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NEWS
8/31/04
"Sangre Fría" premieres
tomorrow: The first episode
of the Argentinian TV miniseries "remake" of Battle
Royale debuts on the Telefe network on Wednesday, September
1, at 10:30 p.m. Stay tuned for an expanded SF subsite.
7/31/04
"Sangre Fría" set to debut
in August : Telefe has scheduled
the premiere of "Sangre Fría" for Thursday,
August 12. UPDATE 8/11: The premiere
of SF, scheduled for this week, has been postponed for unspecified
reasons.
More
BRII screenings in London:
the Prince Charles Cinema has scheduled more screenings of
Battle Royale II: Requiem in the month of August,
including Tuesday, August 3, at 6:10 pm; Thursday, August
5, at 4:10 pm, and Saturday, August 7, at 8:45 pm. Keep checking
the PCC
website for more dates.
|
7/15/04
"Sangre Fría" hits theaters
(sort of): In a first for
a television series in Argentina, teasers for "Sangre
Fría" have begun running in movie theaters.
More
BRII screenings in London:
the Prince Charles Cinema has scheduled more screenings of
Battle Royale II: Requiem in the month of August,
including Tuesday, August 3, at 6:10 pm; Thursday, August
5, at 4:10 pm, and Saturday, August 7, at 8:45 pm. Keep checking
the PCC
website for more dates. |
7/09/04
One-shot BRII screening
in London: London-based BR fans can get
to see the sequel on the big screen despite Tartan's cancellation
of the national release, as the film is being screened at the
Prince Charles
Cinema on July 13th at 8:30 p.m. Visit the PCC link for
more information. |
6/18/04
BRII UK theatrical release cancelled, DVD release moved
up: The BBC
Film 2004 News site reports that the theatrical release
of Battle Royale II in the UK has been "aborted
in favor of going straight to DVD in August." The original
DVD release date of September 27 has since been changed to August
23 in the Play.com
and CDWOW.com
preorder pages. Despite the mention of the Sasebo
slashing and another recent BR-related incident in Japan
in the article, there doesn't appear to be a connection between
the Japanese incidents and the decision to cancel the UK cinema
release. |
6/10/04
First "Sangre Fría" pic: The first
image from the Argentinian remake, which began production this
week, has hit the web. Check out the "Sangre
Fría" section of the site for the latest news
and a link to a larger image. Anticipation is high for the film,
which includes a cast of rising stars from Argentinian independent
cinema. |
6/9/04
BRII: Revenge DVD release postponed: The official
Fukasaku
Group site announced that the DVD release for the extended
version of BRII, originally scheduled for September 21, has
been postponed, with the new date yet to be announced. Though
the Fukasaku group doesn't specify the "current events"
given as the reason behind this move, it's commonly believed
that the recent slaying
of a 12-year old girl by a "BR-obsessed" classmate
is the main factor behind the postponement.
|
6/5/04
"Sangre Fría" news:
Principal photography for the Argentinian remake begins
today. Visit the Sangre Fría
section of the site today to catch up on the latest SF news,
including a new synopsis of the series.
Happy Birthday Battle Royale Forums!: 761 member
registrations and 13800 posts later, today is the one year anniversary
of when the battleroyalefilm
forums officially opened for business. If you haven't dropped
in and joined the most active place for BR-related discussion,
why don't you visit now? |
6/2/04
BRII UK
DVD preorder: Forum contributor
PeeWee was searching the database at cd-wow.com and found this
preorder listing for what looks like the September 27th UK DVD
release of BRII. From the few details in the listing
and Tartan's prior record with DVD's, this looks to be a barebones
release.
|
5/30/04
BRII: Special Version DVD Release
date and preorder! Forum contributor "Akira
7" is on the ball once again, giving us links to Yesasia
and Tower
Records Japan entries for the R2 NTSC DVD release of the
153-minute version of Battle Royale II. The date to
mark on your calendar: September 21, 2004.
