i have had it for 2 years now.
It's pretty decent, but it's not "the grapes of Wrath" or anything..
here is a review i swiped from the Battle Royal UK site
Quote:
At dawn of the new millennium, the country is in a state of collapse. Unemployment stands at 15% with millions out of work. School violence is out of control and rebellious teenagers stage mass boycotts. The beleaguered government retaliates with Battle Royale.... Each year a randomly chosen class is pitted against itself on an abandoned island in a cruel game of survival.
A boisterous group of 9th graders embarks on a school trip. A typical group of adolescents, they flirt, tease, bully and joke on the bus journey to their destination. Nanahara Shuya, shares cookies with his friends Nobu and Noriko on the way. On arrival, they awake from a drug-induced sleep, to find that they have been hijacked to fight this year's Battle Royale.
A former teacher, Kitano (Beat Takeshi), will oversee the battle. Flanked by gun-toting soldiers, Kitano explains that each student has been fitted with a necklace that monitors their location. It can also explode on command. He casually murders Nobu to make the point. The rules of this game are simple:
• It lasts three days
• Each player starts out with food, water and a "weapon"
• If more than one player survives, everyone dies
• There is no escape
As the roll call begins, one by one the kids grab backpacks and stumble away towards death or murder. As Noriko picks up her pack, Nanahara quietly urges her to wait for him. When they meet outside they barely have time to compare weapons before a classmate falls on them with a hatchet. In the struggle that follows, Nanahara inadvertently kills the boy. Confused and angry, Nanahara vows to protect Noriko, and to outwit his government's sick experiment by finding a way to survive with his friends.
As the game progresses, terror and panic challenge the students' fragile trust in each other. Some suspect everyone, blindly striking down those who cross their paths. Others form alliances dreaming of a peaceful solution with multiple survivors. Against a tapestry of violence, hope and fear, Nanahara and Noriko begin to fall in love. Despite the game's brutality, the adolescent players maintain their school obsessions with crushes, petty grudges and their dreams. But as the game approaches its shocking final stages, even this semblance of normality disintegrates.
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If you can get a DVD copy ofg it, please do so.. but If you must get a VCD or VHS copy avaoid the Korean copies like the plague. Bad english and chinese subtitles. There are no dubs of this movie. But it's very good. The director died this year directing the sequel, and his son finished the movie for him. The books im trying to suffer through, but I just dont read japanese THAT well..
There is also a manga for those who like to look at pictures.
here is a link for the review and more info:
battleroyalmovie.com
You can purchase it here:
http://pokerindustries.com/
Viz will be producing the graphic novels and can be purchased here:
animecastle