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Battle Royale (film)
Encyclopedia
is a 2000 Japanese film
directed by Kinji Fukasaku
based on the novel of the same name
. It was written by Kenta Fukasaku
and stars Takeshi Kitano
. The film aroused international controversy.
A sequel, Battle Royale II: Requiem
, followed. The music soundtracks for both movies were composed, arranged and conducted by Masamichi Amano
, performed by the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra
and features pieces of classical music with some original composition. The choral Western classical music used as the film's overture theme music is the "Dies Irae" from Giuseppe Verdi
’s Requiem
.
. At that time, his class was made to work in a munitions factory. In July 1945, the factory came under artillery fire. The children could not escape so they dived under each other for cover. The surviving members of the class had to dispose of the corpses. At that point, Fukasaku realized that the Japanese government was lying about World War II, and he developed a burning hatred of adults in general that he maintained for a long time afterwards.
When asked in an interview with The Midnight Eye if the film is "a warning or advice to the young," Kinji Fukasaku responded by describing the words "warning" and "advice" as "sounding very strong to me" as if they were actions which one tries to accomplish; therefore the film would not be "particularly a warning or advice." Fukasaku explained that the film, which he describes as "a fable
," includes themes, such as crime by young people, which in Japan "are very much real modern issues." Fukasaku said that he did not have a lack of concern or a lack of interest; he used the themes as part of his fable. When the interviewer told Fukasaku that he asked the question specifically because of the word "run" in the concluding text, which the interviewer described as "very positive." Fukasaku explained that he developed the concept throughout the film. Fukasaku interpreted the interviewer's question as having "a stronger meaning" than "a simple message." Fukasaku explained that the film has his "words to the next generation" so the viewer should decide whether to take the words as advice or as a warning.
) because of Fukasaku's experiences as a teenager, the novel's use of 15-year-olds, and the fact that many of the actors were around fifteen years of age. After he submitted an appeal and before Eiga Rinri Kanri Iinkai could rule on the appeal, members of the Diet of Japan
said that the film harmed teenagers; the Diet members also criticized the film industry ratings, which were a part of self-regulation by the Japanese film industry. Fukasaku dropped the appeal to appease the Japanese Diet in hopes they would not pursue increasing film regulation further.
Japanese teenager Shuya Nanahara
struggles to cope with life, his father committing suicide
by hanging. Meanwhile, school girl Noriko Nakagawa finds her class empty with her teacher Kitano as the only person present. Kitano leaves but is suddenly attacked by student Yoshitoki Kuninobu with a knife. Noriko hides the knife, and Kitano resigns. A year on, Shuya's class goes on a field trip at the end of their required educational years. However, the entire class is gassed on the coach and awaken in a large briefing room on a remote island, all wearing electronic collars. A military platoon enters led by Kitano, now working for the government. Kitano reveals the class is the chosen participants in this year's Battle Royale, the true result of the BR Act. The class is forced to watch an instruction video; learning they have three days to survive on the island and kill each other off until just one student remains. If the students defy the rules, they will be killed by the detonation of their collars, which also explode if they step into "death zones" around the island. Kuninobu objects to the "game" and is consequently killed by Kitano who detonates his collar. Another student Fumiyo Fujiyoshi is also killed before the game begins. Students are provided with a bag of supplies each containing one object considered useful as a weapon. Some weapons are more obviously useful than others. The students are forced to leave the building one at a time with a minute or so between them.
The first night terrifies the class with several deaths occurring early on including four suicides. Exchange student Kazuo Kiriyama and Mitsuko Souma become the most dangerous players in the game, while another exchange student Shogo Kawada seems more merciful. Shuya and Noriko band together, Shuya promising to protect Noriko for Kurinobu's sake. Other students have more legitimate goals in the game; Shinji Mimura and his friends plot to hack into the military's computer systems and then bomb their base of operations, whilst Hiroki Sugimaru searches for his best friend Takako Chigusa and love interest Kayako Kotohiki. Chigusa runs into Kazushi Niida who obsessively loves her, and in the following conflict she stabs him to death only to be fatally shot by Mitsuko and dies in Sugimaru's arms. Kawada takes Shuya and Noriko in, revealing he won a previous Battle Royale at the cost of his girlfriend and is planning to avenge her. The trio are forced to separate when Kiriyama attacks, Sugimaru saving Shuya.
