NIMH Rat

In other words, "we want big bucks."

If they were really squeamish about "contents and theme" they wouldn't have sold rights to their "pinky violence" films.

toddly6666

"With much regret we inform you that we are withholding distribution,
in any formats, of the above mentioned picture for Northwest (sic) America
due to the picture's contents and theme..."
- Hideyuki Baba, Manager, International Sales and Purchasing, Toei"



a US soldier just raped a japanese girl...I wonder if Hidieyuki Baba still cares about sensitivity issues of americans, sells the DVD rights to usa, and see USA children fall apart due to this controversial movie. Just sell us the movie already!

canaryfarmer

Welcome to the internet! Please enjoy your stay!

Seriously, I'm surprised you didn't know any of this. Almost any discussion about it somehow revolves around its "controversial nature" (well, maybe not so much anymore, the movie is 7 years old now).

logboy

the tone and approach, connecting issues, are entirely different for battle royale, over the more comic book, light-hearted (though still violent) and clearly less contemporary all-round in comparison to a potential genre such as pinky violence to any film that deals with the idea of a generation (by definition, 30 years is a definition, i think?) of youth that's been too protected; and how the adults, politicians, deal with this in an extreme and controversial manner by pitting them against one another with weapons, the lure of potential freedom if they come out as the winner. time will tell, in say another 30 years, if the film (as with anything politically charged in it's inception) still maintains relevance - it still sits as a good record of a countries state, in part, to look back upon, perhaps as some kind of warning... japanese films, they do tend to be violent, but they're not so often easily read and being so overtly political, confrontational, even if their political elements have been disguised / revealed or analised over time by a more removed audience that picked more selectively from films that happened to contain strong political messages from the past output of the countries industry.

Matthew Chmiel

Long story short cause I've explained this numerous times:

Toei wants a huge paycheck to license out the rights, in the $2-4 million range. Back in the day, they also wanted whatever studio grabbed the rights to it a certified theatrical release in 200 locations minimum.

It's not controversy. It's not cause it's banned. It's cause Toei wants top dollar and no studio is willing to put up the money.

NIMH Rat

^^^^^

Thought as much.

The film wouldn't be on DVD in any region, anywhere, if Toei was concerned about the "content and themes."

logboy

despite how its possible to see the film outside of japan but not directly on an American DVD in America, companies still work with territories in an isolated manner. if you want to run one culture without isolating them, its logistically impossible to manage. the true impact in a country, if that's a fear, of a films content only comes with a release in that territory.

DVD Giant

come on Dragon Dynasty

JasonTHX

I rented this last year through Zip.ca (Canada's version of Netflix). I can honestly say, out of all the movies I saw last year (including recent ones) Battle Royale was among the 5 best viewing experinces I had last year.

See it.

Brian T

Yeah, please give us Teenage Kill Zone!

And don't skimp on the exploding cars and helicopters on that sleeve art, dammit!

logboy

anyone care to argue for toei wanting too much money again?
given what's unfortunately happened in America in the past 24 hours,
I'd hope nobody could suggest a figure that could compensate for eternally being associate with the kinds of events (loss of young life, guns) which keep happening.

Julie Walker

I'm sure it's Toei wanting to much money. It's the only thing that makes sense.

Who cares what's gone on in the last 24 hours,weeks,months..10 years. None of that has any affect on Battle Royales U.S. release. If Toei did not want to much money. Then any one of the indie/cult/asian cinema specialty labels would have picked it up by now!

logboy

well, i care. i think toei cares. the threat of legal action, if not entirely logical or necessarily likely, is more than enough to turn down a few million dollars over the risk of a tainted situation they struggle to deal with after any potential link.

yes, when gun incidents happen in america, there's a certain amount of scapegoating likely to be attempted by news coverage; the losing sight of how reality and film / television / created cultures are not literally reality or necessarily the point at which things should said to be controlling peoples actions. what strikes me as odd, as a UK resident watching how british news coverage talks about the american coverage of any incident as much as the incident itself, is that there's very regular discussion of how there doesn't seem to be the same kind of realisation from an american audience in relation to the right the bare arms leading to an increase in people carrying guns, leading to a statistically blatant increase in the likelihood someone somewhere will use that right in a negative way. and that costs lives. it's almost as though the american coverage not only fears gun lobbyists, but also can't quite see how other countries can spot the solution (i.e no right to bare arms, tighter controls and such similar non-gun carrying solutions) that would lead to a great many less opportunities to deal with all the associated happenings. and that's the kind of thing that's in the mind of toei, i think, and it's certainly in the mind of a great deal of other countries too - that there's a perspective on gun violence that isn't a total acceptance of it in film or real life, that there's an affect on an event (an association between an event and a film) being covered by non-USA news broadcasters viewing things with objectivity or without clarity / intimate knowledge, that's simply not worth the risk.

personally, i think it's far more likely, as no money compensates for a loss of life. no film is, despite how smart this particular one is, worth risking that's palpable but not entirely accurately going to be judged until, at worst, it happens.

