The 2000 Japanese movie Battle Royale was directed by Kinji Fukasuku. His son Kenta wrote the screenplay, taken from the original novel, which was written in 1999 by Koushon Takami. Both the novel and the film tell the story of a high school student (Tatsuya Fujiwara) who has to take part in a game, in which young people have to kill each other to satisfy a strange demand from the government. The story may have inspired the current US hit The Hunger Games.

Kinji Fukasuka, a distinguished Japanese director, died in 2003. His most internationally famous film was probably Tora! Tora! Tora! which he co-directed, about the Japanese World War II attack on Pearl Harbor.

Battle Royale has been much admired but has also attracted criticism for its portrayal of violence, especially as it came out after a wave of school killings, such as the Columbine tragedy in the US.