This release of the film, like other domestic releases of BR
by Toei, will most likely have NO SUBS of any kind. |
| 5/20/04
BRII: Special Version ("REVENGE")
debuts: The new extended cut of BRII (sub-titled "Revenge"
instead of "Requiem") was screened to a Tokyo audience
last night. Only Tatsuya Fujiwara and Kenta Fukasaku appeared
onstage to introduce the film, but other cast members were
reported to be in the audience.
Among
the 20 minutes or so of new footage is an extended rugby scene,
an extended bus scene, the addition of the telephone scenes
between Shiori and her father, and an extended scene of Shiori
at the piano. The Ai
Maeda unofficial fan page reports that there is indeed
more background material on the characters, that characters'
relationships are clarified, and that some battle/fighting
scenes have been extended as well. The closing song (Stance
Punks' "Mayonaka Shounen Totsugeki Dan") has been
replaced with Aki Maeda's voice reading something written
by a child from Afghanistan, a passage that had been read
aloud to the prospective actors during the auditions in late
2003.
Reportedly,
even some detractors of Requiem liked Revenge,
but you'll have to take their word for it :) . There is no
word on a wider Japanese release date for Revenge
(last night was a one-time screening), but that, or a DVD
release, appears to be what Kenta plans on doing in the near
future. |
5/12/04
BRII
Korean DVD release: Yesasia.com
is taking pre-orders for the May 21st Korean DVD release of
Battle Royale II; like many Korean releases, this means a
nice limited edition package with generous extras. There's
conflicting information on whether the item will be Region
3 NTSC or whether, like the Starmax BR SE, it will be region-free
NTSC.
Update
5/18/04: sources
have reported that the release will be a region-free
2-disc set containing many if not all of the extra
video found in the Mission Box set (the extras will probably
not be subbed in English, unfortunately). Take a gander at
the packaging here. |
4/30/04
BATTLE ROYALE Remake!
Really!: Ideas del Sur, an Argentinian company is
producing a 13-episode Spanish-language TV miniseries titled
"Sangre Fria" ("Cold Blood") for the Telefe
network. The show will star Argentinian actors Dolores
Fonzi , Mariano
Martinez, Juanita Viale, Nicholas Pauls, and Marina Gleizer.
The series will shoot in Neuquen,
Patagonia, in May, and hit the air later this year. See
the original news article here.
No word on how close the remake will hew to the novel or the
movie. |
4/24/04
BATTLE ROYALE II SPECIAL EDITION!:
Fukasakugumi.net reports
that a 151-minute Special Edition of BRII will premiere
in Tokyo on May 20th! That's 17 minutes of additional footage,
for those doing their math...
|
4/12/04
UK BRII release postponed?: Forum contributor
"Akira 7" points out the that Internet
Movie Database has changed BRII's theatrical release
date from May 2004 as previously rumored to July 9, 2004. This
could also conceivably impact the UK DVD release by moving it
back to possibly January 2005.
South Korean release: After its own postponement from
its original announced release date, Battle Royale II opened
in Korean theaters this past weekend. This could mean that a
Korean DVD release will be out by fall. |
3/21/04
German Perfect Collection a Limited Release, German BRII
release dates: "Marco" from Switzerland informs
us that the 5-disc Perfect Collection of BR to be released in
Germany next month is limited to 6000 copies. He also tells
us that BRII will be released on DVD for rental only
on May 4, with a sale release possibly coming a month later.
BRII was shown in the Berlin Film Festival this year,
but like its predecessor, apparently will not be getting a theatrical
release in Germany. |
3/20/04
Korean BRII first-person shooter: Korean
online entertainment company DaumGame.com has modified their
first-person shooter Vital Sign to incorporate a Battle
Royale II theme,
including maps based on the tent cage location and the Wild
Seven island stronghold, and player characters resembling
Takuma Aoi (Shugo Oshinari) and Shiori Kitano (Ai Maeda).
