CULT MEDIARE�PACKAGED,RE�RELEASED AND RESTORED

Edited by Jonathan Wroot & Andy Willis

Cult Media

“Through a range of illuminating case studies, this collection develops our understanding of cult media, an increasingly widespread and prominent term both culturally and commercially. Covering film and television, formal and infor-mal distribution and public and private forms of exhibition, this collection maps the vital role cult plays in contemporary media culture, in categorising forms of media, in articulating audience taste and identity, and in complicating our con-ceptions of the media text and media ownership.”

—Kate Egan, Senior Lecturer in Film Studies, Aberystwyth University, UK

“Wroot and Willis have assembled a terrific line up of scholars to interro-gate the intricacies of cult media distribution and reception, from the VHS era to the digital age. Covering areas as diverse as Japanese horror, Nordic Noir, Brucesploitation and Bollywood from a range of methodological perspectives, Cult Media: Re-packaged, Re-released and Re-stored provides a lucid and engag-ing assessment of the afterlives of cult movies beyond the move theatre.”

—Johnny Walker, Senior Lecturer in Media, Northumbria University, UK

“Cult Media: Re-packaged, Re-released and Restored is an illuminating collection of essays on the relations between cult media, new technologies, and the repack-aging of older media content. This diverse collection – covering media texts, busi-ness operations, piracy, the formation of canons and more – provides a range of perspectives on cult media and is recommended to students and scholars alike.”

—Jamie Sexton, Senior Lecturer in Film and Television Studies, Northumbria University, UK

“Cult scholarship has often focused on the semi-mythologised historical contexts of the grindhouse and the midnight movie. This groundbreaking new collec-tion shifts attention to home media and the ways in which VHS, DVD and Blu-ray releases have transformed cult practices. With chapters on everything from distribution companies like Arrow and Criterion through to filesharing and fan vidding communities, Wroot and Willis’s book is essential reading for everyone interested in the changing nature of cult.”

—Iain Robert Smith, Lecturer in Film Studies, King’s College London, UK

Jonathan Wroot · Andy Willis Editors

Cult MediaRe-packaged, Re-released and Restored

EditorsJonathan WrootUniversity of GreenwichLondon, UK

Andy WillisUniversity of SalfordSalford, UK

ISBN 978-3-319-63678-8 ISBN 978-3-319-63679-5 (eBook)DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-63679-5

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017948305

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Cover credit: Andrew Regam/Getty

Printed on acid-free paper

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

v

Contents

Introduction 1Jonathan Wroot and Andy Willis

Part I The Cult Business: Creating Consumption

Battle Royale as a One-Film Franchise: Charting a Commercial Phenomenon Through Cult DVD and Blu-ray Releases 11Jonathan Wroot

Whose Canon is it Anyway?: Subcultural Capital, Cultural Distinction and Value in High Art and Low Culture Film Distribution 31Mark McKenna

A “Cult-like” Following: Nordic Noir, Nordicana and Arrow Films’ Bridging of Subcultural/Neocultural Capital 49Matt Hills

vi CONTENTS

Restoration, Restoration, Restoration: Charting the Changing Appearance of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly on British Home Video 67Lee Broughton

It’s Only Teenage Wasteland: The Home Media Revival of Freaks and Geeks 85Katie Barnett

Part II Cult Practices: The Consumption and Reception of Cult Media

Cult Fandom and Experiential Cinema 105E. W. Nikdel

Pirates and Proprietary Rights: Perceptions of ‘Ownership’ and Media Objects Within Filesharing Communities 125Virginia Crisp

On Vidding: The Home Media Archive and Vernacular Historiography 143E. Charlotte Stevens

The Dragon Lives Again: Distributing ‘Bruceploitation’ via Home Entertainment 161Oliver Carter and Simon Barber

Bollywood DVD: The Relationship Between Distributive Technology and Content in Transnational Cinema 181Rayna Denison

The Sustained Popularity of In the Mood for Love: Cultural Consumption in Britain’s Reception Context 201Fraser Elliott

Index 221

vii

editors and Contributors

About the Editors

Jonathan Wroot is a Lecturer at the University of Greenwich. He teaches classes within film and media studies. His previous research con-cerns the distribution and marketing of Japanese cinema and he has pub-lished numerous journal articles on the topic in Arts and The Market, The East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, Frames, and Participations.

