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Battle Royale (2000)
Battle Royale (2000) poster
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3.9

Battle Royale (2000)

バトル・ロワイアル

Drama, Thriller, Action • 1h 53m

Overview

In the future, the Japanese government captures a class of ninth-grade students and forces them to kill each other under the revolutionary "Battle Royale" act.

Director: Kinji Fukasaku

Cast: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Aki Maeda, Takeshi Kitano, Taro Yamamoto, Masanobu Ando, Ko Shibasaki, Chiaki Kuriyama, Takashi Tsukamoto, Sousuke Takaoka, Yukihiro Kotani, Eri Ishikawa, Sayaka Kamiya, Takayo Mimura, Yutaka Shimada, Ren Matsuzawa, Hirohito Honda, Ryou Nitta, Sayaka Ikeda, Anna Nagata, Yukari Kanasawa, Misao Kato, Hitomi Hyuga, Satomi Ishii, Asami Kanai, Satomi Hanamura, Yousuke Shibata, Shiro Go, Yuuki Masuda, Shigeki Hirokawa, Tamaki Mihara, Tomomi Shimaki, Yasuomi Sano, Shin Kusaka, Gouki Nishimura, Shigehiro Yamaguchi, Osamu Ohnishi, Satoshi Yokomichi, Junichi Naitou, Tsuyako Kinoshita, Mai Sekiguchi, Takako Baba, Haruka Nomiyama, Aiko Nogami, Ai Iwamura, Ai Maeda, Minami, Michi Yamamura, Kazutoshi Yokoyama, Gô Tatsukawa, Takashi Taniguchi, Ken Nakaide, Kanako Fukaura, Yuko Miyamura, Takeyuki Hirai, Tomu Asakawa, Yûya Nakahara, Takashi Komori, Ryôta Nakamura, Akihiro Ugajin, Yôichi Murakami, Tsuguharu Niizaki, Jun'ichi Nashiki, Hiroshi Kitagawa, Hideaki Kawashima, Umiji Tasaki, Hidetsugu Okumura, Daisuke Yazawa, Nobuki Baba, Naoki Iwasawa, Kôji Tokuhisa, Mikiya Sanada, Kazuhiro Yokokura, Shigeki Homma, Kazuo Araki, Gôshi Matsuhara, Akira Yoshizawa, Kenzo Shirahama, Kanji Okumura, Shôji Takano, Ryoji Sugimoto, Hajime Yoneda, Hideaki Kojima, Mitsuaki Tachikawa

Best English-Friendly Release

Best Video Release

Arrow 4K Blu-ray > Lionsgate 4K Blu-Ray

Format

UHD Blu-ray

UHD Tiers

Excellent
Arrow:

if compared to all BDs except Arrow's own new BD

Solid
Arrow:

if compared to Arrow's own new BD

Featured Lists

Length

113 mins

Type

Movie

Alternative Titles

Battle Royale: Special Edition

Last Updated

8 months ago

Contributors

Best English-Friendly Release
Best Video Release

Arrow 4K Blu-ray > Lionsgate 4K Blu-Ray

Format
UHD Blu-ray
UHD Tiers
Excellent
Arrow:

if compared to all BDs except Arrow's own new BD

Solid
Arrow:

if compared to Arrow's own new BD

Featured Lists
Length
113 mins
Type
Movie
Alternative Titles
Battle Royale: Special Edition
Last Updated
8 months ago
Contributors

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Curzon 4K Blu-ray with much better encoding than the Gaumont Blu-ray with the same 4K restoration see caps

Criterion Blu-ray uses an older restoration

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Unrestored: Czech PAL DVD

Preferences will vary, the restored track sounds good, but not necessarily faithful to the original elements.

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Best Video:

Deaf Crocodile 4K Blu-ray see nic review

Best Audio:

Restored: Deaf Crocodile 4K Blu-ray
Unrestored: Czech PAL DVD

Preferences will vary, the restored track sounds good, but not necessarily faithful to the original elements.

