Battle Royale (2000)

Battle Royale (Japanese: バトル・ロワイアル, Hepburn: Batoru Rowaiaru) is a 2000 Japanese dystopian action film directed by Kinji Fukasaku from a screenplay by Kenta Fukasaku, based on the 1999 novel of the same name by Koushun Takami. The film stars Tatsuya Fujiwara, Aki Maeda, Tarō Yamamoto, Chiaki Kuriyama, Kou Shibasaki, Masanobu Andō, and Beat Takeshi. It follows a group of junior high school students forced to fight to the death by a totalitarian Japanese government.

Battle Royale was theatrically released in Japan on December 16, 2000, by Toei Company, with an R15+ rating, which is rarely used in Japan. The film drew controversy and was banned or excluded from distribution in several countries. Toei refused to sell the film to any United States distributor for over a decade due to concerns about potential controversy and lawsuits, until Anchor Bay Films eventually acquired the film in 2010 for a direct-to-video release. Worldwide, it grossed $30.6 million against a production budget of $4.5 million. The film earned critical acclaim and, especially with its video releases, drew a large global cult following. In 2009, filmmaker Quentin Tarantino praised Battle Royale as one of his favorite films of the previous two decades.

Battle Royale was the last film to be fully directed by Kinji Fukasaku. He started working on the sequel, titled Battle Royale II: Requiem, but died of prostate cancer on January 12, 2003, after shooting only one scene with Takeshi. His son, Kenta Fukasaku, who also wrote Requiem, completed the film that same year. The sequel drew mostly negative reviews and was deemed inferior to its predecessor.

The film is notable for featuring many young, unknown actors who became stars later on, along with helping to spawn the battle royale genre.