Andy Willis is a Reader in Film Studies at the University of Salford, UK, and Senior Visiting Curator for Film at Home, Manchester, UK. He is a co-author of The Cinema of Alex de la Iglesia (2007), and the editor of Film Stars: Hollywood and Beyond (2004). He is also the co-editor of Defining Cult Movies (2003), Spanish Popular Cinema (2004), East Asian Film Stars (2014), and Chinese Cinemas: International Perspectives (2016).

Contributors

Simon Barber is a Research Fellow in the Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Research at Birmingham City University. His research interests are centered around songwriting, popular music, the music industries, digital culture and jazz, and his work has appeared in The European Journal of Cultural Studies, The Radio Journal, The Journal on the Art of Record Production and the Jazz Research Journal among others. Simon is also one half of the songwriting team Sodajerker

viii EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS

and the producer and co-presenter of their podcast, which features inter-views with some of the most successful songwriters in the world.

Katie Barnett is currently a lecturer at the University of Worcester, UK, where she teaches in the departments of Film Studies and Media & Culture. Her primary research interests focus on gender and sexuality in North American popular culture, with a particular interest in representa-tions of masculinity and the family in contemporary film and television. She has previously published on postfeminism and the films of Robin Williams, and representations of young boys and death in American cinema.

Lee Broughton is a freelance writer, critic, film programmer and lec-turer in film and cultural studies. His research interests include the Western, the horror film and cult movies more generally. Lee is the author of The Euro-Western: Reframing Gender, Race and the ‘Other’ in Film (2016) and the editor of Critical Perspectives on the Western: From A Fistful of Dollars to Django Unchained (2016). He is currently writing a book on the representations of “North” and “South” that are found in Italian Westerns. The book is based on research that was funded by a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship.

Oliver Carter is a senior lecturer in media and cultural theory at the Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Research, Birmingham City University. His research focuses on alternative economies of cultural pro-duction; forms of industry that are often removed from a formal cultural industries discourse. He has published work that appears in Murders and Acquisitions: Representations of the Serial Killer in Popular Culture (A MacDonald, Ed.), The Piracy Effect (R. Braga and G. Caruso, Eds.), Preserving Popular Music Heritage: Do-It-Yourself, Do-It-Together (Sarah Baker, Ed) and is the author of the forthcoming monograph Making European Cult Cinema: Fan Enterprise in an Alternative Economy, published by Amsterdam University Press. He is currently working on a book about the British adult film industry, this research informing a forthcoming documentary about the British adult filmmaker Mike Freeman titled Hardcore Guaranteed (Rose Tinted Productions).

Virginia Crisp is Lecturer in the Department of Culture, Media and Creative Industries at King’s College London. She is the author of Film Distribution in the Digital Age: Pirates and Professionals (Palgrave, 2015), and co-editor of Besides the Screen: Moving Images through Distribution, Promotion and Curation (Palgrave, 2015). She is

EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS ix

the co-founder, with Gabriel Menotti Gonring (UFES, Brazil), of the Besides the Screen Network (www.besidesthescreen.com).

Rayna Denison is a lecturer at the University of East Anglia. She spe-cialises in local and transnational studies of Asian media industries, par-ticularly investigating aspects of popular cinema and television. She is the author of Anime: A Critical Introduction (Bloomsbury, 2015), and co-edited the Eisner Award-nominated Superheroes on World Screens (University of Mississippi, 2015) collection, in addition to publishing research in a wide range of academic journals including Cinema Journal, the International Journal of Cultural Studies and Velvet Light Trap.

Fraser Elliott is a postgraduate researcher based at the University of Manchester. His Ph.D. thesis is titled Chinese Cinema and British Film Culture. It was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), and was supervised by Dr. Felicia Chan and Dr. Andy Willis.

Matt Hills is Professor of Media and Journalism at the University of Huddersfield. He is co-director of the Centre for Participatory Culture, and focuses on supervising research related to media fandom and fan studies. He has written six sole-authored research monographs, start-ing with Fan Cultures in 2002 and Doctor Who: The Unfolding Event in 2015, as well as publishing more than a hundred book chapters and journal articles in the areas of media fandom, cult film/TV, and audi-ences in the digital era.

