Is The Hunger Games so different from Battle Royale?

[GodofDisaster]

I'm a fan of Battle Royale, both the books and the movies. Ok not so much the sequel.

Also as I've learnt from my screen writting teacher, there is no such thing as an orginal story, it's all been done before. It's how you tell that story that really counts.

However since I haven't seen the Hunger games yet, I can't really give my own opinion on what's better.

 

[Erja_Perttu]

Collins has created dystopia lite, a young adult version of a dystopian world. Watch them run to the theater, dressed as their favorite Hunger Games character - who is about to die

It's very sad.

There, I fixed that for you. On a different note, I'd advise you never go to a comic/games convention, you'd probably get really upset by all the Aeriths wandering around.

being similar does not making somthing a rip-off

is fallout a rip off as mad max? NO they both just happen to use the "desert wasteland" theme

Similar is fine - star wars, star trek. Lord of the Rings, Narnia.

Direct copy of plot, setting and idea is pretty lame.

It's not really a direct rip off though. The base concept of the games is the same - many enter, one leaves, but everything else, from the fact its televised, that the result of the Hunger Games is an uprising, the concept of Panem, the different ways that the combatants reacted to each other, the way the people running each exercise viewed their respective slaughter to be - In Battle Royale the kids are scared, forced to turn on people they used to trust, treated like dirt and even killed before the game starts. In the Huger Games, the kids are treated well, fed, paraded around like pieces of meat and people are encouraged to care for the winner and when they do start killing each other, they're not trying to kill people they've been friends with for a long time.

I'd call that pretty different, and that's not even getting into how far the Hunger Game takes the concept compared to Battle Royale.

 

[Frankster]

Don't know too much about hunger games due to being behind on the times cinema wise, but battle royale isn't that obscure imo.

 

[clipse15]

The difference is that The Mildly Peckish Games is basically Battle Royale dumbed down for people who really probably wouldn't like Battle Royale. Although I will say with absolute sincerity that I really hope that it does better at being "That Movie" than the Twilight movies. I'm definitely a fan of having our young female lead characters pine and be confused about relationships AND SHOOT THINGS than just pine and be confused about relationships.

just my 2 cents.

Really? You thought Hunger Games was the dumbed down version? I just came out f The Hunger games movie and you know what? I liked it miles ahead of Battle Royale. Hunger Games fleshed out a society where this could happen. You see the class system that would allow people to become detatched about human life. You can see why there are characters who would sign up for the games. You have actual characters and an interesting main character. Not to mention actual solid acting and solid cinematography.

Battle Royale on the other hand has terrible acting, bland cinematography and a lot of questions that have dumb answers. "That guy has done this before, he volunteered to be here. Why?? Cause he likes it" Why would the government do thiss? cause we're bad kids.

I don't know I thought the main character was bland and boring and I hated the vilians both the kid who volunteered and the guy running the battle. I had no connection to any of these kids so when they died there was no feeling whatsoever.

However there are two scenes in Battle Royale taht I think are very poigant. With the scene at lighthouse or windmill or whatever it was being very good.

I don't know Battle Royale just seemed like it was riding on its concept of killing kids in gruesome ways and didnt bother to make any of it interesting wheras wit hhunger games I was actually invested in their world.

That

 

[crazyfills]

Ok having seen the trailers for each and having seen the first Battle Royale movie, as well as my friend reading the books and a little Wikipedia usage. it seems to be largely that Battle Royale had a Mutch smaller budget and was releced in Japan and ownly made it to Europe and elsewhere mutch later in english subtitles (origonaly in japenese) due to its lower budget it also had less marketing and while on average the first film received decent reveiews the second received very poor reviews they are both simerler to the mith of the minotaur in as Mutch as it involves people being used as sacrifice but nether was based on this the first battle Royale film was based on the directors experience as a 15 year old working in an ammunition factory and the hunger games was based on the writer watching news of the war in Iraq and a reality show and noticing disturbing similarity between the two, it is also worth noting that in Battle Royale some of the competing students commit suicide early on in the game so that they don't have to kill others or get killed themselves as well as some of the more gory murders ment that it has an 18 rating giving it a smaller audience than the 13 rating on the Hunger Games.

