In 2009, when full-time cinephile and part-time filmmaker Quentin Tarantino listed his 20 favorite films released during his career, he made sure to recognize that the best of them all was Battle Royale. Considering Tarantino’s penchant for championing Asian cinema and his taste for stylized hyper-violence, the pick certainly didn’t come out of nowhere. But for many of those watching him chat about his favorites, the movie was as much of a myth as an actual product. Battle Royale hadn’t been officially released on home video in the United States, so if you’d missed its few theatrical showings, you were left scrabbling for a bootleg version or learning to be content with the rumors.
But Battle Royale has since become so internationally renowned that Lionsgate has prepared a nice-looking steelbook set for its 25th anniversary. While no longer infamous, Battle Royale remains a thrilling experience, equal parts a high-concept bloodbath and a troubling look at the deranged trajectory of totalitarianism in motion.
