Why Hunger Games is not a ripoff of Battle Royale

Yay, children as killers!

I remember when the Hunger Games movie was coming out people were saying it was a ripoff of Battle Royale. After finally seeing Battle Royale I really don't think it is. The only thing they have in common is children killing children which in this case they're both ripoffs of Lord of the Flies.

Then people were saying how can Suzanne Collins have never heard or seen Battle Royale?? Well Battle Royale came out in 2001 and I only heard about it last year when Hunger Games was coming out. Battle Royale never came to the US, it was banned. Also, how many foreign movies come to our mainstream theaters? You would have to actively look for it. It just came to Netflix this year so you can't use the Netflix excuse. In order to know about this movie, you would have to have a passion for Asian cinema or foreign cinema. I really don't think that the average middle age woman from the US would have the opportunity to see this. It's not as if it aired as movie on Lifetime. It wasn't even on our premium channels like HBO, Cinemax, or Starz.

I've read the Hunger Games and seen the movie. I have only seen the Battle Royale movie. There is a book, but I haven't read it. There are major differences in theme. The first being that the Hunger Games is a book set in the future of a dystopian society. In BR a group of classmates are gassed and taken to a remote island. In HG the games are used a punishment for an uprising that happened 75 years ago. In BR this is a way to control rowdy youth who stopped going to school and are becoming out of control. The games in HG aren't a way to control the youth, but to stop the districts from trying to up rise again. Clearly there are two very different reasons why children are being forced to kill each other in these stories.

Then there is a countdown of each child being killed. This is normal for both authors to come to this concept separately. It's called reality TV. We are always counting down the people being exiled or voted off in these shows. In HG the images appear in the sky at night. In BR dramatic irony is used to convey the number of children left. The children are never aware of who is dead, but the audience is told the numerical order of each child dying.

One huge difference is how each child receives supplies. In BR each child is given a backpack with a weapon ranging for machine guns to the lid of a trashcan. In HG they were given nothing. They had to run to the cornucopia to grab an assembly of supplies and risk getting murdered. Later on they might get a sponsor to send them things. They don't have sponsors in BR.

I think the biggest difference in these two stories is that HG used the games as reality TV fodder where BR didn't. The only person shown watching the action in BR was their former teacher Kitano. In the HG every person in the districts and in the capital is forced to watch the games. The capital citizens treating it more like entertainment than those in the districts.

I liked HG better than BR, but that's because I read the book. Perhaps if I read the BR book my opinion would be different. In terms of the movie I personally didn't care for the HG movie. I've seen better YouTube remakes with beanie babies. The BR movie was a typical Asian slasher fill full of high drama. Tim only watched the first 10 minutes and then he went to bed. He wasn't impressed, but he's not a fan of subtitles. He made me switch it to the dubbed version which I find annoying. I'd rather read the movie than watching peoples mouths not match up with what they're saying.

Anyway, I just wanted to be one of the millions who pointed this out. Next blog will be how Suzanne Collins plagiarized herself! If that's possible.