Battle Royale

The 25th Anniversary 4K SteelBook marks the first time director Kinji Fukasaku's 2000 action film has been released on 4K. The collection includes both the original and director's cut of the film, new and previously-released special features, and SteelBook art by Oliver Barrett. While not the first film to offer a dystopian future in which combatants fight for the death, Battle Royale is highly regarded (despite, or possibly because of, the controversy surrounding its release that delayed it being shown in American cinemas for more than a decade).

Far better than any entry of The Hunger Games, the film stars mostly unknown adolescent actors (including Tatsuya Fujiwara, Aki Maeda, Yukihiro Kotani, Eri Ishikawa, Takayo Mimura, Kô Shibasaki, and Yukari Kanasawa among others) as the 9th grade class chosen by lottery to be sent to a remote island and forced to hunt each other until only a single survivor remains. The film wastes little time in getting the students to the island, shackling them with bomb collars, distrubuting random weapons, and sending them on their way to kill each other in a wide variety of bloody ways.

Although the effects and gore of the film may seem a bit tame by today's standards, Battle Royale helped define and solidify a genre of action films named after it that has only grown in popularity (but not necessarily quality) over the years. For those not turned off by the subject matter, it's worth a look (especially on the region-free remastered discs).

• Title: Battle Royale
• IMDb: link