Shuya awakens in the island's lighthouse
where several girls led by Yukie Utsumi are hiding out. However, the paranoid Yuko Sakaki tries to poison Shuya's food having witnessed the death of another student believing Shuya to have murdered him in cold blood. The poisoned food is eaten by another classmate, which prompts panic among the girls. This misunderstanding results in the deaths of all the girls (save Yuko) in a bloody gunfight. Yuko realises the enormity of her paranoia and flings herself off the lighthouse to her death. Shuya makes his way back to Noriko and Kawada who head out to find Mimura's group. Meanwhile, Sugimaru tracks down Kotohiki who in a blind panic shoots and kills him. Kotohiki is then killed by Mitsuko. Kiriyama appears and gets into a fight with Mitsuko, gunning her down. Mimura's group finish their plans but Kiriyama kills them. The bomb built by the group explodes leaving Kiriyama blind, allowing Kawada to shoot him dead.
All the while the game is in play, Kitano and his soldiers track (via the electronic collars) the movements and deaths of the players and via an island-wide PA system
announce roll-calls of the dead, followed by updated grid positions of "death zones".
On the morning of the final day, Kawada takes Shuya and Noriko aside and seemingly kills them. Seeing this, Kitano (believing Kawada to be the winner) ends the game. He sends the military home before planning to shoot Kawada. Shuya and Noriko run in, Kawada having hacked into the game system beforehand and learnt how to disable the collars. Kitano unveils a homemade painting of the dead students with Noriko as the winner, revealing how he saw her as a daughter, constantly hated by his own daughter Shiori. Shuya repeatedly shoots Kitano, who takes a final phone call from Shiori as he dies. Shuya, Noriko and Kawada leave the island on a boat but Kawada dies from injuries gained whilst fighting Kiriyama. The film ends with Shuya and Noriko being declared criminals who are forced to go on the run.
. Rather, there has never been a distribution agreement for the film.
It has been exhibited at film festivals in North America. Nonetheless, bootleg copies of the film imported from China and South Korea have widespread availability on the continent, and a Special Edition DVD of the film was carried to a limited extent by retailers such as HMV
and Starstruck Entertainment in Canada and Tower Records
in the United States; the legal status of this edition is not clear. Also, the film's UK
distributor, Tartan Films
, released an all-region NTSC
DVD version of the film that is available in North America from specialty outlets. One widely available Hong Kong
import is a special edition without English subtitles that contains both Battle Royale and its sequel. Both Battle Royale and its sequel are available on NetFlix
, a major home-entertainment distributor in the United States.
in Japan on November 20, 2010. Director Kinji Fukasaku's son and screenwriter of Battle Royale, Kenta Fukasaku, oversaw the conversion. The 3D version will be the premiere version in America, due for release by Anchor Bay Entertainment
sometime in 2011.
released the film on Blu-ray and DVD
in a Limited Edition version in the United Kingdom on December 13, 2010 as a three-disc collector's edition set, featuring both cuts of the film. The DVD version was limited to 5,000 copies. The Blu-ray version was initially being released as limited to 5,000 copies but due to the large volume of pre-orders was increased to 10,000 copies. The Limited Edition Blu-ray is region-free, meaning it can play on Blu-ray players worldwide. The DVD is also region-free.
3.11 billion domestically (around $25 million US). The film was widely acclaimed by critics, with an 83% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes
.
The film was labeled "crude and tasteless" by members of Japanese parliament and other government officials after the film was screened for them before its general release. The film created a debate over government action on media violence. Many conservative politicians used the film to blame popular culture
for a youth crime wave. Ilya Garger of TIME
magazine said that Battle Royale received "free publicity" and received "box-office success usually reserved for cartoons and TV-drama spin-offs."
At the 2001 Japanese Academy Awards
, the film was nominated for Picture of the Year, Director of the Year
, Screenplay of the Year
, Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
(Tatsuya Fujiwara), Outstanding Achievement in Music (Masamichi Amano
), and Outstanding Achievement in Sound Recording (Kunio Ando). The film won Outstanding Achievement in Film Editing (Hirohide Abe) and the Popularity Award, and Tatsuya Fujiwara and Aki Maeda both won Newcomer of the Year.
