Battle Royale: 25th Anniversary Edition (Steelbook) (4K UHD Review)
Director
Kinji FukasakuRelease Date(s)
2000 (December 9, 2025)Studio(s)
Battle Royale Production Committee/Toei Company (Lionsgate Limited)- Film/Program Grade: See Below
- Video Grade: See Below
- Audio Grade: See Below
- Extras Grade: B-
- Overall Grade: B
Review
[Editor’s Note: The original review of Battle Royale by Bill Hunt covered the Arrow Video 4K Ultra HD release. Additional details have been added by Tim Salmons to cover the Lionsgate release.]
Kinji Fukasaku is a name well known to fans of Japanese action cinema. His work—which has had a strong influence on the likes of John Woo and Quentin Tarantino—includes The Green Slime (1968), the yakuza film series Battles Without Honor in Humanity (1973-76), and Message from Space (1978). He also directed portions of Fox’s Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) after Akira Kurosawa left the project two weeks in.
By his own admission, Fukasaku was fascinated by death. As a teenage boy in 1945, he was drafted by the Japanese military along with his classmates and made to work in a weapons plant. This was subsequently shelled, killing many of his friends. Fukasaku fully expected to die himself until the war suddenly ended, leaving him adrift with the rest of his generation. In the aftermath, Japanese films were banned by the occupying U.S. forces, so Fukasaku watched many foreign cinema instead. He quickly became a fan, went on to study film in Tokyo, and was eventually hired as a scriptwriter and assistant director at Toei Studios.
When his son Kenta discovered Koushun Takami’s controversial Battle Royale in 1999—which was nearly banned by the Japanese government upon its release—Fukasaku read the novel and became engrossed by its story, which brought back his memories of the war. Fukasaku explained as much in a director’s statement released when his film version began circulating on DVD outside Japan:
“I immediately identified with the 9th graders in the novel, Battle Royale. I was fifteen when World War II came to an end. By then, my class had been drafted and was working in a munitions factory. In July 1945, we were caught up in artillery fire. Up until then, the attacks had been air raids and you had a chance of escaping from those. But with artillery, there was no way out. It was impossible to run or hide from the shells that rained down. We survived by diving for cover under our friends.
“After the attacks, my class had to dispose of the corpses. It was the first time in my life I’d seen so many dead bodies. As I lifted severed arms and legs, I had a fundamental awakening... everything we’d been taught in school, about how Japan was fighting the war to win world peace, was a pack of lies. Adults could not be trusted.
“The emotions I experienced then—an irrational hatred for the unseen forces that drove us into those circumstances, a poisonous hostility towards adults, and a gentle sentimentality for my friends—were a starting point for everything since. This is why, when I hear reports about recent outbreaks of teenage violence and crimes, I cannot easily judge or dismiss them.
“This is the point of departure for all my films. Lots of people die in my films. They die terrible deaths. But I make them this way because I don’t believe anyone would ever love or trust the films I make, any other way.
“Battle Royale, my 60th film, returns irrevocably to my own adolescence. I had a great deal of fun working with the 42 teenagers making this film, even though it recalled my own teenage battleground.”
It’s fair then to say that Battle Royale (2000) and its sequel Battle Royale II: Requiem (2003) are the culmination of Fukasaku’s life-long exploration of these themes of death, human conflict, and violence.
Set in a dystopian near-future Japan, in which an authoritarian government has passed the “BR Act” to address widespread juvenile delinquency, Battle Royale tells the story of middle schooler Shuya Nanahara (Tatsuya Fujiwara) and his classmates, who are surprised to learn that they’ve been selected to fight in the annual Battle Royale. Sent to a remote island under the guise of a field trip, they awake (after having been gassed) in a warehouse under military guard and are told by their old teacher Kitano (played by Takeshi Kitano, aka Beat Takeshi) that they have three days to fight each other to the death... and that only one of them can win. Equipped with a random assortment of weapons, what plays out is a grisly and twisted Lord of the Flies-style fight for survival.
