Battles Without Honor and Humanity
was a Japanese film director and screenwriter who rose to prominence for his association with the Japanese New Wave. He directed the Japanese portion of the Hollywood war film "Tora! Tora! Tora!" (1970), yakuza films including "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 final film "Battle Royale" (2000). He used a "cinema verite"-inspired shaky camera technique in many of his films from the early 1970s.