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Indicator 4K Blu-ray. Excellent 4K master and encode, except for opticals grain is very fine, grading is beautifully silvery and luminous, nice HDR re-grade by Fidelity in Motion

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Indicator 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

Indicator 4K Blu-ray. Excellent 4K master and encode, except for opticals grain is very fine, grading is beautifully silvery and luminous, nice HDR re-grade by Fidelity in Motion

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Upcoming Release:

Best Audio:

Nelson Entertainment USA LaserDisc

Additional Info:

The initial release of the Capelight 4K mediabook had some playback issues with Dolby Vision on Panasonic devices due to an encoding error, the HDR10 apparently works fine, see Capelight’s official response here.

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Best English-Friendly:

UK Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Best Audio:

Nelson Entertainment USA LaserDisc

Additional Info:

The initial release of the Capelight 4K mediabook had some playback issues with Dolby Vision on Panasonic devices due to an encoding error, the HDR10 apparently works fine, see Capelight’s official response here.

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Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray > Paramount US, same black crush as the US disc but encoded by FiM and very good new supplements

Additional Info:

Paramount US 4K Blu-ray has FEL Dolby Vision 

Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray has MEL Dolby Vision

Best English-Friendly:

Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray > Paramount US, same black crush as the US disc but encoded by FiM and very good new supplements

Additional Info:

Paramount US 4K Blu-ray has FEL Dolby Vision 

Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray has MEL Dolby Vision

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Upcoming Release:

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Upcoming Release:

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Best Audio:

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Original matrixed Dolby Stereo: MGM NTSC DVD

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UHD Blu-ray
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Best Video:

Arrow UK /Capelight DE 4K Blu-ray  > Kino Lorber US 4K Blu-ray, see caps

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Some scenes in the Arrow transfer are better, some are better in the Capelight.

Best Audio:

Original matrixed Dolby Stereo: Arrow  4K Blu-ray or Image Entertainment LaserDisc
(Arrow is a port of the LaserDisc track, see spectrograms) This track has the best fidelity of any release but does have some channel bleeding baked in. The 2017 2.0 on the Arrow and Shout! Factory Blu-rays was the Dolby Stereo original mix without channel bleeding but that had heavy noise reduction resulting in a very flat and underwhelming presentation. The surround winds up being lessened as well due to the processing. It's a tough choice between the two but the Image LaserDisc audio wins out because it hasn't been messed with and the impact is so unrestrained that no other version hits in the same way.

Capelight and old Arrow Blu-ray included the original stereo mix, but with excessive noise reduction rendering it much less detailed. Kino Lorber only included a painfully defective 2.0 track sourced from somewhere with limited fidelity, volume spikes and screechy high end which frequently ruins the music. The 5.1 remix on most modern release is a processed version that does not sound as good as it once did.

The best and most accurate of the 5.1 mixes is the original version from the 2003 Special Edition DVD in lossy AC3 form.

The best source for the commentaries are from the 2003 Special Edition DVD.

Best English-Friendly:

Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray (damage removed, improved color/HDR, and best audio) or Capelight DE 4K Blu-ray (best compression but no damage removal and LaserDisc audio from Arrow)

Best Video:

Arrow UK /Capelight DE 4K Blu-ray  > Kino Lorber US 4K Blu-ray, see caps

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Some scenes in the Arrow transfer are better, some are better in the Capelight.

Best Audio:

Original matrixed Dolby Stereo: Arrow  4K Blu-ray or Image Entertainment LaserDisc
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Capelight and old Arrow Blu-ray included the original stereo mix, but with excessive noise reduction rendering it much less detailed. Kino Lorber only included a painfully defective 2.0 track sourced from somewhere with limited fidelity, volume spikes and screechy high end which frequently ruins the music. The 5.1 remix on most modern release is a processed version that does not sound as good as it once did.

The best and most accurate of the 5.1 mixes is the original version from the 2003 Special Edition DVD in lossy AC3 form.

The best source for the commentaries are from the 2003 Special Edition DVD.

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Upcoming Release:

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Best Audio:

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Additional Info:

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Upcoming Release:

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Additional Info:

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Additional Info:

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Best Video:

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Best Audio:

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2007 BD's AC-3 track with dynamic range compression enabled is nearly identical to Arrow's, see comparison

Theatrical cut is fine.

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Best English-Friendly:

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Best Video:

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Best Audio:

Director's cut: 2007 WB Blu-rayArrow is a lossy transcode with dynamics compression.
2007 BD's AC-3 track with dynamic range compression enabled is nearly identical to Arrow's, see comparison

Theatrical cut is fine.

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Battle Royale (2000) backdrop