BATTLE ROYALE

An opening narration tells of how the world, or at least Japan, was reduced to chaotic disorder at the turn of the 21st Century. Unemployment hit record numbers and as a result some 800,000 pupils boycotted against the prospect of attending school.

To combat the wave of juvenile crimes that ensued, the country's adults reluctantly signed up to the Millennial Reform Program - which came to be known as the "BR program".

Enter Class B, 42 mismatched 9th Graders who would rather stab their teacher in his arse than show up for lessons. This is not a good idea when your teacher is Kitano (Takeshi Kitano).

After embarking on a seemingly harmless school coach trip, the kids are gassed to sleep and when they awake are contained in a military classroom. Kitano, their grudge-bearing 7th Grade tutor, has been assigned the task of briefing them on their new mission in life: surviving the Battle Royale.

What is Battle Royale? Amazingly, these kids don't even seem to know what it is either (hmm). Kitano shows us and them an instructional video for further enlightenment. It turns out that each year one classroom of unruly fuck-ups is nominated to be flown to an island where they are individually set free and given three days to kill each other. The last man (or girl) standing wins their freedom.

And what if the kids don't take this proposition seriously? What if they should attempt to flee from the island? Kitano demonstrates what the metallic, motion-sensitive necklaces each one is wearing are capable of ... kaboom!

So, petty squabbles and unwelcome flashbacks to more carefree times aside, BATTLE ROYALE rarely lets up from there as the boys and girls are transported - along with shifty-looking exchange students Kawada (Taro Yamamoto) and Kiriyama (Masanobu Ando) - to the dreaded island.

I imagine most if not all readers are familiar with BATTLE ROYALE (the on-screen title is BATTLE ROYALE 2000) by now. It caused such a stir upon its release that it was impossible to ignore, and its concept of children being pitted to the death against each other was enough to (a) enrage the tabloids and (b) win instant cult appeal.

Truth be told, watching it now, it's not like BATTLE ROYALE is an overly graphic film. True, it's violent and the grisly action comes frequently. But it's all delivered with the same gusto as an 80s Arnie film and the pace is so unrelenting that we're never allowed to linger on the brutality for longer than a couple of seconds at a time. It's a gory film, but it's never nasty.

With its sometimes cringe-inducing sentimentality - especially hero Shuya's (Tatsuya Fujiwara) sensitivity towards the fates of his mates - and moments of poor humour, BATTLE ROYALE is never as great a film as its reputation has gone on to lead people to believe. And, as Time Out critic Tony Rayns once put it, (late director Kinji Fukasaku's) "views of teenage life - flashbacks to happier days strumming guitar in the school dorm - are positively geriatric".

Add to that, the film is too long and too episodic to register on an emotional level: we don't care for any of these one-dimensional characters.

So, there you have the negatives. But you knew all of that already. BATTLE ROYALE is highly regarded because of its non-stop action (some scenes allegedly being based on Fukasaku's own World War 2 experiences), its faithfulness to its own absurd Manga origins and the spunk with which it's all executed. Kitano is great fun to watch too, revelling in a role that's more manic than his own icy creations.

It's not high art and it's hardly worthy of the debates that it apparently provoked upon its release in Japanese parliament, but BATTLE ROYALE remains a good source of guilty fun.

The film has never fared too well on DVD. Despite a couple of Special Editions worldwide (notably, Tartan UK's metal tin set) that loaded the film with spiffing extras, fans have always bemoaned the lack of a spanking transfer.

Which leads us to this 3-disc limited edition from Arrow ...

Disc one is a 50GB dual layer blu-ray disc that proffers the theatrical cut, clocking in at 113 minutes and 51 seconds in length.

Presented in 1080p high definition, in the original 1.85:1 aspect ratio and enhanced for 16x9 televisions, the film is happily uncut. But it still looks a tad soft and lacking in vitality. Colours are not as vibrant as you'd expect from a HD version of such a recent film, and blacks are worn-looking.

