Jackskeleton

WHAT?! they didn't say Bad USA.. they just mentioned a country that sounds just like the U.S. in a bad light.

Not to mention the whole towers coming down at the start.. yeah.. BRII wont ever see the light of day on our U.S. shores.

Matthew Chmiel

I disagree with Trigger. I've owned 5 different versions of the film (HK VCD, HK DVD, UK NTSC DVD, UK PAL SE DVD, KR DVD) and the Tartan NTSC DVD was the best. Better picture quality than the Starmax: SE, even if it's flagged for interlaced and not progressive.

That and I prefer the theatrical cut to the special edition cut. And the subtitles are better on the Tartan NTSC.

theDVDfreak

I disagree with Trigger. I've owned 5 different versions of the film (HK VCD, HK DVD, UK NTSC DVD, UK PAL SE DVD, KR DVD) and the Tartan NTSC DVD was the best. Better picture quality than the Starmax: SE, even if it's flagged for interlaced and not progressive.

Im confused now which one is flagged for progressive or interlaced. I have been looking at buying this, and the Tartan seems to be the best. The cover state's NTSC 5.1, for Progressive DVD players. Is this flagged then for Progressive players? Is the Starmax not flagged?

Please help clear this up.

Trigger

Well, I thought the Starmax looked better than the Tartan.

Rypro 525

the tartan ntsc 5.1 uk dvd can be played on all players, not just progressive.

Matthew Chmiel

To clear up for confusion.

1. There is only ONE Tartan NTSC edition of the film. It's the copy of the film with "NTSC 5.1 VERSION" and "FOR PROGRESSIVE SCAN PLAYERS ONLY" on the top.

2. Why the cover says "FOR PROGESSIVE SCAN PLAYERS" is because the DVD is NTSC and UK's video format of choice is PAL. For it to work on DVD players in the UK, the player would have to have a PAL->NTSC conversion. Then again, I thought most TVs in the UK came with both NTSC and PAL, what do I know. But IGNORE the "FOR PROGRESSIVE SCAN..." blurb.

3. The DVD is flagged for interlaced, not progressive. Most DVDs (that are anamorphic) are flagged for progressive. The BR NTSC DVD (similar to the HK R3 DVD of Battle Royale II) is flagged for interlaced, meaning whenever there is heavy action and movement going on in the film, you'll see little waves surrounding the video. I really can't explain it, but here's a screenshot from the BR II DVD to show you what I'm talking about:



4. I thought the Tartan's video quality (while interlaced) was much better than the Starmax. The colors are richer than the Starmax while there seems to be less compression.

theDVDfreak

Thanks for the explanation.

I have a nice Toshiba 16x9 direct view and Im addicted to Progressive video and 1080i now.

I guess Im just going to wait til Blue Underground or Tokyo Shock gets a hold of this in region 1. Im sure someone will get around to releasing this in the US.

I rented the Monty Python Meaning of Life DVD that had bad flags on it. I know what this looks like from that example. Although Universal is fixing that disc, I dont want to buy one that has this problem from the begining.

Psi

Today I received an email from amazon saying that Battle Royale is available! (I registered for availability notification quite a while back). However when I get on the amazon site, it still says "Not yet released". Are they slow in updating the web page, or did they send the notification in error? Has anyone else received this email? Please let it be true.

DrGerbil

I'll believe it when I see it.... wait a second, no I won't!

glassdragon

Blah, old as hell post.... nice bump

tinlunlau

i saw the Tartan UK Battle Royale DVD for sale in Downtown Toronto. i think it was at either HMV or Sam The Record Man.

bluesparrow

Yeah, the distributors basically don't want it released in the US, they priced the rights so high only the studios could pick it up, and they wouldn't want to.

The "controversial" tag with this film is far less potent than it was when it was new...when it came out it was still uncomfortably close to the Columbine massacre. We're like 20 Takashi Miike films past that now, I don't think it's a real issue anymore. I don't think the outrage industry would get much traction protesting a film without any Hollywood stars.

Richard Malloy

Yes, I've also never understood this (seemingly ridiculous) conventional wisdom that US distributors would consider this film too controversial to release. It's got an edge, but it's certainly no more "controversial" than something like Series-7 or even Deathrace 2000, and much less so than, well, 20 or so Takashi Miike films (heh!).

The controversy over this film, it seems to me, is primarily in Japan as it coincided with a rise in youth violence including some very young kids and even including one case where the youthful attacker had something of an obsession with the novel the movie was based on. Perhaps concurrent with Columbine, this movie might have made a tiny splash of controversy in the States, but I hardly think it would have amounted to much even then.

I think most of this "too controversial" stuff arose because of a particularly overwrought review on aint-it-cool news alleging this. It struck me as breathless BS then, and even moreso now.

And the Tartan R0/NTSC "for progressive scan" version is the best I've seen, too. I detest the added scenes in the Starmax version (nearly ruins the film for me), and the subs literally hurt my eyes.

dmpre99

5 versions?!?!?! Thats a bit excessive, even if you wanted either the theatrical cut or the director's cut. And starmx is the best from the versions i have seen.

The Exister

This is more of a question about the film itself rather than the various DVD editions:

For those of you who've seen Battle Royale and the Yakuza Papers films - I've recently finished watching all the films in the Yakuza Papers: Battles Without Honor & Humanity box set. I absolutely loved these films - does Battle Royale even come close to being as good as the earlier Yakuza Papers films?

scarredgod

this "too controversial" thing has never been the hold up, lots of companies would LOVE to get the US rights, Anchor Bay have been trying. the rights holders just want too much money and a theatrical release.

since this is an old thread, im sure thats been mentioned already.

Slowpc

As noted on the notes for the battle royale .

* Please note this is a NTSC / Region 3 pressing. You will need an All Code DVD player to view.

Matthew Chmiel

You know, with Tartan USA and TLA Releasing now teaming up to release Asian cinema theatrically and on video, I wonder if they're trying to score the rights to Battle Royale and it's sequel.

Yeah, Toei are probably still demanding millions to let a studio release the films in the US. I don't see Battle Royale getting a US release for a while (and if there is a God, it's sequel will not see the light of day at all here).

Thank God for that Tartan NTSC release, eh?

bluesparrow

Well, they're not really the same kind of films at all, but imo...yes. Battle Royale is a terrific movie. More entertaining than you'd think given the premise(I for one expected a depressing Lord of the Flies vibe). Probably my favorite Japanese film released in the past 10 years.

To get a sense of what it's like...imagine Jurassic Park with armed teenagers instead of dinosaurs.

OldBoy

are the subtitles translations on the Starmax 2-disc that off from the Japanese language. i want a good understanding and don't want to miss anything that is why i am considering the UK Tartan NTSC, but besides the block lettering on the Starmax will i know the difference if i have not seen either version?
just want to sleep better knowing that i have a decent version and won't miss out. thanks in advance.

Cameron

i would buy this if it hit the us shores....seen the tartan...looks good, but i'll hold out for a DC R1...no rush

natevines

If this gets released over here, I'm convinced it won't be nearly as good as overseas releases. That, and the fact that there's no DVD on the way should be enough to spur one to import. I did almost a year ago.

Cameron

i just want subtitles on my special features

just wait for america to make "the hollywood version"....have a feeling it would better resemble "the most dangerous game" than BR

OldBoy

anybody on the above? thanks...

Matthew Chmiel

The Tartan NTSC edition and the two-disc PAL set of the special edition has the BEST English subtitles for the film.

The Starmax's are okay, but when it comes to the "added footage" (the Starmax is the special edition cut), the subtitles are fucking terrible. They're more Engrish than anything else.