When Battle Royale was originally released—both the book and the film—it was downright shocking. Now, sadly, it almost feels quaint. Teens today have grown up in a world with active-shooter drills in schools, with climate change breathing down their necks, with adults around them arguing about the need to wear masks in a global pandemic, and with some of those adults unable to sort reality from Internet conspiracy. So it’s not hard to imagine why today’s teens might have a little less respect for their elders. Hell, when I was a teenager back in the early 1980s, all I had to worry about was whether or not the Russians loved their children too.
In any case, the film version of Battle Royale is something close to a masterpiece. For one thing, it’s extremely well crafted, smart as hell, even funny. Kitano’s role is darkly comic. (I laugh every time when he claps along with the chipper TV instructor as she tells the students how best to knock each other off.) Meanwhile, the teens themselves are society in microcosm; some are clearly good while others seem to embrace and enjoy the sinister nature of the game they’re forced to play. Even the film’s use of Western classical music (think Strauss, Verdi, and Bach) is subversive. And yes, this film’s similarities to the more recent Hunger Games books make the latter an easy target for criticism. But teen dystopia has become its own entertainment genre since the early aughts. It’s not inconceivable that different writers and filmmakers could have tapped into the zeitgeist in similar ways without consciously being aware of one another.
(A note from Tim on this: this is also an idea that had already been explored in a literary sense by William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, and Stephen King’s The Long Walk and The Running Man, among others. Truly, there isn’t much new under the sun, just variations on a theme.)
The Director’s Cut (121:12) which runs about 8 minutes longer, features more elaborate opening credits, slightly edited versions of several scenes, and a number of new flashbacks (mostly to the students’ time in school, including a basketball game, but also to home life and family) that expand upon the character backstories and relationships. These add to the emotional impact of many of the students’ deaths. There’s also a bit more bloodshed (added via CGI) and graphic violence. And the film’s ending is extended, featuring three flashback “Requiems” that serve as a final grace note for story points we’ve seen earlier. The changes are better in some ways, but detract in others. (On balance, I prefer the Theatrical Version). 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. Detail is just a little less crisp, with colors just a little bit more uneven.
Battle Royale was shot by cinematographer Katsumi Yanagishima on 35mm photochemical film using Arriflex 535B cameras with Zeiss and Angenieux spherical lenses, and finished photochemically at aspect ratio of 1.85:1. Lionsgate Limited debuts the film on Ultra HD in the U.S. with native 4K presentations of the Theatrical and Director’s Cuts, both graded for High Dynamic Range in HDR10 and Dolby Vision, and encoded to separate triple-layered BD-100 discs. These appear to be the same sources used by Arrow Video for their 2021 UHD releases in the U.K. They’re virtually the same outside of a couple of small differences. First of all, the Japanese home video warning that was included on Arrow’s release is absent from both versions on Lionsgate’s release. The other caveat is in the encoding. Arrow’s is a bit more maxed out, with bitrates mostly sitting in the 80 to 100Mbps range, whereas the Lionsgate release hovers somewhere between 50 and 80Mbps most of the time. Otherwise, it’s the same high quality presentation with a light layer of natural grain, deep textures, and excellent clarity. Since the film takes place primarily at night and in the darkness, contrast is obviously important, and the blacks are deep here with subtle nuances in the shadows. The vivid color palette is brought to life with bold swatches of red, blue, and green, including a moment of fiery orange on the horizon, and during the basketball game flashbacks in the Director’s Cut. Otherwise, the palette can often appear muted, but for effect and not a fault of the master. The HDR grades truly benefit the film’s visuals, especially the Dolby Vision which takes far more advantage of the palette’s darker sections. Arrow has the edge slightly, but both it and the Lionsgate UHD presentations are solid.
Audio is included for both versions in Japanese 5.1 Dolby TrueHD, with the Director’s Cut adding an English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD option. Both versions offer optional subtitles in English, which play automatically for the Japanese tracks. These are completely new experiences since the Arrow release features Japanese 5.1 and 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio options. This might also be where the differences will appear a little more broad. The Arrow tracks are louder with a much deeper bass response, so much so that even with the volume is lowered, they can still rattle the windows and floors of your home. Lionsgate’s Dolby TrueHD options are tamer in this regard. Low frequency response is there, but it’s neutered by comparison. Otherwise, the tracks are similar when it comes to staging and clarity.