This all ties in, of course, with the upcoming local release
of the film.
|
3/15/04
BRII to open in South Korea: the Daily
Yomiuri reports that Battle Royale II will open on 80
screens in South Korea on April 2nd; Kenta Fukasaku and Tatsuya
Fujiwara were on hand for the announcement and press conference
held in Tokyo for the Korean reporters.
Visit
the official Korean BRII site here.
|
| 2/26/04
BRII and BR in Germany: Battle Royale
II recently screened at the Berlin Film Festival. Meanwhile,
a 5-disc "Perfect Collection" edition
of the first movie will be released in Germany on April 20.
The set will reportedly contain the Original and Special Versions
of the film, an Extras DVD, and the movie soundtrack CD, along
with a collectible film cel and tin box. The Perfect Collection
will not have English subtitles, and will
be DVD-5 R2 PAL with an optional German DTS/DD 2.0 dub and
optional German subs. I would speculate that the fifth DVD
in the set might be the previously released German cut of
the film, which censors many of the violent scenes.
Wild
Seven alum carries a "Grudge": Sponichi
confirms that actress Yoko Maki, who played Wild Seven hacker
Maki Souda in BRII, has been tapped for a prominent
role in The Grudge, Takashi Shimizu's American-produced
remake of his own Ju-On horror film series. Maki
will play Rika, the ill-fated predecessor of social worker
Karen, played by Sarah Michelle Gellar. I usually don't cover
news of BR actors getting other jobs, but I figured
this would be a good time to plug the Asian
Remake Watch, a subforum of the battleroyalefilm
forums that deals with all the remakes of Asian films that
are in various stages of development in Hollywood (no, BR
is not one of them).
|
1/28/04
BRII HK DVD release: The Hong Kong (Region 3, NTSC)
release of Battle Royale II on DVD and VCD is scheduled
for January 31st. Online stores such as Yesasia.com, Poker Industries,
HKflix, DDDHouse, and Layoyo.com are taking pre-orders now.
The HK DVD will be a 2-disc set with DTS and Dolby 5.1 sound.
The VCD will, as characteristic of the format, have no additional
features. |
1/27/04
BRII in the Netherlands: BRII was screened
at the Rotterdam Film Festival this past weekend; Kenta Fukasaku
was present to introduce the film. |
1/15/04
Fukasaku's death commemorated: A gathering was held
January 15th in Tokyo to pay tribute to Kinji Fukasaku, who
died of cancer a year ago on January 12. An altar was set up
with some of the director's prized effects, including his chair
and his trademark harisen (paper fan). Over 800 people
were in attendance, and Quentin Tarantino paid his respects
through a videotaped message.
|
12/26/03
Tatsuya Fujiwara nominated: for his performance as
Nanahara in BRII, Tatsuya Fujiwara's been given a Best
Actor nomination for the Japanese version of the Academy Awards.
BRII DVD rips and subs: Fans have
wasted no time creating DivX/XviD versions of the film, AND
putting together English subs. I'll say no more.
(Go to fantasticsuperclub)... |
12/22/03
BRII contributes to charity: Nikkan
Sports reports that Toei is donating 9 million yen from
the revenue of BRII to children's cancer research, in memory
of Kinji Fukasaku; Riki Takeuchi, Shugo Oshinari, and Kenta
Fukasaku presented the check. BRII
DVD on sale and for rent: The
BRII DVD hit the shelves in Japan yesterday; Toei
reopened its online
store to sell BRII goods (no overseas orders, unfortunately).
Want to see what you get in the Limited Edition Mission
Box? One of the surprises appears to be the "lost
class picture" previously seen only in fragments on the
"Whitebook"
cover and as a menu on the included DVD. (links courtesy of
the Ai Maeda Unofficial Fan
Site).
