BATTLE ROYALE 2 Gets A New DVD!

[DevilMan]

BATTLE ROYALE fans, take notice...

When a big film is poorly recieved, they always go back and fix their mistakes (or in the case of 'Ring 2,' do it completely over again). Well, after the overwhelming negative reaction of BR2, the team has gone back and done a re-edited version of the film entitled 'Battle Royale II: Revenge'...complete with 15 minutes of new character development.

As for "Battle Royale II: Revenge", they've added over 15 minutes of footage. The original runtime "Requiem" was 133 minutes, "Revenge" is 151 minutes, which is almost 20 minutes of new footage. They took the STANCE PUNKS song "Mayonaka Shounen Totsugeki Dan" off the end credits and replaced that with Aki Maeda (Noriko) reading a letter they got from the children of Afghanistan, which saddens me because I love that fuckin' song. They put the alternate "Farewell to the Piano" scene back in, and I also heard that "Revenge" goes more from Shiori's point-of-view than Nanahara's which was the "Requiem" version of the movie. Which if it does go by Shiori then the "Revenge" title makes a lot more sense.

Yes, it's the real original uncut form of BR2. I'll give youse guys what I know about BRII: REVENGE so far:

- First Premiered on May 20th 2004 in Tokyo, one screening.
- Added CG blood, and some new music.
- Slightly extended battle scenes.
- Character Development of the new class added back in.
- The Alternate "Farewell to the Piano" scene restored.
- It's more from Shiori's point-of-view, than Shuya's, hence the title change "REVENGE."
- STANCE PUNKS song on credits removed, replaced with Aki Maeda (Noriko) reading a letter they got from the kids of Afghanistan.
- "Requiem" and "Revenge" are two completely different takes on BRII. Shuya's point-of-view is the "Requiem" version. Shiori's point-of-view is the "Revenge" version.

A definite interesting new take on the whole thing. I seriously doubt if it will make the movie an overall better experience but it'll be pretty neat to check out none the less, ya know.


*temp image, actual cover supposedly still in development*

DVD STATS
Battle Royale 2: Revenge - Special Edition (Japan Version)
Region Code: 2
Release Date: February 21, 2005 (Pre-order your copy now!)
Language: Japanese
Subtitles: Japanese
Duration: 153 Minutes
Publisher: Toei

Yup, that's right. Unfortunately, there's no English subtitles but I'll bet a version is on the way as I type this up right now.

-Steve

[DevilMan]

Found some new info...

Here's the complete list of special features which are going to be on the DVD release of BRII: Revenge.

BRII Memorial:

Preview stage greeting

Noriko Nagawa in Afghanistan

The reverse side - BRII supplementary biography

The Warsaw orchestra Vers.2 (special version)

Making of....Photo collection:

Tent scene rehearsal
Miyuki Kobe fire-resistant test
Tent scene
Wild seven hiding place
Location section

Deleted scenes:

maki's room
leg
sniper saki
shori - gas mask
captured

Music video - stance punks

TV spot collection:

30 second version
15 second version
making of....featurette

Charity presentation ceremony

Special version - making of....post production footage

-Steve

[DevilMan]

Here's a good breakdown of the new DVD from someone who already bought it...

Picture: 1.85:1 Anamorphic

Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0/5.1

Chapters: 56

Subtitles: NONE!.Not even in Japanese.

Packaging:

The DVD comes housed in a amaray case.the inlay sleeve
is printed on high quality reflective stock.early editions of
the DVD come with a slip case,this is black with BRII
Revenge foil embosed on the front and the BRII classic
logo also foil embosed on the back.The slip case itself
is a little cheap and seems to of only been included the
make this dvd release a little more fancy that what
it needs to be.So if you didnt order early and have missed
out on the slip case.Don't worry!.

Riki Feature:

As some of you may already know the DVD features a special feature witch when activated will result in a cartoon graphic of Riki appearing on the screen.I have watch the movie throughout with this feature activated and let me tell you it's awsome!.What basically happens is a cartoon charature of Riki is present on the screen with a menu featuring the selections: CG , Sound , Edit and New.whenever there is somthng new in the movie the relevent selection's are highlighted.For example if there is new CG and Sound effects both of these selections are highlighted.If there is a new edit in a scene the Edit selection is highlighted,ect.

