Tatsuya Fujiwara

In Battle Royale (2000), Tatsuya Fujiwara's Shuya Nanahara still has room to care about other people while the adults demand that children kill one another. Fujiwara refuses to play that concern as foolish. Kinji Fukasaku gives his earnestness time that a brisker action film might spend on tactics. Beside Aki Maeda's Noriko Nakagawa, he gives us someone to worry about without suggesting that the other teenagers count for less.

We were more upset than we expected by the adolescent crushes that persist amid the killing. Fujiwara and Maeda make those feelings urgent enough that they never seem like a distraction from the danger. Fukasaku does not require them to become calculating adults before we can take them seriously. The flashbacks labour the point, but the central performances need little help explaining why these attachments endure.

The later casting often puts that emotional pressure to different uses. As Light Yagami in Death Note (2006), then Kaiji Itō in Kaiji: The Ultimate Gambler (2009), Fujiwara became a familiar lead in live-action adaptations. The Rurouni Kenshin sequels (2014) cast him as the antagonist Makoto Shishio. Troubled and antagonistic men recur often enough that it is easy to overlook the warmth of Nanahara. Those screen roles have not displaced the stage work, which has continued alongside them.

His physical intensity has roots in his theatre work with Yukio Ninagawa, including Shakespeare productions. His husky voice is another recognisable part of his acting, but it is the earnestness of Shuya that stays with us. There is a risk of repeatedly casting him for distress and overlooking his ability to make affection convincing. We would welcome more parts that give that side of his acting as much room as his volatility. For a first encounter, choose Battle Royale; the earnest young man at its centre is worth meeting before the villains.