Jose Dromedary

Del

arminius

So the director's cut is somewhat better than the director's cut. Have you seen the theatrical cut? I am wondering what people think of it vis-a-vis the theatrical cut.

Matthew Chmiel

The director's cut Special Version (as it's properly called) is an inferior edit.

The added material, which was shot after the film became a box office hit in Japan, doesn't elevate the material. In fact, it actually throws the entire pacing off making what was an already tightly-edited film into a film that has moments where it crawls due to the added footage.

That being said, there's also a lot of changes made due to audio (which are for the best... a more, dynamic sound mix if you well) and a lot of the on-screen carnage (CGI blood... which looks like CGI blood).

gryffinmaster

I suppose we're filtering discussion on the actual Blu-ray set here, too?

d2cheer

I think it was pretty stupid to close the other thread, when clearly that was the place to discuss the blu set etc...I won't be discussing it here.

mrhan

Me, too. Several times I posted wanting to discuss the actual disc on the other thread but it kept going back to "I didn't get mine!". I just went along with it and thought it would eventually get back on topic.

kstublen

The problem was, no one could really discuss the actual disc in the other thread because most of us didn't have it yet.

gryffinmaster

Alright, weeeellllllll ....... for the 75% who have received it:



Watched the theatrical cut the other night. Rather impressed with the film's visual treatment, given how mediocre it's looked in the past, but the Master Audio track's a beast under any consideration. Gunfire's extremely aggressive, teetering right on that line between overly-bombastic and hitting the sweet spot. And the new subtitle translation pretty much earns the set's price tag on its own.

Will likely give the director's cut a go at some point over the next week. Based on just the audiovisual merits of the generally "preferred" cut ...

flansered

My favorite thing about the set is the books that were included with it. The comic is just sort of alright, but the books of essays was a great read and the book of concepts for the packaging is probably one of the best extras I have seen in a long time. I haven't watched a lot of the special features yet, but I honestly don't see myself watching all of them due to amount of them and the fact that I'd probably get burned out watching that much about one movie. I have watched the theatrical cut, and I was thrilled about how great it looked. This is a movie that I have owned on several bootlegs of questionable quality (including a VHS version), and the old Tartan 2 disc special edition that I guess I should try to sell off.

mhg83

Is the Quentin Tarantino intro on any of the discs? I remember reading a review of one of the dvds that had this feature. Is it an Easter Egg on this set?

mrhan

I believe the trailer is on the 3rd disc but I could be wrong and it is not an easter egg.

islandclaws

Absolutely. This excited me more than anything.

FWIW, I agree that the TC is the superior version of the film. I enjoyed some of the extra bits included in the SE, but it killed the pacing in many areas. Those basketball scenes were terrible.

Brian T

The director's cut/special cut/whatever-it-was-called was a needless cash-in, much like the recent 3D revamp of the film in Japan. If one has watched the theatrical cut first (as one should!), the pace-killing nature of the flashback scenes becomes all the more apparent. One of the greatest things about the theatrical version was that many of the characterizations left room for the viewer to apply their own template, their own life experiences, their own memories of their middle- or high-school years in wondering what they would do in the same situation. The whole question of "What would you do?" was a key component the film's original advertising and buzz as well ("Could you kill your best friend?" was one such tagline as I recall). You could, perhaps even subconsciously, pick a character you identified with -- there were certainly enough to pick from -- and embellish him or her with facets of your own personality without feeling like the film was deliberately denying you something in the bargain. Filling in the backstories of many of these characters, especially the leads, just makes the whole experience that much more passive and less engaging. I suppose since it was Kinji Fukasaku's biggest, most controversial blockbuster in ages he was entitled to do what he liked with it upon its re-release, but his revisions just weren't necessary. Personally, I won't be revisiting the director's cut in this new set. Seeing it once in the Korean DVD set was enough (which means, yes, it should at least be seen . . . once).

matome

Arrow did a great job with the LE for sure. Watched the theatrical cut last night, and while it's certainly not reference material it looked pretty good to me. The audio was a monster though. I had to dial down the volume a bit during the inital helicopter landing scene. For once the extra crap in these box sets are actually pretty sweet.

RobLutter

Haven't watched it on the big screen yet (1080p projector) but it looked plenty nice on our 32" 1080p LG set.