Steve

oh, but there is no problem with buying "The Suicide Club" in the US?...While one can argue the affect this film may have on the populace, I don't believe that is the reason. After all, isn't the main synopsis that the school itself sanctioned these killings? That scenario certainly isn't happening in the US!

xage

Are you from US? do you believe this statement?

Looks like many others believed this one..

But howcome stores like

1. Hot Topic (Where I got it)
2. Amoeba Music
3. Suncoast / FYE
4. Secon Spin
5. 20/20 video


Carries this title?

xage

If you care, you would search further to see if the previous statement from "Toei" is true. And Im pretty sure you have no clue.

Hot Topic Online - Battle Royale


Looks like you are trying to inject an off-topic discussion - which is "School Shootings in North America"

Matthew Chmiel

I don't know how it's legal for stores in the US to carry the title. Granted there are no companies who own the rights to the title, but it's not in public domain.

I'm sure when Toei get off their high horse and a studio here does acquire distribution rights, those Korean DVDs will be no more in said retail stores.

xage

Its been going on for the past two years now..

logboy

it's entirely on-topic, completely contextualises the issues as to why BR hasn't appeared stateside, because the whole issue is that toei doesn't want an association with youth-on-youth gun violence, and once you see another event occur it should surely bring it home that we're not talking about films in isolation of social events or films in relation to some distant memory, but a specific film in relation to an ongoing and very specific american cultural issue. they tend to get precise, the japanese.

as for people doing what amounts to random comparison to other violent films, or violent films from toei, or violent films from japan, it's worth noting that toei is handling it's philosophy on one metaphorical hot potato in way that recognises it's specific content and themes and how it would be easy to directly relate such content and themes to these kinds of regular events.

as it happens, although this feels slightly inappropriate, i asked a friend in japan (tokyo) who regularly does work for toei, who writes professionally on japanese film, and he said that toei's head honcho had himself placed a specific bar on battle royale getting an official, direct, legally licensed appearance in america which stands to this day. and it's because of the things i've been repeatedly mentioning... and yes, he was very specific in a way which confirms that quote that comes from toei.

xage

Dont you get it... BR 1&2 are sold and available here in US.

Is the internet link for USA - HOT Topic Store product's availability not enough?

or the stores I mentioned that sells it?


You continously rant about Toei and Cultural difference in terms of the perception towards violence.

xage

Dont you get it... BR 1&2 are sold and available here in US.

Is the internet link for USA - HOT Topic Store product's availability not enough?

or the stores I mentioned that sells it?


You continously rant about Toei and Cultural difference in terms of the perception towards violence.

BR 1&2 are sold LEGALLY here in the US for the past 2years now...




Oh, mikelowry.. too bad you created a thread looking for a North American region release but you ended up getting the not so good PAL/R2 tartan release.

logboy

it matters not that you can import it. it matters not that you can find stores stocking it. why? because imports and bootlegs are strictly under the radar by comparison to a licensed released, by a long way.

and there's no rant. it's just some people seem very determined not take notice of the quote from toei staff, and yet they can't counter it with any evidence to the contrary.

Dr Mabuse

way to shit up a good thread with your crap fellas...

could the mods just edit the crap above and leave the thread open?...

this was pretty cool stuff till Larry and Moe got cranked up...

NIMH Rat

In before the lock.

The Toei quote is inadequate, and does not represent what US distributors have been reporting about their attempts to license the film.

Now, there could be plenty of double-talk going on here. US distributors may be correct in reporting that Toei is setting too high a price. But then Toei's motivation for setting an impossibly high price could be to keep the film off American shelves and spare themselves the public fallout. Which would make Toei's statement accurate.

But what if someone calls their bluff? What if someone meets the price?

In other words, why even bother to set a price if the whole matter is "off the table," so to speak?

It could very well be a cultural issue. The ways of negotiation may differ in this case between the US and Japanese.

Anyway, Toei loses all credibility by de-selecting the US in particular from their distribution allowance for Battle Royale. Like I said, if they were so terribly concerned about the "content and themes" of the movie, it would not be available on video in any format, in any region.

logboy

as far as i am concerned, a forum should be open to arguments until they descend into personal attacks. nobody has been personally attacked, though their intellectual sensibilities may have been offended, until it's name calling and swearing, it's what a forum should be for : to wrangle over issues and share information to try and clear things up, however heated it may get.