Mark McKenna is a Ph.D. candidate from the University of Sunderland. His research focuses on the marketing, distribution and economics of the video industry in the UK, and foregrounds an analy-sis of the strategies and tactics employed in the promotion of the ‘video nasty’in the 30 years since the introduction of the Video Recordings Act in 1984. His publications include ‘A Murder Mystery in Black and Blue: The Marketing Distribution and Cult Mythology of Snuff in the UK’ which featured in Snuff: Real Death and Screen Media (N Jackson et al., (eds.), 2016) and the forthcoming monograph Nasty Business: The Marketing and Distribution of the Video Nasty.

E. W. Nikdel received his Ph.D. in Film Studies from the University of Southampton. His thesis examines the advent of online film distribution through a lens of historical study. Particular focus is given to the fortunes of specialised film, addressing issues such as cultural democratisation and

x EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS

the intersection between access and demand. His research continues to scrutinise the shifting landscape of on-demand content, exploring how the complex interplay between past and present practices serves to chal-lenge common notions of digital disruption.

E. Charlotte Stevens received her Ph.D. from the Department of Film and Television Studies, University of Warwick. She is a Research Assistant with the Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Research, Birmingham City University, where she also teaches in the School of Media. Her work has appeared in Feminist Media Studies and CineAction. She will be publishing a monograph of her thesis with Amsterdam University Press in 2018.

xi

List of figures

The Dragon Lives Again: Distributing ‘Bruceploitation’ via Home Entertainment Fig. 1 Poster of The Clones of Bruce Lee (©Dae Yang Films Co., Ltd,

and Film Line Enterprises, 1980) 166Fig. 2 Poster of The Real Bruce Lee (©Spectacular Trading

Company/Dick Randall/Serafim Karalexis, 1973) 171Fig. 3 Cover image of the VHS release of The Real Bruce Lee

(©Spectacular Trading Company/Dick Randall/Serafim Karalexis, VHS released in 1979) 173

Fig. 4 Cover image of the Blu-ray release of Bruce’s Deadly Fingers (©DigiDreams, released in 2016) 176

Bollywood DVD: The Relationship Between Distributive Technology and Content in Transnational Cinema Fig. 1 Main Menu screen for Om Shanti Om DVD (Eros International,

DVD released 2008) 189Fig. 2 Caption: Song menu from Fanaa (Yash Raj Films,

DVD released 2006) 190

The Sustained Popularity of In the Mood for Love : Cultural Consumption in Britain’s Reception Context Fig. 1 DVD cover from Tartan’s UK release of In The Mood For Love

(© Tartan/Palisades Tartan, DVD released 2001) 211

1

Introduction

Jonathan Wroot and Andy Willis

Cult media. What does it mean? While the majority of cult research related to media studies has focused on films, television and other media texts have also been examined as cult media in recent years. This book not only investigates this trend, but also broadens it to consider the con-text and means by which such texts are consumed. In order to facilitate media consumption distribution and access to texts for interested audi-ences is essential. Unfortunately, the means of access and distribution of material is often under-researched. Home media formats have been an afterthought in the study of cult film and television, while examination of historical trends, archival materials and ‘traditional’ definitions related to cult films have been continually investigated. Historical research is impor-tant for many reasons, though recent shifts in academic focus away from varied formats of distribution and exhibition risk making the assumptions of the tabloid press true—that home media formats, especially physical formats such as DVD and Blu-ray, are becoming increasingly unpopular. In fact, there is a significant body of evidence that points to the reverse, as both this introduction and the book overall will go on to show.

© The Author(s) 2017 J. Wroot and A. Willis (eds.), Cult Media, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-63679-5_1

J. Wroot (*) University of Greenwich, London, UKe-mail: jlwroot@googlemail.com

A. Willis University of Salford, Salford, UKe-mail: a.willis@salford.ac.uk

2 J. WROOT AND A. WILLIS

The home media market has been in a state of flux for several years. Many tabloid press articles have stated for several years that DVD and other physical media are ‘dead’, while online and digital media consump-tion increases, both legitimately and illegitimately. Several statistics and surveys back up these claims, though the large revenues currently earned from sales of discs tends to be overlooked when such declines are empha-sised (Johnson, 2006; McNeice, 2016; Pullen, 2015; Rodriguez, 2016; Sherwin, 2010; Wallenstein, 2016). What becomes clear is that the home media market is increasingly diversified between audience preferences for downloading, streaming or purchasing digital or physical media content (Arnold, 2017; Murray, 2015, 2016, 2017; Sweney, 2017). This is then further complicated by illegitimate media consumption, through online file-sharing, illegal streaming, torrenting and other means (Thompson, 2016). These various perspectives add another element to Elena Gorfinkel’s claims that categories of cult media and consumption hab-its are increasingly changing as technology develops (2008). Niche and varied media preferences are also now, it seems, paralleled by the diverse means of accessing and consuming media that are available.

