Hunger Games Versus Battle Royale

Okay... I'm not sure exactly what's going on with the big hit movie The Hunger Games, but the concept of having young kids murder each other in a contest... isn't that similar to the mega awesome Japanese movie Battle Royale (or perhaps has similarities to The Running Man - book and movie)? Don't believe me?

In The Hunger Games, annually in this event one boy and one girl aged 12 to 18 from each of the 12 districts surrounding the Capitol are selected by lottery to compete in a televised battle in which only one person can survive. Sound effing great!

Now... in Battle Royale, junior high school students (ages 12 - 15 or so) are forced by the government to compete in a deadly game, where the students are placed on an island and must kill each other in order to win.

Visit my old blog on BATTLE ROYALE and get a feel for the movie made in 2000.

And then see here for as synopsis on THE HUNGER GAMES of 2012 that was written in 2008.

Hey... imitation is the sincerest form of flattery - or a lawsuit. I mean... it's not like JK Rowling and her Harry Potter were even remotely similar to DC Comics' Vertigo comic: The Books Of Magic from 1990. See the 12-year-old hero Timothy Hunter HERE. The blog is not in English, but you can see a mess of drawings of the lead character and how they resemble a certain bespectacled young orphan who suddenly learns he could be the greatest magician/wizard  - but has to learn how first by being taught by the greatest magic-users around.

Anyhow... when you go see The Hunger Games - and you will... I've heard it got great reviews... just remember that it might owe some props to a great Japanese flick.

Cheers
Andrew Joseph