THEATRICAL CUT (FILM/VIDEO/AUDIO): A/A/B
DIRECTOR’S CUT (FILM/VIDEO/AUDIO): B+/A-/B
The Lionsgate Limited 4K Ultra HD release of Battle Royale contains four discs, two 2160p BD-100s and two 1080p BD-50s, and a Digital Code on a paper insert within the package. Everything sits in new Steelbook packaging with a slipcover, both featuring new artwork by Oliver Barrett. The following extras are included on each disc:
DISCS ONE & THREE: DIRECTOR’S CUT (UHD & BD)
- Kenta Fukasaku on Battle Royale (HD – 21:20)
- Battle Royale: Ripples of Violence (HD – 15:45)
- Legacy Special Features:
- The Making of Battle Royale: The Killing of 42 Junior High School Students (Upscaled SD – 50:24)
- Battle Royale Press Conference (Upscaled SD – 12:03)
- Guide to Making Battle Royale: Birthday Version (Upscaled SD – 3:04)
- Audition & Rehearsal Footage (Upscaled SD – 7:12)
- Special Effects Comparison (Upscaled SD – 4:17)
DISCS TWO & FOUR: THEATRICAL CUT (UHD & BD)
- Tokyo International Film Festival 2000 (Upscaled SD – 4:27)
- Prologue: Battle Royale (Upscaled SD – 12:10)
- Basketball Scene Rehearsals (aka Shooting the Special Edition) (Upscaled SD – 8:40)
- Behind-the-Scenes Featurette (aka The Slaughter of 42 Junior High School Students) (Upscaled SD – 10:10)
- Filming On-Set (Upscaled SD – 11:01)
- Original Theatrical Trailer (Upscaled SD – 1:50)
- Special Edition TV Spot (Upscaled SD – :32)
- TV Spot: Tarantino Version (Upscaled SD – :32)
Most of the bonus materials carry over from previous releases, though two new featurettes have been created specifically for this release. The first contains an interview with Kenta Fukasaku, screenwriter and son of Kinji Fukasaku. The second features interviews with Akira Mizuta Lippit, Professor at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts; and Kenneth Shima, University of California, Riverside, Professor of Comparative Literature.
The remaining extras have followed the film around on Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD for a while now, but there’s sstill plenty missing from the Arrow Video release, which also included both versions of the sequel, as well as its extras. This includes an audio commentary on the Theatrical Cut with Tom Mes and Jasper Sharp; the featurettes Coming of Age: Battle Royale at 20, Bloody Education: Kenta Fukasaku on Battle Royale, Conducting Battle Royale with the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra, Masamichi Anno Conducts Battle Royale, and Opening Day at the Marunouchi Toei Movie Theatre; an interview with Takeshi Kitano; another Guide to Making Battle Royale; additional behind the scenes footage; an image gallery; trailers; promos; and a Kinji Fukasaku Trailer Reel. Also included in that release is a CD soundtrack; a double-sided poster; a collection of Battle Royale “Trump Cards;” a 120-page hardback containing Tom Mes’ Kenji Fukasaku: Man of Rage monograph; and a 51-page insert booklet containing cast and crew information, a Director’s Statement, four essays on the film (by Matt Alt, Anne Billson, Jay McRoy, and Steve Rose), restoration information, production credits, and special thanks. (Check out Bill’s original review of that release for more detailed information on those extras.)
Unfortunately, as of this writing, Arrow Video’s Limited Edition five-disc release of the Battle Royale franchise is out of print, though you can still acquire a two-disc release containing most of those extras, though not all. The Lionsgate Limited Steelbook release of the original film leaves a little to be desired, but being that it’s not been available in the U.S. on 4K Ultra HD prior till now, it’s a nice release regardless. If you already own that Arrow set, there may not be much point in picking this up aside from the Steelbook packaging and the two new extras. It’s a fine release, but a more thorough package is needed.
- Bill Hunt and Tim Salmons
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