Battle Royale I and II - Star Max

After years of US distributors being unwilling or unable to cut a deal to bring Kinji Fukasaku‘s neo eiga classic “Battle Royale” to DVD in North America, online retailers like Amazon have side-stepped the problem by stocking this All-region double feature of “Battle Royale” and Battle Royale II” from Korean distributor Star Max/Wision. Let this be a lesson to greedy rights holders and cheapskate rights buyers everywhere. NTSC, anamorphic widescreen 1.78:1, 3 discs. Japanese DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 audio with optional English and Korean subtitles.

In Battle Royale the Japanese government enacts the drastic “BR Act” to combat juvenile delinquency, forcing a class of 40 students to fight to the death on a remote island, with only the last one standing allowed to go free. The students are fitted with explosive collars so there is no escape, and the rules of the game are continually changed to keep people from hiding or not participating in the carnage. The students all react to the situation differently. Some relish the opportunity to murder the students that have harassed them for years while others would rather kill themselves than take the life of another human being. Still others, Such as Shuya (Tatsuya Fujiwara) and Noriko (Aki Maeda) just try to defend themselves and each other. Luckily there are participants on the island, such as hacker Shinji Mimura (Takashi Tsukamoto) and the mysterious Kawada (Taro Yamamoto), have designs on defeating the game itself.

In Battle Royale II Shuya has gone on to head his own terrorist group called “Wild Seven” to fight back against the Japanese government that forced his 9th grade class to murder each other all those years ago. Under pressure from a powerful foreign government, Japan starts up the BR program again simply to send a group of expendable combatants to the terrorist group’s hideout as sort of a human shield before the real troops move in. However, Shuya has grown into a cunning warrior over the years and has a plan in place for just such an occasion.

Available at the following retailer(s) on May 29, 2007:

• Amazon.com
• Amazon.ca
• HKFlix