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Battle Royale (2000) & Battle Royale 2 (2003)


Guest BuddhasClaspedHandz

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Guest WuxiaFan

:laluot_26:

Just got my package TODAY!

The DVD packaging is phenominal! There are fold-outs for the Booklets, Comic & Postcards, and each version of the film in a nice sturdy box. It is just awesome! It even smells new, too! I have # 404/5000! :smile:

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Just got my 3-disc standard version in the mail. I like it better, mainly because it's standard blu-ray keep case size. Just looks better in the library! =D

Still comes with a poster and a book! Don't have to deal with that big ass collector's box.

BattleRoyale.jpg

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Just got my 3-disc standard version in the mail. I like it better, mainly because it's standard blu-ray keep case size. Just looks better in the library! =D

Still comes with a poster and a book! Don't have to deal with that big ass collector's box.

BattleRoyale.jpg

Totally agree mate i own the big ass collectors box but im going to sell it as it goes for silly money now and buy the standard edition that will look alot nicer along side my other arrow releases. :)

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OpiumKungFuCracker

Once Upon A Time In America, need to pick that one up when I get a chance.... @mpm74 How high would you rate it in terms of being a gangster movie, is it one of the best??

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Totally agree mate i own the big ass collectors box but im going to sell it as it goes for silly money now and buy the standard edition that will look alot nicer along side my other arrow releases. :)

Yeah, selling my LE Battle Royale Blu-ray big ass box was a good choice. You'll double your money (or more) for sure. Nothing like a standard Blu-ray case. I don't need all that BS it came with. Just give me the movie.

Once Upon A Time In America, need to pick that one up when I get a chance.... @mpm74 How high would you rate it in terms of being a gangster movie, is it one of the best??

One of the best gangster movies? No. One of the best movies? YES!

I love this movie so much I can't even talk about it. See it. =D

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Nice Kitchen by the way... Is that marble countertop???

Thanks! I got the marble counter top so I can stand OUATIA on it. It deserves nothing less. =D

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I think I'm the only one that doesn't actually mind BRII. I am very happy about the 4-disc set though my question is now which version of BRII is it gonna be, Requiem (which you all hate) or the much superior Revenge version that fixed most of the stuff people complained about.

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Looks like I'll be waiting for Anchor Bay's single disk release of the first film. Even the director's cut I could do without... the extra scenes just ruin the pacing of the film and the ending goes on and on and on, to almost a comical degree.

I think I'm the only one that doesn't actually mind BRII. I am very happy about the 4-disc set though my question is now which version of BRII is it gonna be, Requiem (which you all hate) or the much superior Revenge version that fixed most of the stuff people complained about.

huh, never knew about this "revenge" version. Care to elaborate?

My biggest problem with BRII isn't really the direction (even though 8 years later Kenta still hasn't directed anything good) but the change in plot. I think if they had stuck with the original "teenagers stuck on an island and forced to kill each other" storyline and avoided all the geo-political bs, they could have made a string of entertaining films.

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Even the director's cut I could do without... the extra scenes just ruin the pacing of the film and the ending goes on and on and on, to almost a comical degree.

The ending is indeed inferior, and the silly Chiaki flashback should have stayed on the cutting room floor. But I think the rest of the changes improve the film, especially love the R-15 (aka Fuck You Eirin!) logo at the beginning

even though 8 years later Kenta still hasn't directed anything good

He has

XX

Perfect Education 7

Black Rat

Fun movies all three, although admittedly they require a of a "refined" taste...

that being said, there are some disasters, too (Kodomo zamurai, Sukeban Deka: Code Name Asamiya Saki... and I'm afraid to even think of how his next one, We Can't Change the World. But, We Wanna Build a School in Cambodia, will turn out)

I think if they had stuck with the original "teenagers stuck on an island and forced to kill each other" storyline and avoided all the geo-political bs, they could have made a string of entertaining films.

I think the worst thing about BRII was when it was imitating the first film too much. The decision to do something different was definitely the right one. Not that it turned out any good, though. Should see it again, though, haven't seen it since it was released...

And it seems to have Aki Maeda in it. Can't remember if the role is big, but I do love her :tongue:

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huh, never knew about this "revenge" version. Care to elaborate?

My biggest problem with BRII isn't really the direction (even though 8 years later Kenta still hasn't directed anything good) but the change in plot. I think if they had stuck with the original "teenagers stuck on an island and forced to kill each other" storyline and avoided all the geo-political bs, they could have made a string of entertaining films.

