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Kinji Fukasaku (深作 欣二 Fukasaku Kinji, 3 July 1930 – 12 January 2003) was a Japanese film actor, screenwriter, and best known as a celebrated and innovative filmmaker. He was born in Mito, Ibaraki, Japan, and died in Tokyo, from prostate cancer. He is best known in the west for directing the Japanese portion of the Hollywood film Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) and the violent Battle Royale (2000).
[edit] Birth and childhoodWhen he was 15 years old, Fukasaku's class was drafted, and he worked as a munitions worker during World War II. In July 1945, the class was caught in artillery fire. Since the children could not escape artillery fire, they had to dive under each other in order to survive. The surviving members of the class had to dispose of the corpses. Fukasaku realized that the Japanese government lied about World War II at that point; Fukasaku had a burning hatred of adults in general for a long time.[1][2] [edit] Filmmaking careerIn 1973, Fukasaku directed a groundbreaking yakuza film, Battles Without Honor and Humanity (released in the United States as The Yakuza Papers). Up to this point, Japan's many yakuza films had usually been tales of chivalry (ninkyo) set in the pre-war period, but Fukasaku's ultra-violent, documentary-style film took place in chaotic post-War Hiroshima. A commercial and critical success, it gave rise to eight sequels of which he directed all but the last. Fukasaku continued his work with Sonny Chiba, who starred in Fukasaku's debut film, for several samurai period films such as Shogun's Samurai. In 1980, Fukasaku directed Virus, Japan's most expensive production at the time, which became a financial flop. Near the end of his life, Fukasaku branched out into the world of video games by serving as the director of the Capcom/Sunsoft survival horror game Clock Tower 3. Although the game sold poorly and received fair to lukewarm reviews, the game has been praised for its cinematic cut-scenes, which some consider to be worth playing through the game in order to watch. In 2000, Battle Royale was released, which received positive critical praise as well as becoming a major financial success, grossing ¥3.11 billion domestically.[3] Because he suffered from late stage prostate cancer during preparations for the film Battle Royale II: Requiem, the film's production was organized so that Fukasaku's son Kenta Fukasaku could take over the film's direction after he died. Fukasaku died after directing a single scene with Takeshi Kitano. [edit] Filmography
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