Critics note its relation to the increasingly extreme trend in Asian cinema and its similarity to reality television.
In 2009, Quentin Tarantino
listed the film as his favorite film released since he began directing in 1992. Bloody Disgusting
ranked the film fifteenth in its list of the Top-20 Horror Films of the Decade, with the article calling the film "a go-for-broke extravaganza: fun, provocative, ultra-violent, and bound to arouse controversy (which it did)...the film [is] more than just an empty provocation—it builds character through action, a method all good filmmakers should seek to emulate." Empire
ranked Battle Royale #235 and #82 on their lists of "The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time" and "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" respectively.
: Masanobu Ando
, who played Kazuo Kiriyama in the first film, and Natsuki Kato
, who appeared in Battle Royale II as Saki Sakurai. A close concept of kill-game is used for the manga (1999-2001) and anime (2008) Bus Gamer
.
reported that New Line Cinema
, with producers Neil Moritz and Roy Lee
, intended to produce a new adaptation
of Battle Royale. Several Web sites echoed the news, including Ain't It Cool News
, which claimed the remake would be a "an extremely Hard R—serious-minded Americanization of BATTLE ROYALE." New Line tentatively set a release date of 2008.
The next month, The New York Times
reported on an Internet backlash against the remake. Through the article, Lee assured fans of his respect for the original work, claiming, "This is the one I'm going to be the most careful with." He stated that, despite earlier concerns, the movie would not be toned down to PG or PG-13, the characters would remain young teenagers, and that it would draw elements equally from the novel
and the original movie and the manga.
The reporter noted "the hubbub...was at least slightly premature [as] New Line hasn't yet purchased the remake rights."
Following the Virginia Tech massacre
in April 2007, Roy Lee claimed that prospects for the remake had been "seriously shaken." While he remained willing to proceed, he stated, "we might be a little more sensitive to some of the issues." The reporting article noted that New Line still had not secured remake rights—its spokeswoman claimed "no news" when asked about progress on any deal.
Cinema of Japan
The has a history that spans more than 100 years. Japan has one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world – as of 2009 the fourth largest by number of feature films produced. Movies have been produced in Japan since 1897, when the first foreign cameramen arrived...
directed by Kinji Fukasaku
Kinji Fukasaku
was a Japanese film actor, screenwriter, and best known as a celebrated and innovative filmmaker. He was born in Mito, Ibaraki, Japan, and died in Tokyo, from prostate cancer...
based on the novel of the same name
Battle Royale
thumb|260px|Cover of the 2009 expanded edition, ISBN 978-1-4215-2772-3 is a 1999 Japanese novel written by Koushun Takami. The story tells of schoolchildren who are forced to fight each other to the death....
. It was written by Kenta Fukasaku
Kenta Fukasaku
is a Japanese filmmaker and screenwriter. He is the son of filmmaker Kinji Fukasaku and actress Sanae Nakahara.-Biography:He made his writing debut in the popular Japanese cult film Battle Royale, which his father directed. He wrote the screenplay to the sequel, Battle Royale II: Requiem, and took...
and stars Takeshi Kitano
Takeshi Kitano
is a Japanese filmmaker, comedian, singer, actor, film editor, presenter, screenwriter, author, poet, painter, and one-time video game designer who has received critical acclaim, both in his native Japan and abroad, for his highly idiosyncratic cinematic work. The famed Japanese film critic...
. The film aroused international controversy.
A sequel, Battle Royale II: Requiem
Battle Royale II: Requiem
, abbreviated as BRII , is a 2003 Japanese, dystopian, action-thriller film. It is a sequel to the 2000 film, Battle Royale, which in turn was based upon a controversial 1999 novel of the same title by Koushun Takami...
, followed. The music soundtracks for both movies were composed, arranged and conducted by Masamichi Amano
Masamichi Amano
Masamichi Amano is a Japanese music composer, arranger and conductor. He studied at the Kunitachi College of Music in Tokyo and graduated in 1982. He obtained the Takeoka Prize....
