Battle Royale

is a 2000 Japanese action-thriller film directed by Kinji Fukasaku, and written by his son Kenta Fukasaku, based on the controversial 1999 novel by Koushun Takami. Starring Tatsuya Fujiwara, Aki Maeda, Tarō Yamamoto, and Takeshi Kitano, the film follows a group of junior-high-school students forced to fight to the death by the Japanese totalitarian government. The film drew controversy and was banned or excluded from distribution in several countries; Toei Company 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. The film was first screened in Tokyo on more than 200 screens on December 16, 2000, with an R15+ rating, which is rarely used in Japan. It was the highest-grossing Japanese-language film for six weeks after its initial release, and it was later released in 22 countries worldwide, grossing over in ten countries. The film earned critical acclaim and, especially with its DVD 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. Battle Royale was the last film to be directed by Kinji Fukasaku. He also 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 Kitano. Kenta Fukasaku, who also wrote Requiem, completed the film that same year. The sequel was, however, deemed inferior to its predecessor. The film is notable for featuring many young unknown actors who become stars later on. The film spawned the battle royale genre, including battle royale games, anime, comic books, films, manga and television shows.