Biggest improvement is the subs. I've owned like... 4 copies of this movie at one time or another and this is >by far< the best translation I've seen. If you want to see terrible... the Korean 2-Disc Director's Cut set is amongst the worst subtitling jobs I've seen.

Dan

So... as someone who has never seen either cut, should I watch the theatrical first? Or should I watch the, apparently inferior, director's cut? I intend to watch both, but I'm curious what the preferred "order" is.

RobLutter

Definitely the Theatrical Version. The "Special Edition" is not a "Director's Cut" (Kinji Fukasaku had enough clout to have final cut) and was made to celebrate the 1-year anniversary of the release of the movie (iirc) and expands on the movie... it doesn't really improve anything. To me, it really messes up the pace of the film

Trigger

Before I buy this thing, I just want to make sure it'll play in a US player. I've seen it listed as region B, but I've also read that it is region free.

PhantomStranger

I believe it's both, technically. The first pressing of the limited edition was region-free, but later pressings have been coded for Region B only. An American version, not quite the same, has come out recently.

Trigger

I know there's a cheaper american version, but I'd like to get the one with all the books and crap.

RobLutter

Well the one with "all the books and crap" is the Arrow UK Limited Edition. It's region free and was limited to 10,000 copies.

manicsounds

the 2 Blu-ray discs were region free, with the main feature in 1080p, and the extras in 720p.
the bonus DVD with more extras is region free, in PAL format. (Make sure you can play that)

And good luck scoring on a copy! I'm not letting mine go anytime soon.

Pizza

I'll be in the minority and state I love the Special Edition so much more. I don't feel the pacing is messed up, in fact I feel it's improved by slowing things down a bit and letting the horror sink in deeper. I love the back story of showing the kids in a normal school setting. It brought more depth to their current situation. For me, it made the Theatrical Version appear a little lighter in content. Agree about the CG blood. Love the movie either way and so much better than The Hunger Games.

Brian T

As a happy owner of the U.K. set, I'm curious how the U.S. supplements stack up against the U.K. supplements? Based on the Amazon listings for both, it seems the U.K. edition has a lot more context going for it.

These are the special features on the Arrow U.K. sets:

THE MAKING OF BATTLE ROYALE: THE EXPERIENCE OF 42 HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
CONDUCTING BATTLE ROYALE WITH THE WARSAW NATIONAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
SPECIAL EDITION TRAILER
TV SPOT: TARANTINO VERSION
SHOOTING THE SPECIAL EDITION
TAKESHI KITANO INTERVIEW
THE CORRECT WAY TO MAKE BATTLE ROYALE [BIRTHDAY VERSION]
TOKYO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL PRESENTATION
OPENING DAY AT MARU NO UCHI TOEI MOVIE THEATRE
THE SLAUGHTER OF 42 HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
PREMIERE PRESS CONFERENCE
THE CORRECT WAY TO FIGHT IN BATTLE ROYALE
ROYALE REHEARSALS
MASAMICHI AMANO CONDUCTS BATTLE ROYALE
SPECIAL EFFECTS COMPARISON
BEHIND THE SCENES FEATURETTE
FILMING ON SET
TV SPOTS, PROMOS AND COMMERCIALS
KINJI FUKASAKU TRAILER REEL
... plus the "books and crap". The book is a Criterion-worthy product, incidentally, and the postcards are OK (if pointless). The comic and book of concept artwork for the Blu packaging are basically the only truly unnecessary items in the set.


Amazon U.S. sez these are the special features on the Anchor Bay collection:

The Making of Battle Royale
TV Spot: Tarantino Version
Basketball Scene Rehearsals
Tokyo International Film Festival 2000
Special Edition TV Spot
Original Theatrical Trailer
Battle Royale Documentary
Special Effects Comparison Featurette
Filming On-Set
Behind-The-Scenes Featurette
Audition & Rehearsal Footage
Instructional Video: Birthday Version
Battle Royale Press Conference

My question is does the U.S. version packaging have some kind of "...and much more!" tag on its special features listing, or is this pretty much everything that's actually on the disc?

I suppose the U.S. edition can boast the sequel among it's contents, but seriously . . .

kidglov3s

My biggest problem with the special version, and to me it's a huge one, is that it disrupts the perfect kinetic montage of the bomb making/hacking sequence.