Special Features:

The Special Features are arranged in a section called BRII Memorial.There are 4 pages of special features,and each page is entitled either: Mission 1,2,3 or 4.

MISSION 1:

Behind The Scenes Footage....Audition & Rehursals (8 minutes 3 seconds)

this footage was shot in october & november 2002 and features un-released footage of Kinji directing the cast through rehursals of the tent scene

Behind The Scenes Footage....Fire Scene Rehursals & Filming (2 minutes 42 seconds)

shot in december 2002 this footage focuses in on the rehersal and shoting of a segment in witch one of the female students is set on fire as a result of a wild seven molotov cocktail

MISSION 2:

Behind The Scenes Footage....Tent Scene Filming (2 minutes 21 seconds)

shot in jannuary 2003 this brief footage focuses on the shooting of the tent scene

Behind The Scenes Footage....Wild Sevens Lair (5 minutes 4 seconds)

filmed during febuary 2004 this is mainly just aimless footage of the cast & crew filming footage of wild sevens lair.

Behind The Scenes Footage....Wild Sevens Lair ver.2 (2 minutes 33 seconds)

filmed in march 2003 this footage is more focused that the footage above.it covers the filming of a scene in witch girl #5 Haruka Kuze is suffering from low blood sugar,shes diabetic,and some of the wild seven kids give her some chocolate to eat.also included is some short footage of a scene between Saki Sakurai,wild sevens sniper,and her brother Haruya Sakurai.

MISSION 3:

Noriko Nagawa in Afghanistan (4 minutes 35 seconds)

filmed from april 21st until april 29th 2003 this footage is basically raw footage of kids in afghanistan with norikos theme playing over the top the last minute or so features a monologue by aki maeda (noriko) witch also features at the end of the credits to BRII revenge.

Recording The Score Ver.2 (7 minutes 55 seconds)

for those of you with pretty much any of the previous batle royale dvd releases you'll know what to expect here.this is simpley footage of masamichi amano conducting the Warsaw Philharmonic National Orchestra of Poland.easily the best feature on the disc.

Poster Gallery

theatrical poster:
ver.1
ver.2
class 3B
wild seven
reqium dvd release poster
revenge flyer : front & back
revenge dvd flyer:
ver.1
ver.2

Stance Punks - Music Video (8 minutes 47 seconds)

not really a music video its actually a live performance of the BRII theme song,Mayonaka Shonen Totsugekidan,filmed in july 2003.

TV Spot Collection

BRII DVD release:

30 second (1 version)
15 second (2 versions)

abondoned tv spot collection (5 versions) 2 minutes 15 seconds total running time

making of....featurette

filmed on november 11th 2003 - 48 seconds

MISSION 4:

Charity Presentation Ceremony (1 minute 59 seconds)

filmed on the 18th of december 2003 this short footage is of various cast menbers and kenta fukasaku handing over a donation to a cancer charity.this was due to the fact that kents father kinji had died of cancer during the shooting of BRII.

ADR Sessions (6 minutes 28 seconds)

filmed for april 8th 2004 until april 14th 2004 this is footage of actors Tatsuya Fujiwara,Ai Maeda,Ayana Sakai,Shugo Oshinari,Riasu Arama,Aja,Haruka Suenaga and Yuuki Ito recording additional dialogue for the special version of the film including some changed line's from reqium.

Revenge Premier Screening (1 minutes 34 seconds)

a short stage introduction to the special version of BRII by kenta and Tatsuya Fujiwara.

Deleated Scenes

1.Bus - gas mask (55 seconds)

a short outtake in witch shori awakens from the knockout gas and sees their teachair riki wearing a gas mask to stop himself falling asleep.this is similar to the scene in battle royale where shuya wakes up on sees the female attendant wearing a gas mask.arguably this should of made the final cut of the film as it helps with continuity.

2.Time (28 seconds)

a very short outtake form the scene in witch wild seven detonate the EMB

3.

4.Naos search (20 seconds)

a slightly extended version of nao searching for taku after the americans have bombed wild sevens lair

5.Sniper Saki (43 seconds)

some deleated footage of wild sevens sniper saki shooting at troops during the end battle

6.