This is a logical step in terms of definitions and perceptions of cult media. Many overviews of trends related to cult media are determined to relate such notions to historical circumstances and contexts. The mid-night movie is often associated with specific American cinemas in the 1970s, where films where cheap for exhibitors to show, especially dur-ing late-night showings (Jancovich, 2002; Jancovich et al., 2003; Mathijs and Mendik, 2008; Mathijs and Sexton, 2011). Though such trends per-sist irregularly within specific environments, there are also claims that the era of the cult film is over, as these films have become increasingly avail-able through VHS, DVD and other platforms (Gorfinkel, 2008; Martin, 2008; Cult Film: A Critical Symposium, 2008). On the other hand, explorations of shifts in media formats (Egan, 2007) and contemporary developments theorise that cult behaviour and fandom can now be found in a variety of contexts (Hunter, 2016). The same can be said of televi-sion as well as film, as Stacey Abbott states that creators and fans keep fighting for increased visibility of their treasured texts, no matter their age, commercial success or geographic origins (2010).

Several case studies, focused on the impact of home media, have been brought together by the editors in a companion book, DVD, Blu-ray and Beyond: Navigating Formats and Platforms within Media Consumption. However, central to this book are developments which have an impact

INTRODUCTION 3

on how categories such as cult, and related notions of genre, taste, and other classifications, are perceived and understood. A diversified market and a range of audience consumption habits can suggest a conglomera-tion of niche, or cult, practices and preferences. The releases of certain DVD labels highlight the continued cult followings of certain genres and directors. This is also reflected in file-sharing and piracy practices related to these media categories. In addition, particular activities and behaviours regarded as ‘cult’ are shifting in definition as certain events grow popular and gather regular fans and followers, e.g. ‘event’ or ‘prestige’ screenings of films. In light of these and other developments, this edited collection has emerged. The chapters in this book each explore cult practices and media categories through a variety of case studies and theoretical per-spectives. The studies presented in the book therefore provide a detailed insight into contemporary cult media. This book is not the first of its type to explore either cult media or home media, but it progresses the study of both of these fields by bringing these topics together through specific case studies. The introduction has not fully charted the intersections in research between cult media and home media formats, but instead each chapter provides its own insights and perspectives into these areas.

The subtitle of the book—Re-packaged, Re-released and Restored—reflects the nature of the case studies, and the intervention of the research in the book. The impetus of many of these trends is also a commercial one, as illustrated in the title of the first part of the book: ‘The Cult Business: Creating Consumption’. Jonathan Wroot’s opening chapter on Battle Royale (dir. Kinji Fukasaku, 2000) represents one of the most insightful case studies regarding the uses of cult in relation to home media, via the UK distributor Arrow Video. Battle Royale has not only been released sev-eral times by this label, but also several times by the now defunct Tartan—a history which Arrow makes frequent reference to, as well as to other inter-textual links. Arrow’s re-purposing of Battle Royale at different times for different reasons highlights its numerous distribution strategies and labels used for releasing a variety of films—under such categories as ‘Academy’, ‘ArrowDrome’, ‘Video’ and several others—all of which intersect with cult. Other aspects of Arrow’s practices concerning cult media, and related fan behaviours, are further explored in later chapters.

In particular, Mark McKenna’s research explores Arrow’s practices further in relation to these sub-labels, but also in comparison to the practices of Criterion (a distributor based in the USA). McKenna high-lights the differences between their strategies, with Criterion focusing on

4 J. WROOT AND A. WILLIS

‘artistic’ or ‘prestige’ pictures, and Arrow on cult and exploitation pic-tures. However, there are many similarities between these strategies and each label’s treatment of their titles, to the point that barriers between these categories are either being broken down or shifted, depending on how the distributors use them. This also proves to be a timely case study, as in the last two years, Arrow has begun to release titles in the USA, whilst Criterion has started to make its catalogue available through UK retailers (Barraclough, 2016; Hurtado, 2015).

