HONG KONG - REGION 3:
The first thing that greets you is the option to play the film in dolby digital or dts surround, once youve made your choice you are taken to the menu screen, presented in both English and Japanese. From here you can choose to play the film, select a chapter, watch a trailer, read a Beat Takeshi biography or reset the sound settings. The chapter menu is animated however, it becomes apparant that the chapters are a fair distance from each other (chap1- opening credits, chap 2- nobus death). The trailer is crisp and clear but has irremoveable chinese subtitles.

The film itself is presented in a fine fashion, sound is nigh on perfect and the surround is great, (I was watching with my sister and when Mitsuko creeps in and says "die" my sister instinctivly turned around to see who was behind her:)

There is a slight grain haze on some of the night scenes, especially the day-for-night scences (a scene shot at day faked to look like night) but this is barely noticeable. There is no pixellation and the subtitles are printed clearly and accurately You could say that the picture quality passes as you
would expect in your average dvd, its not got the striking colour or pixel perfect crispness that you find in the Toei edition or in, for example, an Anchor Bay dvd, but the quality is of a better level than in, for example, some of Tartans recent releases, How Tartan convert the picture when the film
arrives on these shores will be most interesting.

The dvd is more than capable of filling your BR needs, its no special edition, but its fine and dandy for those who have too much trouble getting the Toei edition or those who want English subtitles........ and its Battle Royale!!!!

Dr. Francis Gross

BOOTLEGGED - REGION 0:
Oh deary me, Here is a review of the "universe" "dvd" of "battle royale" starring "Beat Takeshi" (enough of the " already)

First up, anyone who has not seen the film will honestly have their view of it tarnished by watching it first on this disc.

The cover, a photocopied rehash of the front AND back of the official dvd has a blue haze over it and is "super grainy" The menu screen shows the sea ( --- Exciting:0-- ) complete with options of "play" and "chapter".

The film picture is horribly pixelated and whenever there is fast action (frequently in BR) the picture goes all "blocky". The IRREMOVEABLE Chinese AND English subtitles ( together at once) are of that beautiful white kind that dissapear into the background and make reading impossible. The colour is faded, the picture is grainy, the sound is tinny, the BR training video appears with wavy lines across the screen and the chapters are completely random (chap1- Just after Opening- Chap2- halfway through BR video)

A digrace to the name BR, buy it if you dont really like the film, if you dont like BR or if its a present for someone you really hate. Or, be a loser like me and buy it for the sake of having every copy of the film available). Seriously,if you must have a super cheap version of the film, at least get the official VCD and stay away from this crap.

Dr. Francis Gross