The Revenge version of BRII put 20 minutes worth of footage back into the movie but it also changed a good bit of the original version. More glimpses of students that died early that we never really got to know like what the SE of the first movie did, more Chiba, a bit more violence (the missing missile that blew up the one boat that we never seen, is put back in, and other bits extended), some scenes are rearranged (hence the subtitle change from Requiem to Revenge. Requiem follows Shiori Kitano's point of view, whereas Revenge follows Nanahara's), quite a few flashbacks to BR reflecting Nanahara's point of view, soundtrack features a lil more music from BR to tie them closer together, extended convo between Haruya and Sakurai, the student death toll is now published over a black screen so it doesn't clutter it up in the middle of scenes, secondary characters also get a lil extended bits also. That's all I can think of right off bat.

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Nobody is obligated to hate BRII in either form, but let's not engage in apologetics. Despite what I'm sure was considerable money and effort, it's a shell that sorely misses the guiding hand of Kinji Fukasaku. However reshuffled, BRII: Revenge is still a deck full of jokers.

If there's one thing to be wary of in fandom, it's the rose-tinted glasses. To the question "should I see BRII?" I would respond "Have you seen x?".

(x = anything better than BRII e.g. the movies Fukasaku should be remembered for, Gosha, Suzuki...)

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Nobody is obligated to hate BRII in either form, but let's not engage in apologetics. Despite what I'm sure was considerable money and effort, it's a shell that sorely misses the guiding hand of Kinji Fukasaku. However reshuffled, BRII: Revenge is still a deck full of jokers.

If there's one thing to be wary of in fandom, it's the rose-tinted glasses. To the question "should I see BRII?" I would respond "Have you seen x?".

(x = anything better than BRII e.g. the movies Fukasaku should be remembered for, Gosha, Suzuki...)

Not being apologetic about BR2. I really don't think it's anywhere near as bad as most of you people make it seem. Had it followed the usual sequel formula of copying the original, I would've hated it honestly. That's why I like BR2, it tried something different for once unlike most sequels. And have you seen any of the behind the scenes footage? Kinji DID guide that movie! That's what a lot of people seem to not realize. Kinji is more responsible for BR2 than Kenta was. Kinji made Kenta put the terrorism aspect in, Kinji was also there throughout rehearsals and even scouted the locations himself. Now, I know you didn't mention Kenta, but others have and that's the major part everyone seems to miss is that Kinji was more involved in that movie than people want to admit.

I love Kinji's movies. In fact, I'm watching Hokuriku Proxy War right now, but to solely blame Kenta for BR2 is a bit petty as most of that blame, for haters, should be directed at Kinji. Sure BR2 has some flaws, but I've seen way worse in other films that are loved by the population, The Dark Knight comes to mind. Dark Knight is a good movie, but it also has plotholes far worse than BR2 does but most people look past those flaws (DK's).

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Guest Markgway

I don't really know anything about the Fukasakus beyond Battle Royale so I hold no cinematic prejudice. I just happened to HATE Battle Royale 2 with a vengeance.

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@Juon 408: I think it's tasteless as well, but I cannot say I'm surprised. Most people go to BR for the exploitative flair and are either uninterested or ill-equipped to acknowledge what it builds.

RE:BRII, whatever floats your boat, man. I haven't seen Dark Knight so I can't comment on that, but my problem with BRII isn't that it wasn't a mainstream success or that I personally didn't like it. It's just that despite being intruiging, it's half-baked; something that makes it all the harder to stomach. I don't claim to know anything beyond the final product.

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Come to think of it, isn't this kind of a historical event? Battle Royale in North America! People said it couldn't be done! But I've never seen the "fear of being sued" excuse ever substantiated with something beyond the imaginations of fans. I mean, think for a second: as publicised as Columbine was, it was hardly the first such event in the United States; Battle Royale does ANYTHING but endorse it's events; and finally, there has been no shortage of controversial content in America before and after any of this. It's very difficult to believe that the American home video market wouldn't have room for BR when Death Wish, Scarface, Cannibal Holocaust, and Salo are among its numbers...

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ShaOW!linDude

You're right. There's never a shortage of controversial content in the US (or anywhere, for that matter).

The Basketball Diaries contains of scene of Leonardo DiCapprio's character having a drug-induced daydream about yanking out a shotgun in class and killing his fellow students and teachers. If I remember correctly he's even wearing a black duster when he does it. After Columbine, that movie went into hiding. Seems like it couldn't be found anywhere.

I've never seen BR but from what I've read the plot is nowhere similar to the events of Columbine. The problem seems to be that it's high school kids pit against each other in order to survive.

Oh, and now all the talk in Hollywood is about The Hunger Games, a popular book series about (Gasp!) kids being pitted against one another to survive.

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I was lucky enough to see in on the big screen in the US as part of a Fukasaku film fest.

Still don't have a decent dvd of it though. I had a korean directors cut but the subs were crappy and incomplete. Got rid of it.

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As far as I can tell via Caps-a-holic, the (Japanese-based?) German Blu and the UK Blu compare pretty well against one another; they appear to have a common source, and the encodes don't appear to differ all that much.

So while I'm still curious to see what Anchor Bay churns out, it's hard to imagine it would be a revalation...

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