Fukasaku Kenta adapted Battle Royale from the novel by Takami Koshun. The book and film bear some parallels to the story The Most Dangerous Game, as well as the William G. Golding novel "Lord of the Flies" and the Stephen King book "The Long Walk". Takami was an admirer of King, and named the students' home town and school "Shiroiwa," which translates to "Castle Rock," the name of a town frequently used by King as a setting for his stories. King, in turn, had borrowed the name from a location in Golding's novel.
Battle Royale was generally well received amongst critics who appreciated it as a satire of the Japanese education system and a metaphor for the perpetuation of violence from one generation to the next, but some educators and politicians objected to the violence perpetrated on screen by the 15 year-old students. Attempts by these politicans to have the film banned in Japan failed, however, and it was released with an R-15 rating to great box office success.
Kinji Fukasaku elected to direct a sequel, Battle Royale II: Requiem in 2003, but died of bone cancer on January 12, 2003, after shooting only one scene. His son Kenta, born 1973 in Japan, who wrote the screenplay for both films, completed the film in his stead.
In the sequel, the survivors of the first film have formed a terrorist group, Wild Seven, and the government creates a new Battle Royale game wherein the chosen class must storm Wild Seven's island stronghold and kill its leader.