As such, the transfer is bound to stir controversy for Arrow. However, I'm reluctant to lay the blame at their feet. It seems common of Japanese films, actually shot on 35mm, for their transfers to employ muted colour schemes and less than pin-sharp visuals. It may well be, judging from all previous presentations of this film to my knowledge, that the picture is down to how the original Kodak film stock was processed by Toei. What do I know?

Nevertheless, despite these qualms, the picture is clean and smooth - and definitely an upgrade on all previous DVD versions. Some of the daytime scenes looked great.

Japanese audio is provided in DTS HD-Master Audio and Stereo mixes. The former is excellent, really well-rounded and boasting an impressive array of sound effects and stirring playback of the film's classical score. Optional English subtitles are well-produced and easy to read.

A static main menu page led to discreet pop-up menus on disc one, including a scene-selection menu allowing access to the main feature via 12 chapters.

The only extras on disc one were a trailer, and the excellent 52-minute Making Of documentary "The Experience of 42 High School Students". This is window-boxed and presented with Japanese audio, in standard definition. It's a good on-set expose which begins with the cast and crew helping to celebrate Fukasaku's 70th birthday. Optional English subtitles are on hand, but only for dialogue - there's a lot of on-screen Japanese text that doesn't get translated for us.

Over on disc two, another 50GB blu-ray disc, we're treated to the "director's cut" of the film.

Coming in at 121 minutes and 56 seconds in length, this one actually calls itself the "special edition". The added several minutes of running time relate mostly to back-story, attempting to bring an element of youthful tragedy to proceedings. They don't really add much - although the new titles are quite inspiring.

Essentially the same film, the new stuff doesn't harm proceedings any ... but it is interesting to note that this is not apparently Fukasaku's preferred version of the film.

Specs in terms of video, audio, menus and chapters selection are the same here as on disc one. Although, unless my eyes are deceiving me, this version did appear a tad brighter and sharper than its disc one counterpart.

Extras begin with a trailer and TV spot for the Special Edition.

Next up is a 9-minute window-boxed featurette entitled "Shooting The Special Edition". As a secondary Making Of, this English-subtitled effort is little more than a footnote to the far more substantial offering on disc one.

An interview with Kitano is better, clocking in at 12 minutes and finding the enigmatic filmmaker/actor in fine fettle.

A clutch of shorter, mildly interesting and window-boxed featurettes round off disc two: "Conducting Battle Royale with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra" (7 minutes); "The Correct Way to Make Battle Royale Special Edition" (3 minutes); "Tokyo International Film Festival Premiere" (4 minutes).

The two blu-ray discs alone offer a pretty comprehensive look at practically every aspect of the film's making. But there's more.

This limited edition set - 10,000 individually numbered units - also includes a third disc. This PAL DVD offers a wealth of more supplementary material, kicking off with two more Making Of featurettes ("Behind The Scenes" and "Filming On The Set") which cover another 23 minutes' worth of insightful material.

Past the obligatory trailers, TV spots and galleries, we also get an amazing seven further featurettes. The best of these include an FX comparison showcase and footage from an Asian press conference. These documentaries offer another hour of entertaining, exhaustive footage. Again, this is all presented in window-boxed full-frame, with Japanese audio and English subtitles.

Arrow's packaging deserves commenting upon. Once again going the extra mile, this set comes complemented by a new 32-page booklet including - among other things - an archive Fukasaku interview, a 32-page comic book continuing the story, two smaller booklets, a reversible fold-out poster and a collection of glossy postcards. It all comes housed in five digipacks, each of which are contained by one durable card outer case.

So far as packaging and extras go, Arrow have excelled yet again and produced an edition of BATTLE ROYALE that all rivals (including Anchor Bay, who have acquired the US rights) will struggle to top. The picture quality of the main features may be a let-down to those expecting perfection - but they're still the best the film has ever looked ... and potentially the best it ever can.

Recommended.

Review by Stuart Willis