Fukasaku is a Japanese director and screenwriter. He made his directing debut with the film Hakuchu no buraikan (High Noon For Gangsters, 1961), and achieved great attention also in western countries with the film Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), in which he directed one segment instead of Akira Kurosawa. He also made the controversial Batoru rowaiaru (Battle Royal, 2000) whose sequel, Batoru rowaiaru II: Chinkonka (Battle Royale: II), was finished by his son Kenta Fukasaku after his father’s death in 2003. He made films for the Toei studio, and was famous for social criticism in his criminal films such as Jingi naki tatakai (Battles Without Honor and Humanity, 1973), which changed the dominant type of yakuza films and brought him popularity in his country. Afterwards, he made four sequels and thus made a series of five Jingi, or Battles films (1973-1974). In the end of the 1970s he gave up on the gangster genre and started directing samurai films such as Yagyű ichizoku no inbô (The Shogun\'s Samurai, 1978) and its sequel Ako-jo danzetsu (The Fall of Ako Castle, 1978). Afterwards he made the science fiction Fukkatsu no hi (Virus, 1980) and Kamata koshin-kyoku (Fall Guy, 1982), which earned him the award for Best Director from the Japanese Academy in 1983. He won the same award for his films Kataku no hito (House on Fire, 1986) and Chushingura gaiden yotsuya kaidan (Crest of Betrayal, 1994).