BATTLE ROYALE
Cutting class
RELEASED 26 APRIL 2000/2003 | 18 | Blu-ray (4K/standard) Directors Kinji and Kenta Fukasaku Cast Tatsuya Fujiwara, Aki Maeda, Ai Maeda, Shugo Oshinari, Takeshi Kitano
Because it spawned an ongoing global subgenre, it’s difficult to remember quite how shocking Battle Royale was when it hit the UK 20 years ago, but it remains bracingly violent.
The premise: a class of 42 15-year-olds are taken to an island, given weapons, and told the last one standing will live. Refuse to play, and an exploding collar blows out your throat… Cue ensuing bloodbath.
The lack of rationale is bewildering – the makers of The Purge tried harder – but it works as a warped metaphor for how war can erupt any time. Veteran director Kinji Fukasaku coaxed good performances out of his cast, and the uniformed costuming has helped to prevent it dating.
Sequel Battle Royale II: Requiem – completed by Kinji’s son Kenta after he collapsed on day one – begins well. Survivors from the first film have become terrorists; now another class is sent to attack their island hideout. Beach assault scenes using cameras that pick out every grain of earth riff neatly on Saving Private Ryan. But it’s a bloated, sentimental film, whose attempts to address the War on Terror – CG skyscraper demolitions; Afghanistan painted as an idyll of freedom – are naive at best, offensive at worst.
Extras This lavish five-disc set includes (in SD) Battle Royale: Special Edition (which has added flashbacks) and 2009’s frankly-notneeded Battle Royale II: Revenge. There are four new bonuses. Cast and crew are absent from retrospective “Coming Of Age” (42 minutes), but at least two of the critical talking heads are Japanese. There are two so-so interviews with Kenta Fukasaku (63 minutes), while Japanese cinema experts Tom Mes and Jasper Sharp provide insightful commentary. 278 minutes of featurettes include behind-the-scenes glimpses, rehearsal footage and effects breakdowns. Plus: soundtrack CD; 120-page book; set of trump cards, poster; booklet. Ian Berriman
Kinji Fukasaku directed a single scene in the sequel: in it, teacher’s daughter Shiori looks at her father’s painting.
The lack of rationale is bewildering