, performed by the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra
Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra
The Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra , one of Poland's premier musical institutions, was established in 1901 on the initiative of an assembly of Polish aristocrats and financiers, as well as musicians...
and features pieces of classical music with some original composition. The choral Western classical music used as the film's overture theme music is the "Dies Irae" from Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
’s Requiem
Requiem (Verdi)
The Messa da Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi is a musical setting of the Roman Catholic funeral mass for four soloists, double choir and orchestra. It was composed in memory of Alessandro Manzoni, an Italian poet and novelist much admired by Verdi. The first performance in San Marco in Milan on 22 May...
.
Creative process
Kinji Fukasaku stated that he decided to direct the film because the novel it was adapted from reminded him of his time as a 15-year-old munitions factory worker during World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. At that time, his class was made to work in a munitions factory. In July 1945, the factory came under artillery fire. The children could not escape so they dived under each other for cover. The surviving members of the class had to dispose of the corpses. At that point, Fukasaku realized that the Japanese government was lying about World War II, and he developed a burning hatred of adults in general that he maintained for a long time afterwards.
When asked in an interview with The Midnight Eye if the film is "a warning or advice to the young," Kinji Fukasaku responded by describing the words "warning" and "advice" as "sounding very strong to me" as if they were actions which one tries to accomplish; therefore the film would not be "particularly a warning or advice." Fukasaku explained that the film, which he describes as "a fable
Fable
A fable is a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, mythical creatures, plants, inanimate objects or forces of nature which are anthropomorphized , and that illustrates a moral lesson , which may at the end be expressed explicitly in a pithy maxim.A fable differs from...
," includes themes, such as crime by young people, which in Japan "are very much real modern issues." Fukasaku said that he did not have a lack of concern or a lack of interest; he used the themes as part of his fable. When the interviewer told Fukasaku that he asked the question specifically because of the word "run" in the concluding text, which the interviewer described as "very positive." Fukasaku explained that he developed the concept throughout the film. Fukasaku interpreted the interviewer's question as having "a stronger meaning" than "a simple message." Fukasaku explained that the film has his "words to the next generation" so the viewer should decide whether to take the words as advice or as a warning.
Ratings
Kinji Fukasaku originally opposed the R15 rating given by the Eiga Rinri Kanri Iinkai (EirinEirin
is the abbreviated name for , Japan's movie regulator. Eirin was established on the model of the American Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America's Production Code Administration in June, 1949, on the instructions of the US occupation force...
) because of Fukasaku's experiences as a teenager, the novel's use of 15-year-olds, and the fact that many of the actors were around fifteen years of age. After he submitted an appeal and before Eiga Rinri Kanri Iinkai could rule on the appeal, members of the Diet of Japan
Diet of Japan
The is Japan's bicameral legislature. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives, and an upper house, called the House of Councillors. Both houses of the Diet are directly elected under a parallel voting system. In addition to passing laws, the Diet is formally...
said that the film harmed teenagers; the Diet members also criticized the film industry ratings, which were a part of self-regulation by the Japanese film industry. Fukasaku dropped the appeal to appease the Japanese Diet in hopes they would not pursue increasing film regulation further.
Plot
The film opens with the following prologue text: "At the dawn of the millennium, the nation collapsed. At fifteen percent unemployment, ten million were out of work. 800,000 students boycotted school. The adults lost confidence and, fearing the youth, eventually passed the Millennium Educational Reform Act, AKA the BR Act...."Japanese teenager Shuya Nanahara
Shuya Nanahara
is a fictional Japanese student and one of the three main protagonists of the violent and controversial novel, manga, and film Battle Royale. In the English-language manga he is nicknamed Shu....
struggles to cope with life, his father committing suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
by hanging. Meanwhile, school girl Noriko Nakagawa finds her class empty with her teacher Kitano as the only person present. Kitano leaves but is suddenly attacked by student Yoshitoki Kuninobu with a knife. Noriko hides the knife, and Kitano resigns. A year on, Shuya's class goes on a field trip at the end of their required educational years. However, the entire class is gassed on the coach and awaken in a large briefing room on a remote island, all wearing electronic collars. A military platoon enters led by Kitano, now working for the government. Kitano reveals the class is the chosen participants in this year's Battle Royale, the true result of the BR Act. The class is forced to watch an instruction video; learning they have three days to survive on the island and kill each other off until just one student remains. If the students defy the rules, they will be killed by the detonation of their collars, which also explode if they step into "death zones" around the island. Kuninobu objects to the "game" and is consequently killed by Kitano who detonates his collar. Another student Fumiyo Fujiyoshi is also killed before the game begins. Students are provided with a bag of supplies each containing one object considered useful as a weapon. Some weapons are more obviously useful than others. The students are forced to leave the building one at a time with a minute or so between them.