|
12/19/03
BRII DVD Commercial:Riki Takeuchi's spots for
the upcoming DVD release can be downloaded in RealVideo format
at the Toei
BRII DVD website. |
12/13/03
Australian R4 sale release: site
visitor Jack Campbell wrote in with pre-order links to the Australian
sale release of the first BR movie (link
1, link
2), due out February 9. Both sites identify the release
as a "collector's edition," and the sanity.com.au
site says it consists of two discs. This is just speculation,
but given that the earlier rental-only Australian release of
BR used the same material as the old Tartan PAL original version
release (which was reissued at about the same time), I would
suspect that the R4 "Collector's Edition" is the Tartan
Special Version (due also to be reissued in the UK in February,
see below) in different packaging and perhaps region-encoding. |
12/10/03
Yet another Tartan BR1 release?: Play.com
has a listing for a 2-disc Battle Royale "Special
Edition" R2 release with 5.1/DTS sound. No other details
are available but according to an e-mail from a Tartan rep
to BR Forum member "aga2k1," Tartan is planning
to release a more affordable, tinless, film-cell-less edition
of the limited-edition Special
Version they had released earlier. Since the Tin edition
didn't have DTS, one can hope that Tartan remastered the SV
so it won't have the "ghosting" problem of the Tin
version, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
BRII
DVD commercials:
According to Sponichi,
Kenta Fukasaku has directed a commercial promoting the release
of the BRII DVD, featuring Riki Takeuchi reprising
his role as the class teacher (briefing the viewer regarding
the DVD). The commercial is scheduled to begin airing in Japan
today. (source: the Ai
Maeda in BRII fan page)
|
12/6/03
BR Yahoo! Group: the
Battle Royale Yahoo! Group, oldest and largest Internet
English-language discussion group devoted to Battle Royale
has been revitalized, with the spam cleaned up and Files and
Photos sections reorganized. Soon the contents of the BR
Depot, as well as a BR image library, will be made available
exclusively to the members of the group, so join today!
|
11/24/03
Tentative UK release dates: responding
to an e-mail, a representative of Tartan (the distribution company
with the UK rights to BRII) indicated that they're
shooting for a theatrical release of BRII in April/May
2004, with a DVD release in October/November
2004. A little later than what I'd hoped, but still
something to look forward to...
|
| 11/20/03
BRII Sitges Festival Update: itickets
have gone on sale for the films at the Sitges
International Film Festival ; Battle Royale II
will screen twice at the festival, at 11 a.m. and 8 p.m. on
Saturday, December 6.
|
11/13/03
BRII R2 DVD discs: images
of what the discs themselves will look like for the regular
and limited edition releases of BRII are on
Toei's BRII DVD site. For those who have BRII
Gaiden and were wondering about the "to be continued"
at the end of the program, Part 2 of the Gaiden will be among
the extras on both the regular and Mission Box versions of
BRII.
BRII
at Sitges Film Festival: BRII makes its continental
European debut at the Sitges
International Film Festival in Catalonia, Spain, which
runs from November 27 - December 7. Screening times are yet
to be announced.
|
| 11/09/03
BRII VCD release date change: Yesasia
has changed the release date of the BRII VCD on its
catalog to December 11 (update 11/10: December 30now),
instead of the original November 11, and still has not resumed
taking pre-orders for the film. So we're going to have to
hang in there a little bit longer...
BR Japanese Manga Volume 11: is due out in Japan
November 20.
|
10/30/03
BR Manga release dates: ViewAskew.com's
Newsarama reports that the TOKYOPOP release of Keith Giffen's
adaptation of the BR manga will resume next week with
Volume 3 hitting shelves around November 4. To make up for the
delays and get back on schedule, Volume 4 (originally due in
November) will be released in December, with bi-monthly releases
of the title resuming with Volume 5 in January 4. The reason
for the delay is reportedly the scanning of the pages, with
TOKYOPOP working to eliminate the "moiré" patterns
that show up when an image is scanned and resized. (thanks
to Kitano2000 for the news lead).
BRII in Thai Magazine: "Gogomind" from
the Thai
BRII Yahoo Group sent along images of a magazine feature
on BRII:
Cover 1;Cover
2;Article.
Chiaki Kuriyama People article: head over to Chiaki
Kuriyama Fandom to see a nice scan of Chiaki's
"Spotlight" article in People Magazine.
|
| 10/27/03
BRII actually opens in Thailand on 10/31: "Gogomind"
from the Thai BRII Yahoo Group says that the movie's release
was actually moved to October 31st, not the 23rd as initially
advertised.
