Kinji Fukasaku
Birthdate : (3 July 1930 – 12 January 2003)
Birth Place : Mito, Ibaraki
Ignored during a long time by the foreign critics, Fukasaku’s work is finally celebrated with retrospectives at major film festivals. Fukasaku was born in Mito, the youngest of five children. His favorite films were French (Duvivier, Renoir, Feyder). He entered Toei as an assistant directot in 1953. He directed in first full length feature (hakuchu no buraiban) 8 years later. His follow up film, Wolves Pigs and Men has clearly been the main source of inspiration of Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs. In 1967, Fukasaku went to Shochiku. He made several non yakuza films, including the Black Lizard, Black Rose, The green Slime and the successful Tora Tora Tora. Back at Toei in 1972, he worked with Bunta Sugawara on several hits like Street Mobster. Koji Shundo, producer asked Fukasaku to direct a film based on the memoirs of a former gang boss of Hiroshima. This gave birth to the fantastic Battles without Honor series. He also made other yakuza hits like Graveyard of Honor in 1975, Yakuza burial in 1976 before the jitsuroku eiga boom ended.
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