| Born in Mito, Japan
(the same birthplace as Rikio Ishikawa, the infamous
yakuza whose violent life Fukasaku would later
depict in his film Graveyard of Honor),
Kinji Fukasaku joined Toei in 1953 as an assistant
director and directed his first film, The
Drifting Detective, in 1961. In his truly
amazing career that lasted over forty years, he
produced over sixty films and brought us everything
from gritty yakuza flicks like Battles Without
Honor and Humanity to big budget sci-fi films
such as Message From Space to samurai
films like The Yagyu Clan Conspiracy
to horror films such as Crest of Betrayal
to romantic comedies like Fall Guy. He
even directed a musical called Shanghai Rhapsody.
His best known works in the West include The
Green Slime, a goofy but well meaning space
opera with American thespians, the Japanese segments
for Tora! Tora! Tora!, which he directed
along with Toshio Masuda after Akira
Kurosawa backed out and his magnum opus Battle
Royale. Sadly, Fukasaku passed away due to
cancer after completing only one day of footage
for Battle Royale II. Though Toho Studios
was involved in the production of only two of
his films (Under
the Flag of the Rising Sun and Virus),
he will remembered for generations to come as
one of Japan's finest filmmakers, who, like such
American directors as Howard Hawks and Robert
Wise, produced numerous entertaining films in
multiple genres.
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