Kinji Fukasaku

Infobox Person
name=Kinji Fukasaku

300px
caption=
birth_date=birth date|1930|7|3|mf=y
birth_place=Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture Japan
death_date=death date and age|2003|1|12|1930|7|3
death_place=Tokyo, Japan

nihongo|Kinji Fukasaku|深作 欣二|"Fukasaku Kinji"|3 July, 1930 – 12 January, 2003 was a Japanese film actor, writer and best known as a celebrated and innovative director. 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 film "Tora! Tora! Tora!" (1970) and the violent "Battle Royale" (2000).

Birth and childhood

When 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. [" [http://web.archive.org/web/20021205020037/www.battleroyalethemovie.com/staff.htm Director's Statement] ," "Battle Royale"] [" [http://www.midnighteye.com/interviews/kinji_fukasaku.shtml Kinji Fukasaku] ," "Midnight Eye"]

Filmmaking career

In 1973, Fukasaku directed a groundbreaking yakuza film, "Battles Without Honor and Humanity", AKA "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, whom 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. [cite web |url= http://www.accj.or.jp/document_library/Journal/1053151390.pdf|title= Japan Goes to the Movies|accessdate=2007-01-08 |last= J. T.|first= Testar|authorlink= |coauthors= |date= |year= 2002|month= June|format= PDF|work= |publisher= The Journal|pages= 1] Because he suffered from late stage prostate cancer during preparations for the film "", 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.

Filmography

Further reading

* cite book
author=Tom Mes and Jasper Sharp
title=The Midnight Eye Guide to New Japanese Film | publisher=Stone Bridge Press
year=2004
id=ISBN 1-880656-89-2
url=http://www.stonebridge.com/MIDNIGHTEYE/midnight_eye.html

References

External links

*
* [http://www.midnighteye.com/features/focus_fukasaku.shtml Focus: Kinji Fukasaku] at the Midnight Eye
* [http://www.braineater.com/kinji.html The Man No Genre Could Tame]
* [http://wildgrounds.com/eng/index.php/2007/12/27/kinji-fukasaku-an-introduction-to-chaos/ Kinji Fukasaku: An introduction to chaos]
*