Battle Royale Opens in Turkey: The first Battle
Royale movie premiered in Turkish theaters on October 17.
See the official Turkish BR site here: www.olomoyunu.com
|
10/25/03
Second BRII screening added to London Film Festival!
Due
to overwhelming response, the LFF has added
a second screening of the movie at 4 p.m. November 2nd at
the National Film Theatre. (thanks to madlad2003 for the heads
up).
|
| 10/23/03
BRII opens in Thailand today (NOT; see above), and
is already screening in Russia: um, that's all I have
to say about that, really. A couple of Thai BRII posters are
up on eBay,
too.
Chiaki-mania continues: Chiaki is featured in the latest
issues of the magazines People (the October 27 issue)
and Interview (October 2003).
BRII DVD release promotion: check out Ai Maeda/BRII
fansite http://gan.musical.to
for images of a
promotional cardboard standee for the DVD release of BRII.
|
| 10/20/03
Fukasaku's ashes laid to rest: Yahoo!
Japan reports that Kinji Fukasaku's ashes were finally
laid to rest in a Kawasaki cemetery in a small private ceremony
on the 11th. Fukasaku died on January 12th, but his ashes
constantly accompanied his son Kenta as the younger Fukasaku
completed production of Battle Royale II. On the 17th, Quentin
Tarantino, who was in the country for the Japanese opening
of Kill Bill, visited the grave to pay his respects.
Mistaken Ai-dentity?: It took some digging around, but
I'm reasonably sure that the Ai Maeda who is heard in Kill
Bill is not the same Ai Maeda who is heard in BR
and stars in BRII. Voice actress Ai
Maeda (born 1975) is an anime voiceover/music veteran
who occasionally goes by the monicker "AiM"; Model
and actress Ai
Maeda (born 1983) is Aki Maeda's sister, and although
she does have some voiceover work in her resume, she is not
established in anime circles. The confusion is understandable,
given that both spell their name (in Japanese) the same way,
and even some anime otaku haven't been certain that they're
two different people. This doesn't preclude the possibility
that Tarantino went out of his way to hire BR Ai for the Young
O-Ren part, but in all likelihood--and Japanese fansites seem
to be certain of this--it's voice actress Ai who actually
provides the "whimper" for little O-Ren. |
10/13/03
R4 DVD of BR out in Australia: the official Australian
(R4) release of the first Battle Royale is on Australian
rental shelves as of late September, with a for-sale version
coming up perhaps later this month.
Chiaki Kuriyama interview: About.com has an
interview with Chiaki Kuriyama in which she mentions the
link between her role in BR and her casting in Kill
Bill.
Bootleg DVDs identical to bootleg net files:BluebirdGM
from the BR
Forums reports that the PAL bootleg DVDs that have recently
made their way to eBay are identical to the Real Media files
that have been floating around the net, and are as such often
dark and hard to see, shot at an angle and missing the same
30 minutes of footage. The only difference is that the
Chinese dialogue dub and the Japanese audio recorded in the
theater are on separate audio tracks and are switchable.
|
| 10/10/03
Don't forget to Kill Bill! - Quentin Tarantino's
new film opened today, with scene-stealing appearances by
BR's Chiaki Kuriyama ("Chigusa") as Go Go
Yubari and BRII's Sonny Chiba ("Makio Mimura")
as Hattori Hanzo. There's also a third notable BR cast
member in the film--Ai Maeda provides the voice for the animated
young O-Ren Ishii (the character played by Lucy Liu) (this
information is not accurate; see the 10/20 news update) Coincidentally,
today is also Chiaki Kuriyama's 19th birthday.
Tartan's BR R0 NTSC OV DVD out of print - information
on the Aznfilms website
suggests that the NTSC 5.1 R0 release
of Battle Royale by Tartan Video UK, arguably the
best DVD release of BR available to Americans without region-free
and multistandard players (and my personal recommendation
for anyone regardless of region who hasn't seen the movie),
is no longer being manufactured, replaced by an R2 PAL version.