Cult practices and behaviours are most frequently discussed in relation to film, but there are growing debates and investigations that link them to television and other media forms. Matt Hills focuses on another label linked to Arrow, specifically Nordic Noir and the ‘cult-like’ followings for particular Scandinavian television shows—which Arrow both promotes and responds to through its promotional activities, such as Nordicana, a convention which brings fans, cast and crew together in London. However, Arrow does more than simply provide a platform and venue for this interaction. Hills argues that the label, and the specific branding of Nordic Noir, adds particular meanings and ideologies to these television shows, often associated with perceptions of both ‘cult’ and ‘art’.

Histories of DVD and Blu-ray releases are significant not only in charting current modes of media distribution, but also in demonstrat-ing how re-releases can affect the reception of films over time. Lee Broughton’s case study of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (dir. Sergio Leone, 1966) provides an insight into how constant restorations and alterations to the film have affected its content, and its reception by crit-ics and fans. This reception can be seen as behaviour often associated with cult film communities and followings, which establish the market demand for these re-releases. Broughton’s historical overview not only illustrates the impact of home media formats on film reception, but also how these releases intersect with changes in censorship and technology.

Katie Barnett returns the focus of the book to television with a chap-ter on the short-lived American series, Freaks and Geeks (NBC, 1999–2000). Cancelled television shows often have the term cult attached to them, especially when fan followings for certain series grow after broad-casting ends. Freaks and Geeks illustrates this trend, as well as other cult followings—specifically related to 1980s pop culture, by way of films, music and video games. While this mix of pop culture and cult behaviour did not help the series to stay on air, it has helped the show to attain a critically acclaimed and commercially successful status on DVD and

INTRODUCTION 5

Blu-ray, after the final episodes were shown. Barnett particularly explores what led to the show’s home media revival, and how much of this suc-cess can be linked to the actions of distributor Shout Factory!, or its other unique qualities.

The focus of this book is predominantly home media, arguably because this is the context in which cult is currently used the most. However, the second part of this book, ‘Cult Practices: The Consumption and Reception of Cult Media’, goes on to illustrate other ways in which the term is used. E.W. Nikdel provides a necessary insight into the means of participation and associated cult behaviours. Though cinema attendance is often claimed to be in constant decline, using case studies of events such as Secret Cinema and similar live events and film screenings, Nikdel finds that the social and communal act of cinema-going is alive and well. Alongside new commercial releases, this trend has been fuelled by cer-tain cult films, such as The Rocky Horror Picture Show (dir. Jim Sharman, 1975) and Flash Gordon (dir. Mike Hodges, 1980), at venues such as London’s Prince Charles Cinema. However, Nikdel has also found that events such as Secret Cinema increasingly revolve around the celebration of blockbusters from decades gone by, such as Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (dir. Irvin Kirshner, 1980) and Back to the Future (dir. Robert Zemeckis, 1985). Not only are such rituals and behaviours still occurring, but their continuance is also shifting definitions of cult, depending on the types of films screened.

Cult media are therefore accessed and consumed through a variety of different means—both legitimately and illegitimately. The latter trend is examined by Virginia Crisp, specifically in relation to a community of filesharers who are avid consumers of East Asian films. Critical apprecia-tion of, and the preservation of, these films, in high quality and in mul-tiple formats (e.g. subtitled and dubbed), is of utmost importance to Crisp’s case study group. While support for legitimate releases of such films—as and when they become available—is often encouraged, angry reactions can arise from others profiting from such file-sharing work. These attitudes both strengthen and blur the line between legitimate and illegitimate means of dissemination and consumption. They also add another complex, but insightful, perspective on understanding the categorisation of cult media and cult fandom.

The threads of archival and fandom are again investigated in the next chapter, as are unique re-assemblages of media texts as a means of appre-ciation. E. Charlotte Stevens explains that vidding is a practice that has

6 J. WROOT AND A. WILLIS

occurred ever since VHS became widely accessible. Though digital alter-natives have arisen for fans to edit together clips of their favourite films, often to new soundtracks, popular VHS versions are often still copied and circulated. Stevens particularly charts this long-running form of cult fandom through vids created from footage of the original series of Star Trek (NBC/Paramount/CBS, 1966–1969).