 

[Gigano]

While Hunger Games might be little but a Poor Man's - or rather American Teenage Girl's - Battle Royale, it's bound to do better.

Not only are the standards of female oriented action sci-fi/fantasy rather low - anyone remember that thing where sparkly underwear models were passed off as vampires? - but there's a vast market for an extensively marketed PG-13 movie that just isn't there for a rather violent Japanese cult classic.

So even if only 10 % of the people who see Hunger Games liked it, and 90 % of those who saw Battle Royale liked it, the fans of Hunger Games would still drown out the Battle Royale ones by sheer numbers.

 

[DarkRyter]

It's ultimately the same premise.

But a premise only goes so far. I've seen both, and I can confidantly say they have little alike beyond the "Kids forced by government into televised combat".

 

[BloatedGuppy]

While Hunger Games might be little but a Poor Man's - or rather American Teenage Girl's - Battle Royale, it's bound to do better.

Not only are the standards of female oriented action sci-fi/fantasy rather low - anyone remember that thing where sparkly underwear models were passed off as vampires? - but there's a vast market for an extensively marketed PG-13 movie that just isn't there for a rather violent Japanese cult classic.

So even if only 10 % of the people who see Hunger Games liked it, and 90 % of those who saw Battle Royale liked it, the fans of Hunger Games would still drown out the Battle Royale ones by sheer numbers.

This is a little unfair.

I'll never defend Hunger Games as "great art", but it occupies the same strata layer of "trashy entertainment" that Battle Royale does. And both of them are miles ahead of Twilight.

 

[Gigano]

...
This is a little unfair.

I'll never defend Hunger Games as "great art", but it occupies the same strata layer of "trashy entertainment" that Battle Royale does. And both of them are miles ahead of Twilight.

Of course they are; but where Battle Royale is judged in comparison to other ultraviolent cult classics - by an almost niche following of older film geeks - Hunger Games is judged in comparison to stuff like Twilight - by an audience of American Teen Girls - and my guess is that it'll come out considerably less battle scarred for it.

So Hunger Games will be swallowed more easily, and hence do better, even if/when it's an inferior movie. That doesn't mean it's bad, it just mean its reception - commercial and quite possibly critical - will be much better than Battle Royale's would, without the movie itself being better at all, or even just as good. With Twilight as the latest big point of reference, that shouldn't be too hard for it to pull off anyway.

 

[Archer666]

Sorry, but that's wrong. The reason for the Battle Royale was created by the Dictator in order to teach the students the value of life and teach them that its a dog-eat-dog world out there and even your friends will end up turning on you, and of course to keep the people paranoid enough that there won't be a armed insurrection. Aside from a news reporting mentioning the beginning and results of the BR, the whole thing is also not televised. At least, thats the novel version. The manga had the event televised, but that was because Keith Giffen was given permission to rewrite the story to however he wanted it.

I'm gonna see the Hunger Games next week so I can't weigh in on it aside from what I saw in the trailers. It gives off the vibe of Battle Royale for younger people, but I guess I'll have to wait and see.

 

[Jonluw]

Hunger games certainly didn't become so popular due to its unique setting and plot.

Hunger games is aimed at and heavily marketed for a newly created, highly exploitable demographic: Teenage girls. (Hence the focus on romance)
Therefore, Hunger games doesn't need to stand out as a good piece of literature in its own right. It only needs to stand out as good compared to the other works available to the target audience.
Considering that you could publish a slightly shiny turd and it'd still compare favourably to the most profiled work in the teenage girl demographic, it becomes quite clear why something that's merely mediocre would do brilliantly in said market.

i.e. Hunger games filled a vacuum, a demand in the entertainment industry. Battle royale was just another piece of fiction: It may have been good, but it had no niche to fill.