The item is still in stock at
Amazon UK, but who knows for how long, so get yours while
you can.
Volume
3 of the American Manga delayed? - three weeks after its
announced release date, the third volume of Keith Giffen's
adaptation of the BR manga is still MIA on store shelves
and online shops. No official reason yet as to why, but one
might speculate that the sexually graphic nature of Vol. 3
could have something to do with it.
|
9/27//03
BRII
to screen at London Film Festival: It looks like the UK
is going to be the first Western nation to officially screen
BRII. The London Film Festival (http://lff.org.uk)
has scheduled the film for a single screening on November 1st.
Click here for more information (thanks to Soupdragon for the
heads-up).
Mission Box prizes: in keeping with the "Mission
Box" packaging of the Limited Edition DVD release in Japan,
a few super lucky people are going to get something extra: either
one of 100 BRII Casio G-Shock watches, one of 20 AK-47
replicas, or one of 300 BRII toilet paper rolls.
Bootlegs on eBay: some apparent DVD bootlegs (presumably
cam versions) of BRII have started to pop up on eBay.
We're awaiting word from the winners of the auctions that have
been held so far to see if the items truly are what they seem
to be. We do know that at least one auction misrepresented a
DVD of BRII Gaiden
as one of the film itself.
|
9/10//03
Thailand
BRII opening date: barring postponement by the Thai
government over censorship issues, the movie is scheduled to
open on October 23. Take a gander at the Thai
poster for the film.
Essays on BRII Characters: The Ota Publishing website
has begun posting a
series of essays written by Sugie McKoy in which the
author of the official BRII novelization discusses the
characters in detail. The first installment deals with Boy #15,
Shintaro Makimura, and draws parallels between his character
and the character of Smith in Alan Sillitoe's book, The Loneliness
of the Long Distance Runner.
|
9/4//03
BRII
domestic totals
The Japanese run of Battle Royale II is now projected
to have a total box office tally of 2 billion yen (about 17
million dollars), respectable but half of what Toei was hoping
for after the film's big opening weekend, and a distant second
to Bayside Shakedown 2, the top-grossing Japanese movie
of the year so far with 12 billion yen (well over $100 million)
and still topping the Japanese b.o. 6 weeks running.
By comparison, the first Battle Royale made 3 billion
yen domestically, but this also takes into account money made
from the Special Version that was released months after the
original run.
And, in case you were wondering, Kenta Fukasaku confirmed in
a recent article
(which mainly deals with the drug-related arrest of an actor
who had a minor role as a soldier in BRII who happens
to be the son of one of Kinji Fukasaku's frequently-used stars)
that he IS working on a Special Version of BRII that
will hit Japanese theaters as early as the end of the year.
|
8/30/03
BRII
Cam Version available online
Visit the battleroyalefilm.net
forums' General Forum for information and links about
a RealMedia version of a camcorded bootleg of the movie, with
English and Chinese subs, and a split audio track with Chinese
on one channel and Japanese on the other. The bootleg appears
to be missing up to a half hour of footage, including: the opening
minutes of the film; the introduction of the teacher Riki and
his description of the game's objective; part of a lengthy speech
by Shuya; and the final few minutes of the film. Still, the
bulk of the movie is there, and those of you who are willing
to watch the movie for the first time in fuzzy Real Video finally
have your chance. |
| |
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WHERE DOES
THIS INFORMATION COME FROM?
Some
of the information here is culled from Japanese BR fansites. Here
are a few that I check up on:
http://www.fukasakugumi.ne.nu
http://gan.musical.to
http://www3.to/Bloody_Race
And
of course, I visit the official BRII site at http://br-new.jp
and the official Fukusaku site at http://www.fukasakugumi.net.
Scoops also come in
from other sources at the
BR Yahoo! Group and the Battleroyalefilm
Forums.
|