The first night terrifies the class with several deaths occurring early on including four suicides. Exchange student Kazuo Kiriyama and Mitsuko Souma become the most dangerous players in the game, while another exchange student Shogo Kawada seems more merciful. Shuya and Noriko band together, Shuya promising to protect Noriko for Kurinobu's sake. Other students have more legitimate goals in the game; Shinji Mimura and his friends plot to hack into the military's computer systems and then bomb their base of operations, whilst Hiroki Sugimaru searches for his best friend Takako Chigusa and love interest Kayako Kotohiki. Chigusa runs into Kazushi Niida who obsessively loves her, and in the following conflict she stabs him to death only to be fatally shot by Mitsuko and dies in Sugimaru's arms. Kawada takes Shuya and Noriko in, revealing he won a previous Battle Royale at the cost of his girlfriend and is planning to avenge her. The trio are forced to separate when Kiriyama attacks, Sugimaru saving Shuya.
Shuya awakens in the island's lighthouse
Lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....
where several girls led by Yukie Utsumi are hiding out. However, the paranoid Yuko Sakaki tries to poison Shuya's food having witnessed the death of another student believing Shuya to have murdered him in cold blood. The poisoned food is eaten by another classmate, which prompts panic among the girls. This misunderstanding results in the deaths of all the girls (save Yuko) in a bloody gunfight. Yuko realises the enormity of her paranoia and flings herself off the lighthouse to her death. Shuya makes his way back to Noriko and Kawada who head out to find Mimura's group. Meanwhile, Sugimaru tracks down Kotohiki who in a blind panic shoots and kills him. Kotohiki is then killed by Mitsuko. Kiriyama appears and gets into a fight with Mitsuko, gunning her down. Mimura's group finish their plans but Kiriyama kills them. The bomb built by the group explodes leaving Kiriyama blind, allowing Kawada to shoot him dead.
All the while the game is in play, Kitano and his soldiers track (via the electronic collars) the movements and deaths of the players and via an island-wide PA system
Public address
A public address system is an electronic amplification system with a mixer, amplifier and loudspeakers, used to reinforce a sound source, e.g., a person giving a speech, a DJ playing prerecorded music, and distributing the sound throughout a venue or building.Simple PA systems are often used in...
announce roll-calls of the dead, followed by updated grid positions of "death zones".
On the morning of the final day, Kawada takes Shuya and Noriko aside and seemingly kills them. Seeing this, Kitano (believing Kawada to be the winner) ends the game. He sends the military home before planning to shoot Kawada. Shuya and Noriko run in, Kawada having hacked into the game system beforehand and learnt how to disable the collars. Kitano unveils a homemade painting of the dead students with Noriko as the winner, revealing how he saw her as a daughter, constantly hated by his own daughter Shiori. Shuya repeatedly shoots Kitano, who takes a final phone call from Shiori as he dies. Shuya, Noriko and Kawada leave the island on a boat but Kawada dies from injuries gained whilst fighting Kiriyama. The film ends with Shuya and Noriko being declared criminals who are forced to go on the run.
Cast
- Tatsuya FujiwaraTatsuya Fujiwarais a Japanese television and film actor.-Biography:Born in Saitama, Fujiwara has had an interest in acting from a young age.He is famous for acting the part of Shuya Nanahara in the controversial 2000 film Battle Royale and continues the character as a leader of the Wild Seven in the sequel, Battle...
as Shuya NanaharaShuya Nanaharais a fictional Japanese student and one of the three main protagonists of the violent and controversial novel, manga, and film Battle Royale. In the English-language manga he is nicknamed Shu.... - Aki MaedaAki MaedaAki Maeda is a Japanese actress and singer. She has an older sister named Ai Maeda....
as Noriko Nakagawa - Taro YamamotoTaro Yamamotois a Japanese actor.Currently, he actively involved with the anti-nuclear movement.- Selected filmography :* 1998 Love Letter* 1999 Big show! Hawaii ni utaeba* 2000 Battle Royale * 2001 Hashire! Ichiro...
as Shogo Kawada - Takeshi KitanoTakeshi Kitanois a Japanese filmmaker, comedian, singer, actor, film editor, presenter, screenwriter, author, poet, painter, and one-time video game designer who has received critical acclaim, both in his native Japan and abroad, for his highly idiosyncratic cinematic work. The famed Japanese film critic...
as Kitano - Masanobu AndoMasanobu Andois a Japanese actor and director.For his second film, in 1996, he won the Film Academy of Japan's Best New Actor Award, starring in Takeshi Kitano's Kids Return....
as Kazuo Kiriyama - Kou ShibasakiKou Shibasaki, born Yukie Yamamura, on August 5, 1981 in Toshima, Tokyo, Japan is a Japanese singer and actress.-Music career:Shibasaki made her debut in the music industry in 2002 with her first single Trust My Feelings, but she became recognized for her second single Tsuki no shizuku which was used for the...
as Mitsuko Souma - Takashi TsukamotoTakashi Tsukamotois a Japanese actor, singer, and model.He has released three single CDs: "Itsudemo Boku wa" , "Hitorigoto" , "New Morning"....
as Shinji Mimura - Sosuke Takaoka as Hiroki Sugimura
- Yukihiro Kotani as Yoshitoki Kuninobu
- Chiaki KuriyamaChiaki Kuriyamais a Japanese actress, singer and model. She is best known in the West for her roles in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill, Volume 1 and the Japanese film Battle Royale .- Biography :...
as Takako Chigusa
Distribution in North America
Despite rumours to the contrary, the film is not banned in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Rather, there has never been a distribution agreement for the film.
It has been exhibited at film festivals in North America. Nonetheless, bootleg copies of the film imported from China and South Korea have widespread availability on the continent, and a Special Edition DVD of the film was carried to a limited extent by retailers such as HMV
HMV
His Master's Voice is a trademark in the music business, and for many years was the name of a large record label. The name was coined in 1899 as the title of a painting of the dog Nipper listening to a wind-up gramophone...
and Starstruck Entertainment in Canada and Tower Records
Tower Records
Tower Records was a retail music chain that was based in Sacramento, California. It currently exists as an international franchise and an online music store....
in the United States; the legal status of this edition is not clear. Also, the film's UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
distributor, Tartan Films
Tartan Films
Palisades Tartan is a US and UK film distribution company, founded by US-based Palisades Media Group to take over the film library of Tartan Films after it folded in Summer 2008.-History:...
, released an all-region NTSC
NTSC
NTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...
DVD version of the film that is available in North America from specialty outlets. One widely available Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
import is a special edition without English subtitles that contains both Battle Royale and its sequel. Both Battle Royale and its sequel are available on NetFlix
Netflix
Netflix, Inc., is an American provider of on-demand internet streaming media in the United States, Canada, and Latin America and flat rate DVD-by-mail in the United States. The company was established in 1997 and is headquartered in Los Gatos, California...
, a major home-entertainment distributor in the United States.
Sasebo slashing controversy
The creators of the sequel postponed the release of the DVD (originally scheduled for June 9, 2004) to later that year because of current events, which at the time was the Sasebo slashing. The killer had read Battle Royale.Special version
A special version of the film was released after the original which has eight extra minutes of running time. Unusually, the extra material includes scenes newly filmed after the release of the original. Inserted scenes include (but are not limited to):- Flashbacks to a basketball game which is used as a framework for the entire story.
- A flashback that explains Mitsuko's personality.
- Three epilogues (referred to as "requiems"). The first is an extension of the basketball scene. The second is a vision of Nobu telling Shuya to take care of Noriko. The third is a scene between Kitano and Noriko, who talk casually by a riverbank.
- Added shots of the lighthouse after the shoot-out
- Added reaction shots in the classroom, and extensions to existing shots.
- Extra CGI throughout the film
3D re-release
The film was released to theaters in 3D3-D film
A 3-D film or S3D film is a motion picture that enhances the illusion of depth perception...
in Japan on November 20, 2010. Director Kinji Fukasaku's son and screenwriter of Battle Royale, Kenta Fukasaku, oversaw the conversion. The 3D version will be the premiere version in America, due for release by Anchor Bay Entertainment
Anchor Bay Entertainment
Anchor Bay Entertainment is a U.S. based home entertainment and production company and is a division of Starz Media, which is a unit of Starz, LLC. It was previously owned by IDT Entertainment until 2006 when IDT was purchased by Starz Media. Anchor Bay markets and sells feature films, series,...
sometime in 2011.
Limited edition release
Arrow VideoArrow Films
Arrow Films is a UK distributor of classic, horror, and cult films on Blu-ray and DVD.-Arrow Films:Arrow Films is one of the UK's leading independent distributors of world cinema, arthouse, horror and classic films...
released the film on Blu-ray and DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
in a Limited Edition version in the United Kingdom on December 13, 2010 as a three-disc collector's edition set, featuring both cuts of the film. The DVD version was limited to 5,000 copies. The Blu-ray version was initially being released as limited to 5,000 copies but due to the large volume of pre-orders was increased to 10,000 copies. The Limited Edition Blu-ray is region-free, meaning it can play on Blu-ray players worldwide. The DVD is also region-free.
Reception
Battle Royale grossed ¥Japanese yen
The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third most traded currency in the foreign exchange market after the United States dollar and the euro. It is also widely used as a reserve currency after the U.S. dollar, the euro and the pound sterling...
3.11 billion domestically (around $25 million US). The film was widely acclaimed by critics, with an 83% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
.
The film was labeled "crude and tasteless" by members of Japanese parliament and other government officials after the film was screened for them before its general release. The film created a debate over government action on media violence. Many conservative politicians used the film to blame popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
for a youth crime wave. Ilya Garger of TIME
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine said that Battle Royale received "free publicity" and received "box-office success usually reserved for cartoons and TV-drama spin-offs."
At the 2001 Japanese Academy Awards
Japanese Academy Awards
The , often called the Japan Academy Awards or the Japanese Academy Awards, is a series of awards given annually since 1978 by the Nippon Academy-shō Association for excellence in Japanese film...
, the film was nominated for Picture of the Year, Director of the Year
Japan Academy Prize for Director of the Year
The of the Japan Academy Prize is one of the annual Awards given by the Nippon Academy-sho association .-List of winners:-External links:* - **...
, Screenplay of the Year
Japan Academy Prize for Screenplay of the Year
The of the Japan Academy Prize is one of the annual Awards given by the Nippon Academy-sho association .-List of winners:-External links:* - **...
, Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Japan Academy Prize for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
The of the Japan Academy Prize is one of the annual Awards given by the Nippon Academy-sho association .-List of winners:-External links:* - **...
(Tatsuya Fujiwara), Outstanding Achievement in Music (Masamichi Amano
Masamichi Amano
Masamichi Amano is a Japanese music composer, arranger and conductor. He studied at the Kunitachi College of Music in Tokyo and graduated in 1982. He obtained the Takeoka Prize....
), and Outstanding Achievement in Sound Recording (Kunio Ando). The film won Outstanding Achievement in Film Editing (Hirohide Abe) and the Popularity Award, and Tatsuya Fujiwara and Aki Maeda both won Newcomer of the Year.
Critics note its relation to the increasingly extreme trend in Asian cinema and its similarity to reality television.
In 2009, Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
listed the film as his favorite film released since he began directing in 1992. Bloody Disgusting
Bloody Disgusting
Bloody Disgusting is a website that covers horror movies with reviews, interviews and news. It is currently run by Brad Miska, and Tom Owen. According to one source, the site has 1.5 million unique visitors and 20 million page views each month. It is widely considered to be the "world's most...
ranked the film fifteenth in its list of the Top-20 Horror Films of the Decade, with the article calling the film "a go-for-broke extravaganza: fun, provocative, ultra-violent, and bound to arouse controversy (which it did)...the film [is] more than just an empty provocation—it builds character through action, a method all good filmmakers should seek to emulate." Empire
Empire (magazine)
Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
ranked Battle Royale #235 and #82 on their lists of "The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time" and "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" respectively.
TOKYO 10+01
Battle Royale heavily influenced the 2002 Japanese film TOKYO 10+01, which was directed by Higuchinsky and makes several references to the Battle Royale film itself. It involves eleven strangers being forced to play a game with a set time limit or face death. Instead of explosive collars, they have bracelets with hypodermic needles which can inject a deadly poison if they try to remove them or time runs out. TOKYO 10+01 has two actors who respectively appeared in both Battle Royale and Battle Royale II: RequiemBattle Royale II: Requiem
, abbreviated as BRII , is a 2003 Japanese, dystopian, action-thriller film. It is a sequel to the 2000 film, Battle Royale, which in turn was based upon a controversial 1999 novel of the same title by Koushun Takami...
: Masanobu Ando
Masanobu Ando
is a Japanese actor and director.For his second film, in 1996, he won the Film Academy of Japan's Best New Actor Award, starring in Takeshi Kitano's Kids Return....
, who played Kazuo Kiriyama in the first film, and Natsuki Kato
Natsuki Kato
is a Japanese actress and former fashion model, regularly appearing on television in various roles.-Career:After she was spotted and recruited with 1998's television commercial appearance by a current entertainment production, she made her debut in 1999....
, who appeared in Battle Royale II as Saki Sakurai. A close concept of kill-game is used for the manga (1999-2001) and anime (2008) Bus Gamer
Bus Gamer
is a short-lived Japanese manga series created by Kazuya Minekura. It only exists as a single volume 'Pilot Edition' due to difficulties in serialization. The manga has been licensed for North American distribution by Tokyopop...
.
Remake
In June 2006, VarietyVariety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
reported that New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema, often simply referred to as New Line, is an American film studio. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne as a film distributor, later becoming an independent film studio. It became a subsidiary of Time Warner in 1996 and was merged with larger sister studio Warner...
, with producers Neil Moritz and Roy Lee
Roy Lee
Roy Lee is an American film producer who regularly takes well known Asian films and remakes them for American audiences. Examples include The Ring, The Grudge and The Departed...
, intended to produce a new adaptation
Remake
A remake is a piece of media based primarily on an earlier work of the same medium.-Film:The term "remake" is generally used in reference to a movie which uses an earlier movie as the main source material, rather than in reference to a second, later movie based on the same source...
of Battle Royale. Several Web sites echoed the news, including Ain't It Cool News
Ain't It Cool News
Ain't It Cool News is a website founded and run by Harry Knowles, dedicated to news, rumors and reviews of upcoming and currently playing films and television projects, with an emphasis on science fiction, fantasy, horror, comic-book and action genres...
, which claimed the remake would be a "an extremely Hard R—serious-minded Americanization of BATTLE ROYALE." New Line tentatively set a release date of 2008.
The next month, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
reported on an Internet backlash against the remake. Through the article, Lee assured fans of his respect for the original work, claiming, "This is the one I'm going to be the most careful with." He stated that, despite earlier concerns, the movie would not be toned down to PG or PG-13, the characters would remain young teenagers, and that it would draw elements equally from the novel
Battle Royale
thumb|260px|Cover of the 2009 expanded edition, ISBN 978-1-4215-2772-3 is a 1999 Japanese novel written by Koushun Takami. The story tells of schoolchildren who are forced to fight each other to the death....
and the original movie and the manga.
The reporter noted "the hubbub...was at least slightly premature [as] New Line hasn't yet purchased the remake rights."
Following the Virginia Tech massacre
Virginia Tech massacre
The Virginia Tech massacre was a school shooting that took place on April 16, 2007, on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States. In two separate attacks, approximately two hours apart, the perpetrator, Seung-Hui Cho, killed 32 people...
in April 2007, Roy Lee claimed that prospects for the remake had been "seriously shaken." While he remained willing to proceed, he stated, "we might be a little more sensitive to some of the issues." The reporting article noted that New Line still had not secured remake rights—its spokeswoman claimed "no news" when asked about progress on any deal.
External links
- Official English-language Battle Royale website
- Battle Royale fansite
- Review and analysis of the Battle Royale film
- Battle Royale American Remake Set Up
- Comparison of DVD releases Battle Royale at the Japanese Movie Database Battle Royale (Director's Cut) at the Japanese Movie Database Battle Royale 3D Official Website