 

[Mikejames]

They have the same setup, but I'll agree that Battle Royale is meant to be the more mature book.

Desensitization, and the thoughts on how far you're willing to go to survive were big themes of Battle Royale, and I think one of my biggest problems with Hunger Games is that it hardly touches these issues.

From the start, seeing death has little to no impact. We only see the viewpoint of the protagonist; with barely any of the enemies in Hunger Games even given names. They're dehumanized and mostly written off as unintelligent brutes. Meanwhile Battle Royale gave practically every character a name and motivation, showing that a lot of them were just scared, and others slowly going mad.
Early on in Hunger Games the protagonist is contemplating killing a girl before someone else gets to her first, never really addressing that it's just another kid trying to get home for fear of depressing the reader. That's what it felt like. It's toning down what should be a darker premise.

 

[JoelChenFA]

The problem with Battle Royale is the same problem that the Japanese version of "The Ring" had that all actors are young Asians, same age range, same hair colour, same eye colour, basically the same size and build and you can't tell who is who unless one of them has a beard. Then he's the guy with the beard and everyone else just blends together.

Not a problem for Asians. We have the same problem with caucasians looking all the same. But we don't have facial recognition issues since we are humans, not computers and generally do facial recognition easily.

Maybe you have a disease? Not being a troll but i heard some autistic people have problems with facial recognition

 

[Dejawesp]

The problem with Battle Royale is the same problem that the Japanese version of "The Ring" had that all actors are young Asians, same age range, same hair colour, same eye colour, basically the same size and build and you can't tell who is who unless one of them has a beard. Then he's the guy with the beard and everyone else just blends together.

Not a problem for Asians. We have the same problem with caucasians looking all the same. But we don't have facial recognition issues since we are humans, not computers and generally do facial recognition easily.

Maybe you have a disease? Not being a troll but i heard some autistic people have problems with facial recognition

Of course you have it easier. Caucasians have varying hair and eye colour.

Asians on the other hand have trouble telling a persons mood from the shape of the mouth (something westerners have an easy time doing) While Asians are a lot more dependant on the eyes of a person to determine mood. That's why the mouth is so trivialized while the eyes are overdone in anime.

 

[Wintermoot]

yes
the reason why they play is entirely different and thanks to the 13+ rating of the hunger games it,s also less gory.
The reason THG got more attention is because it,s aimed at tweens also it,s more recent and easier for big budget movie studios to adapt. I only saw Battle Royall and haven't seen THG (yet)

 

[The_Merchant]

I'm actually quite disappointed that so many think Battle Royale(which can only come from watching the MOVIE only) is mainly about the violence.
I always believed BR was about the psychological impact on the participants of such a game,how one personality would act.There is a difference between a bunch random guys being put in a free-for-all survival game and a class where all know eachother and are friends(or foes) more or less.I thought it should simulate how one thinks and feels when he knows that turning the gun on his best friend is the only way to get out of the game.Sure,some death scenes we're unneccessary but their general purpose is to fuel the insanity and paranoia and trauma in those victims.
and those who acted cool and frosty all the time suddenly show their true face when on the verge of death.
And it also offered a good deal of deep characters like Mitsuko,who has received the highest degree of physical and mental abuse,which ultimately shaped her view of sex twisted to the point where she believes it can solve anything.or a class outcast who pulled the trigger on a girl who never did anything to him and never meant harm because of paranoia making him believe that all turn against him caused by constant bullying.It gave a backstory to pretty much all characters,so it never felt to me that this character was just there to be killed.

I never saw much past the love triangle in hunger games,(oh oh oh,we'll soon hear things like team peeta/team gale,eh?)

What do they call the hunger games in france?Battle Royale with cheese