes of the Battle Royale manga at Barnes and Noble the other day, and found it a bit too disturbing at times. That actually surprised me, as a regular manga/anime fan - I thought I was beyond feeling disturbed by such works ( Although Grave of the Fireflies gets to me every time I see it ).
I obtained the Region 0 NTSC from www.dvdasian.com and its an official Special Edition. No English Dub. English subtitles only during the film- not during the special features. English subtitles were just fine. Very good picture quality and Dolby Digital/DTS sound.
Both of the issues go hand and hand. The only way to release BR in the US without a boatload of controversy is to dump it in theaters in an extremely limited release with no marketing or go straight to video, neither of which will be very profitable. Hence the extremely low offer that the Japanese turned down.
The only way to release BR in the US without a boatload of controversy is to dump it in theaters in an extremely limited release with no marketing or go straight to video, neither of which will be very profitable.
It was only ever going to get a limited release anyway, especially if the distributor released it uncut (which would probably warrant either an NC-17 or an unrated release, both of which limit the number of potential venues). This would’ve been just as true pre-Columbine as it would’ve been post-Columbine. The Japanese rights holder, on the other hand, expected it to play in multiplexes with a nationwide release and a huge marketing campaign – in other words they expected it to get more or less the same treatment it got in Japan. No independent distributor (the only type of distributor willing to take it on) could afford that. It wasn’t an issue of the Japanese company worrying they wouldn’t make a profit (after all, they had nothing to lose – if it tanked it would’ve come out of the U.S. distributor, not them), it was a matter of the Japanese company having unreasonable expectations for the U.S. market. For what it’s worth there are occasional rumors that some company or the other has picked it up for a U.S. DVD release but I doubt anyone is really in a hurry to do that, since everyone who wants to see this on DVD has probably already imported it from abroad.
I just picked up the special edition, with two DVDs, commentary, deleted scenes, and the directors cut. Faaaaaaaantastic. Also, the book is pretty damn good, though very long.
How does the director’s commentary work? Does he speak english or is it subbed/translated?
Dunno, haven’t watched yet.