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Before Squid Game, there was Battle Royale

Explore the shocking history behind Battle Royale, the Japanese cult classic that inspired lethal survivor games like Squid Game.

Originally a 1999 novel by Koushun Takami later turned into a manga and two movies about middle school students forced to kill each other by a fascist government, the Battle Royale franchise might be a quarter-of-a-century old, but it still remains the beloved standard for stories about people trapped in life-or-death games. This was a reference to Fukasaku and his middle school class being drafted to work in a munitions’ factory during World War II, where he survived an air raid that resulted in many casualties that he and his friends had to help clean up. So come this January 12, the anniversary of Kinji Fukasaku’s death, spare a thought for the brilliant director who leveraged his traumatic experiences to make a movie that made audiences both think and wince, and without whom, shows like Squid Game might never have existed.

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