Battle Royale (Japanese: バトル・ロワイアル, Hepburn: Batoru Rowaiaru) is a 2000 Japanese action film[4] 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 Japanese totalitarian government.
Battle Royale was theatrically released on Japan on December 16, 2000, by Toei, with an R15+ rating, which is rarely used in Japan.[5][6][7] It was the highest-grossing Japanese-language film for six weeks after its initial release.[8][9] The film, however, drew controversy and was banned or excluded from distribution in several countries;[8][10] 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.[11] 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. It is often regarded as one of Fukasaku's best films, and one of the best films of the 2000s. In 2009, filmmaker Quentin Tarantino praised Battle Royale as his favourite film of the past two decades.[12][13]
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 was deemed inferior to its predecessor.
The film is notable for featuring many young unknown actors who became stars later on and spawning the battle royale genre.