7

8.Makis Room (1 minute 16 seconds)

basically a slightly different version of maki being killed by troops in the computer room.

BRII:Gaiden Outtakes (14 minutes 47 seconds)

this is a collection of outtakes form the documentary brII gaiden.the strange thing is this footage is near identical to the footage featured on the bonnus disc witch came with the special edtion BRII box set released in japan back in december 2003.

-Steve

[DevilMan]

Some pix...







-Steve

[DevilMan]

Here's some links...

>>> BATTLE ROYALE 2: REVENGE LINK #1 <<<

At the bottom of the page, there's a new BR2 book listed. Here's what it's about...

And last but not least,according to the site on Jannuary 20th a book was released in Japan called 'Battle Royale II:Gaiden 3B 42 Students' witch apparentley goes into the students back stories before the events in BRII.This book appear's to be totally differnt to the original BRII novialzation and the Shori Kitano - Reflection's novellete.

>>> BATTLE ROYALE 2: REVENGE LINK #2 <<<

-Steve

[DevilMan]

The DVD...



And it's already being bootlegged with fansubs on EBAY now.

-Steve

[Raven]

looks pretty cool :D

[DevilMan]

Now normally, I'd say...

"WHAT THE HELL?! YET ANOTHER NEW VERSION OF THE SAME MOVIE!"

But since it's BATTLE ROYALE, hey, I don't mind and I'll probably buy this set to go along with all of my others.



The stats...

Battle Royale 1 & 2: Special Box Edition
(Region-3 / DTS / 3 Disc Set)
Studio: Wision Entertainment (Korea)
Disc 1 : Battle Royale Director's Cut (2000)

- Screen : Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78:1 , NTSC
- Audio : Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1, Japanese DTS 5.1
- Languages : Japanese
- Subtitles : Korean, English
- Runtime : 122 min

Disc 2 : Battle Royale 2 : Requiem (2003)

- Screen : Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78:1 , NTSC
- Audio : Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1, Japanese DTS 5.1
- Languages : Japanese
- Subtitles : Korean, English
- Runtime: 133 min

Disc 3 : Special Supplement

- Screen : LetterBOX 4:3 , NTSC
- Audio : Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1, Japanese DTS 5.1
- Languages : Japanese
- Subtitles : Korean, English
- Runtime: 108 min

- WOWOW TV Special "Prologue BR"
- WOWOW TV Special "All about BR II"
- Battle Royale: Behind Story
- Battle Royale 2: A Supplementary Story

Why buy another version, you're wondering? Well, no matter what you've seen floating around out there already, there's still not one DVD release of the first film that could be considered "THE ONLY DVD YOU'LL EVER NEED TO BUY FOR BATTLE ROYALE!".

Simply put, one DVD release has great video quality but the subtitles suck. One DVD release has great subtitles but the video quality sucks. One DVD release has a great picture but lousy sound. One DVD has both great audio and video quality but it's only the theatrical cut, not the director's cut. Get the idea?

Maybe this new set will remedy all this? I hope, and I'll let ya know.

-Steve

[Jay]

Funny I was just looking into buying a replacement for my R3 BR DVD.

Let me know how this puppy is. Of course, it's doesn't have Battle Royale 2:Revenge on it, not that much of anything can help BR 2.

[DevilMan]

Originally posted by Jay+Jun 5 2005, 11:32 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Jay @ Jun 5 2005, 11:32 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>Funny I was just looking into buying a replacement for my R3 BR DVD.[/b]

If you've already got the Korean R3 STARMAX two disc import of the "Director's Cut", I'd say stick with that for now. Outta all the different DVD's that I currently own of BATTLE ROYALE, that one has the best picture and sound. Unfortunately, the English subtitles tend to get quite awful in some scenes. This is exactly why I'm still looking for the "BEST" version of BR to have. So, rest assured, after I get paid this week, I'll have this new boxset on order.

<!--QuoteBegin-Jay@Jun 5 2005, 11:32 PM

Of course, it's doesn't have Battle Royale 2:Revenge on it, not that much of anything can help BR 2.[/quote]
As for BATTLE ROYALE 2: REVENGE, ya know, it's already available as a fansub subtitled bootleg but I just can't seem to bring myself to buy it. I need to, if only to do my own comparison of the two versions.

-Steve