BATTLE ROYALE Marks 25th Anniversary With Epic 4K Theatrical Re-Release
Battle Royale is one of the most iconic dystopian properties in existence. It started in 1999 as a novel, which was adapted into a film the following year. Battle Royale tells the story of an autocratic Japanese regime that forces junior-high-aged citizens to fight to the death in an annual sporting pageant. The film garnered great success and acclaim worldwide, applauded for its viscerally poignant portrait of adolescent suffering in the bleakest future imaginable.
In the two-plus decades since, The Hunger Games’ PG-13 American version of the same concept may have somewhat stolen Battle Royale’s thunder – at least as far as American audiences are concerned – but now it’s time to commemorate its quarter-century anniversary with a re-release that should make it fresh in our minds again.
A Fraught Theatrical Release in the United States
Following its original 2000 release in Japan, Battle Royale took a long time to reach American audiences. Test screenings in America did not go over well: they had the misfortune of taking place during a time when the horror of the Columbine High School massacre was still fresh in the national consciousness. Its would-be American distributors also shared the concern of its Japanese distributor, the Toei Company, that its depiction of graphic violence by and against teenagers would guarantee it an NC-17 rating from the MPAA.
As a result, Battle Royale had no American theatrical run for over a decade, though it was screened at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley in 2002. In December of 2011, it was finally released wide in the United States. This theatrical run proved popular enough to be extended from nine to fifteen days.
The Big Anniversary Re-Release – in 4K
Trailer for Battle Royale 25th Anniversary, Courtesy of Lionsgate
Lionsgate (which is coincidentally also the distributor for the Hunger Games film franchise) has joined forces with the event cinema company Iconic Events to distribute Battle Royale for another theatrical run this October. There are several different cuts of the film: a 113-minute theatrical cut, a 122-minute Special Edition, and a 119-minute version for the film’s 2010 3D re-release in Japan. For the coming re-release, the theatrical cut will be the one used, restored in 4K and featuring the original Japanese audio with English subtitles. It will be screened on October 12, 13, and 15.
On September 22, Lionsgate dropped a one-and-half-minute trailer for this re-release.
A Special Bonus Feature
Battle Royale’s upcoming re-run won’t just entail a screening of the film itself. It will also feature a behind-the-scenes segment called Kinji Fukasaku: A Master at Work. This is an interview with Battle Royale’s screenwriter Kenta Fukasaku, in which he discusses the background and experiences that influenced the artistic vision of his father, late Battle Royale director Kinji Fukasaku (1930-2003).
The late Fukasaku, also known for co-directing the classic Hollywood World War II film Tora! Tora! Tora! and for his Battles Without Honor and Humanity series of yakuza films, survived World War II as a young teenager; at the age of 15, he and his school classmates were conscripted to work in a munitions factory that was bombed, killing many of the youths.
The late Fukasaku cited this horrific tragedy, which left him disillusioned towards his own country’s government, as the life experience that inspired him to adapt the Battle Royale novel in the first place. Presumably, A Master at Work will show his son discussing this and more in much greater detail.