Other case studies stemming from the VHS era are explored by Oliver Carter and Simon Barber. Bruce Lee fandom continues to this day, but there is now an appreciation for films that exploit this cult devo-tion and appreciation. Bruceploitation films use Bruce Lee stand-ins or look-a-likes in cheaply made martial arts titles, to capitalise on the late star’s image and therefore attract an audience. Carter and Barber not only chart the notorious stories behind these films’ production, and the voices of outrage in reaction to some of their releases, but also the cult appreciation that has built up for them over time—which has sometimes resulted in re-releases on Blu-ray and DVD.

It can be argued that these re-releases and changes in format have an effect on how the central text is received, e.g. in the contemporary con-text, such a release suggests a market exists for these films, as well as an appreciative fan community. The impact of a specific home media format, such as DVD, is explored in depth by Rayna Denison in the penultimate chapter of the book. Bollywood films are some of the most commercially successful in the world, and yet their audience is seen as a cult or niche market, often because of associations made with the films’ musical con-tent. Another consequence of such content is the impact it has on the films’ home media releases. In this chapter, Denison explores the releases of particular Hindi-language musical films, and how their soundtracks are an integral part of the construction and dissemination of their DVD releases.

Last, but by no means least, is Fraser Elliott’s examination of the criti-cal reception of In The Mood For Love (2000) in the UK, and how this has significantly affected the film’s DVD release, as well as the recep-tion received of subsequent Wong Kar-wai films. Elliott particularly charts critical acclaim associated with images of Chineseness, often seen as essential to UK critics in terms of both identifying and appreciating Wong’s style. Such discourse can be interpreted as being very similar to the behaviours of cult film fans, especially when particular cultural images are deemed to be ‘authentic’, ‘genuine’, or if nothing else, highly emotive.

INTRODUCTION 7

These studies will lead readers to consider what is so different about terms such as art and mainstream, which are often differentiated against cult and other similar taxonomies. Not only does this raise questions of definition and categorisation, but the chapters also illustrate how means of access and distribution affect the reception and consumption of media texts. Re-packaging, re-releasing and restoring are not just focal buzz words—they are key factors to understanding the place of media texts in both historical and contemporary contexts, and whether or not they are ‘cult’.

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Abbott, Stacey. 2010. Introduction: ‘Never Give Up – Never Surrender!’: The Resilience of Cult Television. In Abbott (ed.), The Cult TV Book. London and New York: IB Tauris, pp. 1–3.

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Hurtado, J. 2015. Arrow Video USA Announces Its First 4 Months of Releases. Screen Anarchy website. Available at: http://screenanarchy.com/2015/02/arrow-video-usa-announces-its-first-4-months-of-releases-jaws-drop-gallery.html (accessed 08/05/2017).

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Jancovich, Mark. 2002. Cult Fictions: Cult Movies, Subcultural Capital and the Production of Cultural Distinctions. Cultural Studies, 16 (2): 306–22.

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PART I

The Cult Business: Creating Consumption

11

Battle Royale as a One-Film Franchise: Charting a Commercial Phenomenon

Through Cult DVD and Blu-ray Releases

Jonathan Wroot

Kinji Fukasaku’s Battle Royale was first released in Japan in 2000. It was subsequently released in UK cinemas in 2001, and has been re-released several times on DVD and Blu-ray since this date. Battle Royale focuses on a class of Japanese high-school students who are forced into a fight for survival in the near future, and is adapted from Koushun Takami’s 1999 novel. Juvenile delinquency has hit an all-time high, and the Japanese government decides that one class per year will be picked at random to fight to the death. The students are taken to an island, given weapons, and are forced to do battle amidst booby traps and surveil-lance. The film is bloody, action-packed and full of black humour. These traits would suggest that the film sits within the niche category of cult Asian horror. While the film does illustrate potential definitions of this category, it also complicates them by the fact that it has regularly been re-released in the UK for over a decade.

