Kinji Fukasaku

Kinji Fukasaku (深作 欣二, Fukasaku Kinji, 3 July 1930 – 12 January 2003) was a Japanese film director and screenwriter who rose to prominence for his association with the Japanese New Wave. He is known for directing the Japanese portion of the Hollywood war film Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), yakuza films including the seminal Battles Without Honor and Humanity (1973), samurai period pieces such as Shogun's Samurai (1978), the space opera Message from Space (1978), the fantasy film Samurai Reincarnation (1981), and his controversial final film Battle Royale (2000). He was also known for his trademark, cinema verite-inspired shaky camera technique, which he used extensively in many of his films from the early 1970s. In 1997, he received the Purple Medal of Honor from the Japanese government for his work in film.

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