Before 'Hunger Games,' there was 'Battle Royale'

Here's the pitch: The state forces kids into a death match where only one is left standing.

That's "The Hunger Games," right? Yes, but it's also the story of "Battle Royale," the brutal, harrowing and little-seen Japanese film that beat "Hunger Games" to the plot by 12 years. And that film was based on a 600-page Japanese novel published in 1999.

But with "Hunger" hysteria at a high point, "Battle Royale" -- which Quentin Tarantino called his "favorite movie of the last 20 years" -- might finally get the attention it deserves. Anchor Bay, hungry for some of that "Hunger Games" action, has just released a four-disc repackaging, "Battle Royale: The Complete Collection," on DVD and Blu-ray.

Set in a near-future Japan where youth crime has spiraled out of control, Kenji Fukasaku's tense, tragic and timely film focuses on a group of 42 students who are taken to a deserted island overseen by the bullying Kitano (played by the always steely Takeshi Kitano).

They're given a deadline (three days), a duffel bag (each with different weapons and implements), and an order to slaughter each other until there's just one survivor. If they refuse to cooperate, all will be killed.

Imagine "Lord of the Flies" with gunplay and sharp metal objects, and you have the idea.

But when "Battle Royale" hit the film market in 2000, it couldn't have been released at a worse time. In Japan, where it was a hit, it was hotly debated in terms of glorifying violence. Although "Battle Royale" played at U.S. film festivals, it never received theatrical distribution and some speculated that -- coming a year after the Columbine massacre no one wanted to go near it, and even less so after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Now, with "The Hunger Games" finally hitting theaters and "Battle Royale" getting a renewed push, movie fans will be able to make up their minds about which they prefer.

Whatever the outcome, it will be good to see "Battle Royale" -- which, it should be noted, is not for the young or the faint of heart -- move out of the shadow world of word-of-mouth cultdom and into the broader daylight of wider circulation. Although Fukasaku might not be consistent (his "Battle Royale" sequel, included in "The Complete Collection," is widely derided), for at least one film he managed to imbue a modern-day horror story with an electric sense of drama and dread.