Battle Royale became a commercial hit as part of the Tartan Asia Extreme label, and most recently has continued to bring in profits for

© The Author(s) 2017 J. Wroot and A. Willis (eds.), Cult Media, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-63679-5_2

J. Wroot (*) University of Greenwich, London, UKe-mail: jlwroot@googlemail.com

12 J. WROOT

independent distributor Arrow Video. This has not been because of the ‘permanent cult status’ that the film occupies. Instead, the film’s UK distributors show how useful the term cult is for them, as it can be adapted to constantly re-market Battle Royale. In addition, adapting cult and other terminology allows distribution labels to re-market their entire film catalogue and distribution practices within the home media market. There is an influential interplay at work between the films and their distributors. A label can become responsible for how a film release is received and disseminated within society and culture, either within one nation or several. At the same time, one film can significantly shape the perceptions of a distribution company within a market such as the UK, as well as other categories such as cult and Asian cinema. Distributors and their treatment of home media releases are key to these patterns of behaviour, and are anything but ‘invisible’, as emphasised within cur-rent research (Knight and Thomas, 2011, p. 13; Lobato, 2012, p. 2). The unique history of Battle Royale and its UK releases helps to illustrate these trends, as well as demonstrating how fluid and complex perceptions of cult media and Asian films have become since 2000. DVD and Blu-ray releases are central to these developments. At this current time, they are media resources which are in danger of being overlooked, because of a premature emphasis on shifts towards digital media consumption.

Research and publications specific to DVD have been plentiful over the last ten years or so. In 2006, Barbara Klinger charted different forms of film-viewing behaviour in homes, including DVDs. Regarding the discs’ extras, she claims that viewers are exposed to ‘trivia’ and ‘insider knowledge’—but only that which filmmakers and producers want audi-ences to see (2006, pp. 54–90). John Caldwell has also stressed the com-mercial lures of DVD extras by charting their origins as electronic press kits (EPKs) (2008, pp. 89–101). Such EPKs were used to disseminate interview material and outtakes to members of the press for the promo-tion of upcoming film and television shows. Such media have since been absorbed into the format of DVDs, as also demonstrated by Graeme Harper (2005) and Craig Hight (2005). Since these works, further descriptions of the experiences offered by DVD extras have been catego-rised as ‘the illusion of going backstage’ (Evans, 2010, p. 598) and ‘new smart media pleasures’ (Brereton, 2012, p. 19). These respective terms emphasise the illusions created by special features, which has been key to how this research has helped to develop the field of paratextual studies.

BATTLE ROYALE AS A ONE-FILM FRANCHISE: CHARTING A COMMERCIAL … 13

The paratext is not a new concept, though it has been adapted to contemporary media trends by Jonathan Gray (2010), via the work of Gerard Genette (1997). Taking the latter’s evidence from literature texts, Gray uses the concept to define DVDs, trailers, advertisements and other promotional media as ancillary texts which are used to gain access and lead consumers to a central filmic text. The dissemination of paratexts online and in experimental forms is the focus of publications such as Beyond The Screen (Atkinson, 2014) and Besides The Screen (Crisp and Gonring, eds., 2015). However, there is an assumption in these works that film-watching and media consumption is trending towards down-loading and streaming. While this could be the case in the long-term, the immediate story is different. It can be confidently said that DVDs and Blu-rays are still sold in their millions around the world. The statistics for the UK help illustrate this fact. In both 2014 and 2015, the British Video Association reported that UK consumers spent over £1 billion on DVD and Blu-ray media (Murray, 2015, 2016). This suggests that physi-cal home media releases are much more than just paratexts, as do the ori-gins of the term itself—within the concept of intertextuality.

Intertextuality was established by Julia Kristeva in 1966, in relation to literature, and it has been adapted to other media ever since. A key aspect of this concept is that ‘any text is the absorption and transforma-tion of another’ (Kristeva, quoted in Orr, 2003, p. 21). A similar con-clusion was drawn by Deborah and Mark Parker following their research on audio commentaries on DVDs. They state that: ‘The DVD edition is essentially a reorientation of the film … the DVD constitutes a new edition, and should be seen in these terms’ (Parker and Parker, 2004, p. 14). Therefore, distributors of home media shape film watching and consumer experiences by creating new media texts. These can take the form of physical or digital releases, as well as ancillary media, such as packaging, special features, trailers and websites. The UK release history of Battle Royale illustrates the influence of different DVD and Blu-ray releases for one specific film, which has essentially become a franchise. Derek Johnson states that understanding such replication within popular culture requires studying ‘the process of media franchising constituted by complex social interactions within the industry structures supporting and driving cultural replication’ (2013, p. 3). This approach aligns itself with the views put forward by Klinger—of changing discourses and the historical reception of specific films: