Battle Royale Limited Edition [4K Ultra-HD] [Blu-ray]

Product Information

The Recording of the Music Score, archive footage of Masamichi Amano and the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra. UK's Arrow Video has announced A Bay of Blood (Reazione a catena; Mario Bava, 1971) and Deep Red (Profondo rosso; Dario Argento, 1975) for Blu-ray release on December 6 and 13, respectively. A good portion of this film takes place at night or in the shadows, yet in those moments blacks are inky but still offer remarkable detail. It’s worth noting that the Director’s Cut was scanned in 4K from a 35 mm dupe negative, so while the quality is still very good, it’s not quite up to the same level as the first film. Dolby Vision HDR is also available on both discs with Japanese audio and optional English subtitles.

There’s no opportunity to get to know the various characters either, as they are for the most part faceless cannon fodder that drop like flies.I must have been in a good mood the first time I reviewed Battle Royale II: Requiem, either that, or coming off the back of the first film, I was looking for anything that could match its controversial impact. Disc Two, meanwhile, presents the Special Edition Director’s Cut (122:01) which runs about 8 minutes longer. The real highlight, however, is the gorgeous rendering of composer Masamichi Amano’s orchestral score.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Even if you don’t already have an all-region player, the only portion of the set you’ll be region-locked out of is Disc Three (the Battle Royale II theatrical cut).The Revenge cut—which was originally released in 2009 on DVD only—features more action, an alternate score, extensive use of slow motion, slightly better CG effects, more of Takeshi Kitano’s cameo, and more character flashbacks in general (including an alternate opening that better explains the motivations of the seemingly insane man who forces the teens into battle). The film Kenta ultimately delivered was a heavy-handed and nonsensical Saving Private Ryan knock-off, complete with more grisly action, over-the-top violence, and bad CG effects. The narrative is defiant and angry, establishing the characters within moments of their on-screen appearance and then stripping their emotions down to the core.

The limited edition release for Battle Royale contains the first film’s original theatrical version and special edition director’s cut across two 4K Ultra HD discs. It’s fair then to say that Battle Royale (2000) and Battle Royale II: Requiem (2003) are the culmination of Fukasaku’s life-long exploration of these themes of death, human conflict, and violence. And yes, this film’s similarities to the more recent Hunger Games books make the latter an easy target for criticism. The first film gets a new audio commentary from film critics Tom Mes and Jasper Sharpe, who are able to offer a lot of insights that are unique to these kind of retrospective commentaries from film critics and historians.It's worth watching both films back-to-back to see how the feel of certain character interactions changes.