Is The Hunger Games so different from Battle Royale?

[Auron225]

-snip-

Yes - its Battle Royale with a plot. At first I was wondering if it would do better or worse with a plot and after reading the books and seeing the film, I can confirm that yes it is definitely 100% better with a plot.

As for the whole romance thing, you can ignore it as I did and still find it amazing - granted, the books focused on the romance aspect a little more than I hoped it would (since everything else that goes on seems far more important imo) but its not like Twilight where that was the only thing anyone cared about. Its closer to Harry Potter if anything since romance is an aspect of it but a pretty small one.

It was the politics of it that interested me the most - and I hate politics in general. Why they have the Hunger Games really does turn your stomach and provided it does, you should be interetsed in the other two in the series; Catching Fire and Mockingjay. Although I still think the first one is the best - it doesn't allow you to put it down.

Try reading the first one and see what you think. Everyone I know that has read them couldnt find a bad thing to say about them and most people did it within 2 days regardless of their speed of reading or whatever plans they had.

 

[Revnak_v1legacy]

I haven't read the books nor seen the movie, from what I've heard it's supposed to portray this bleak society with brutal kid on kid violence, yet the movie is rated PG and shows very little blood? How is that supposed to work?

PG-13 and it had plenty of violence, they just used cinematography tricks to get away with having a guy use a broadsword to hack people to death. And then there's the bees... Those fucking bees!!! I know it's just the concept behind them that keeps scaring me, but those damn bees!

 

[Zenron]

The Hunger Games is Battle Royale. For pussies.
And racists...if you come to think about it.

I'm guessing you haven't read the third book then?

Spoiler

Explody explody children BOOM

Anyway, what sets this apart from Battle Royale is the plot really. I quite enjoyed Battle Royale but I still liked Hunger Games more because I was far more invested in the characters, and it didn't leave me with so many arbitrary questions.

 

[Kiardras]

I've so far avoided the books and films because of its similarity, but if its different enough to be worth reading on its own merit, I'd like to give it a try.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

They're similar but hardly identical. I guess it's an unusual plot device, hence the similarities seem starker here than they do in the one billion other incidences of works of art having similarities with one another, but I'd hardly call them copy/paste clones.

I'd agree with kman123 that the books are enjoyable schlock. Not great literature by any means, but highly entertaining. And I, too, love me some Jennifer Lawrence. Or at least however much of her it's appropriate to love, given our difference in age.

 

[thehorror2]

The core plot of the books is, from what I understand (not having read either battle royal or any of the hunger games series) but the world of the two is very different. While the titular battle of battle royale is merely for the amusement of depraved adults, the hunger games represent a cultural domination on the part of the aristocracy that subjugates the working classes and makes them sacrifice their best and brightest children for a shot at prosperity.

If that doesn't seem like a big enough difference to you, well... shut up, girls are finally flipping out over a series with a better moral than Twilight. Don't ruin it.

 

[ciancon]

Now, to me, these books seem really similar. I liked Battle Royale significantly better than The Malnourished Games.

I asked the same question a few weeks ago. After some debate i decided to read the first book and read the synopses of the other two books cos i heard it goes quickly downhill after 1. I've read all of the first Battle Royale manga and it is definitely better. But that doesn't mean that The Hunger Games doesn't have enough originality to stand on its own. I really liked the whole build up and publicity that went into the Games version. Not as violent as i'd hoped but the ending with the dogs was a bit suprising!

I'm not sure if i want to go and see the film but i'm certainly curious. I think the best plan is to wait and hope that Bob covers it in a review.

It does really suck that Battle Royale isn't as recognised as it should be though....

 

[RaikuFA]

The Hunger Game and Battle Royal both took their core concept from Greek myth, so calling either a rip off doesn't really seem fair (unless you really want to go back to whoever wrote the story of the minotaur). Personally I really liked The Hunger Games precisely because it does focus on the politics of the situation and on the relationships between the characters.

I don't get it. What's the minotaur story got to do with Battle Royale? A hero killing a monster isn't exactly the same as school kids forced to kill each other. I mean, yeah, killing is involved, but apart from that...

It was inspired. I believe he inspired the main character. I probably won't watch it. Still need to see BR.

 

[Blind Sight]

I don't know, the themes of both are fairly similar. Based on Greek myth, talks about the cultural glorification of violence through the use of children, etc. I wouldn't call it a ripoff, just very similar (in the same way that Avatar is really just a much weaker version of the same themes in Dune).

So I haven't read all the books, but can someone please explain to me why the hell the hyper-advanced supercity needs coal?

 

[Schuldrich]

snip

I actually just read the book. My sister talked about it and left me the book so I read through it in a day. I also just read through 80 chapters of Battle Royale a couple days before that so yeah I can see where people are comparing the two.

I guess I might as well throw up a spoiler warning.

How popular one is compared to the others seems pretty obvious to me. Hunger Games was marketed as a book to teenagers and up, featuring a female protagonist. Already you're reaching out to a broader demographic then Battle Royale. Most of the fighting in hunger games wasn't even in the book. Nearly all the competitors were killed elsewhere. The fight that killed Rue was over in a paragraph or two. Guy stabbed her, he got shot with an arrow. More time was spent singing to her and pointing out how Katniss braided her hair with flowers as an act of rebellion. Battle Royale was very graphic. Brains on the ground, one lady scooping a persons brains back into their head, using duct tape to secure your organs to try and buy extra time, I can't even imagine those scenes playing out in hunger games. One appeals to a much harder crowd then the other.

Also in Hunger Games the contestants that outplayed people on smarts alone were just about all women. Rue, the girl from District 5 and Katniss were all shown to be the crafty ones that can escape and survive through their own merits while almost all of the guys were just strong and grouped together. Rue could hide well, was very agile, had knowledge of plants and berries to survive and had nearly perfect aim with a slingshot. The girl from district 5 was able to steal from everyone else without anyone noticing, even Katniss who is shown to have keen senses from hunting didn't notice when the girl stole food from her and Peeta, though she noticed food was missing after it was taken. Of course Katniss has basic knowledge of plants and berries, can track animals, is a perfect shot with a bow and arrow, can sleep in trees, and has great reflexes. The male contenders are Peeta who was shown to hide himself well in mud, and a guy from District 3 who was allowed to live with the strong guys because he knew how to reactivate mines. Once that plan didn't pan out he was killed off immediately.

Appealing to women, especially the teenage girl crowd, will gain you a LOT of popularity. Look at Twilight. Hunger Games was made for that crowd. Battle Royale really wasn't. Personally I liked Battle Royale more. I didn't dislike the Hunger Games but it didn't interest me enough to read the second or third book.

 

[VaudevillianVeteran]

I honestly don't think they should have kept it PG-13 TBH. I mean the whole emotional aspect isn't served by watering down the violence and what happens in the Arena is pretty brutal. I mean seeing a twelve year old girl transfixed by a spear shouldn't be hard to watch just because you were invested in the character, it should be hard to watch because it's a twelve year old girl with a spear in her chest! The whole point was to emphasize the brutality and indifference of the Capital, and from what I heard from N-chick's review there are a lot of parts were you can see them trying to get around making it an R movie: "Blood doesn't work that way".

I haven't seen or read The Hunger Games yet, I'm going to invest in it when I can because the story does seem interesting for the emotional connection. But they actually watered down the Battle Royale manga significantly too, in a different way though. It's strange how they worked to get the violence and such toned down so much when there was such praises said about the original Hunger Games, I suppose it does come down to getting a wider audience.

 

[MammothBlade]

I didn't realise that The Hunger Games was similar to Battle Royale, now I think I'll have a look at the former... interesting. I watched the film and read some of the manga, which is better in my view. Battle Royale doesn't have a monopoly on survival games, but they are still in the same broad genre I think.

Also, greatest troll ever:

 

[Falseprophet]

I don't get it. What's the minotaur story got to do with Battle Royale? A hero killing a monster isn't exactly the same as school kids forced to kill each other. I mean, yeah, killing is involved, but apart from that...

In the common version of the myth, Athens had lost a war with Crete, and King Minos of Crete demanded a tribute from Athens as a sign of subjugation. So every year, Athens had to send seven young men and seven young women to Crete, where they would be sent into the Labyrinth and killed by the Minotaur.

When Theseus learned of this, he took the place of one of the young men, was able to navigate the Labyrinth with help from Minos' daughter Ariadne, and slew the Minotaur so no Athenian youths would ever be killed by the beast again. That's the basic gist of it.

In The Hunger Games, the capital of Panem is able to demand an adolescent boy and an adolescent girl from each of the conquered 12 Districts every year, and force them to fight and die in a spectacle. The message is clear: "We have our foot so firmly on your necks, you will give us your children to be slaughtered for our amusement, and there is nothing you can do about it."

 

[Queen Michael]

From what I've read about Battle Royal, it's more about the Tournament itself than the characters. The Hunger Games books are the other way around, being told from a first person perspective. It's not just about the fighting but about rebellion.

But I think they are different movies, The Hunger Games seems to have a different fixation on the relationships and not simply the game, while Battle Royale is a very violent film which has a big focus on the game and survival. Not to mention that The Hunger Games is a 12A-PG13 and Battle Royale is a hard 18, The Hunger games is more accessible to younger people basically.

That's what I can tell at least.

I honestly don't think they should have kept it PG-13 TBH. I mean the whole emotional aspect isn't served by watering down the violence and what happens in the Arena is pretty brutal. I mean seeing a twelve year old girl transfixed by a spear shouldn't be hard to watch just because you were invested in the character, it should be hard to watch because it's a twelve year old girl with a spear in her chest! The whole point was to emphasize the brutality and indifference of the Capital, and from what I heard from N-chick's review there are a lot of parts were you can see them trying to get around making it an R movie: "Blood doesn't work that way".

Now I'm wishing Scorsese had directed this

The Hunger Games is Battle Royale. For pussies.
And racists...if you come to think about it.

How's that last part?

I might be wrong here, but I think he meant that it's Battle Royale but with a lower proportion of non-whites.

 

[Char-Nobyl]

Ok, this is just me wanting to get a general opinion from the strongly-opinionated people of the Escapist Community. As I'm sure many of you are aware, The Hunger Games movie released today/tonight. For those of you who don't know the plot, it focuses on a bunch of kids being thrown together (by their government) and told to kill each other in order to earn supplies for their respective villages. I read it, didn't like it because it focused less on fighting/killing and more on the romance between characters, along with the politics behind the "game" itself.

At the risk of sounding sexist, Hunger Games is the girls' Battle Royale. I've got a coworker whose still in highschool and alternate between thinking she has a deplorable taste in film/literature and thinking that she's got a great one, mostly because she liked Twilight but also adored Battle Royale when I recommended the book to her. I usually spend my shifts with her dismantling everything she claims was 'good' about Twilight, but that's an unrelated story.

Anyhoo, if Hunger Games is mostly just Battle Royale with more emphasis on romance and PG-13 violence, then I wouldn't be surprised if it appealed to a younger/more female crowd.

Now, to me, these books seem really similar. I liked Battle Royale significantly better than The Malnourished Games. However, with all the hype due to the upcoming movie, everyone's fanatic about it. Barely anybody I talk to has even heard of Battle Royale. I feel that it should have more recognition, especially if such a similar movie is so popular. So, my question is: what's so different about the Hunger Games? If there is no difference, how'd it get so popular? Escapist Community, any thoughts?

Oddly enough, there was an American Battle Royale remake in the works a few years back. It might've been horrible or it might've been awesome, but it was also being considered a short time before the VT shootings, so that put the boot to that project pretty quickly.

tl;dr : Hunger Games and Battle Royale are really similar. So, how did Hunger Games get so popular, especially when Battle Royale is better?

Well, on the film front, Hunger Games has a few recognizable actors, and everyone is speaking English. I guess that helps with sales.

 

[Iron Criterion]

It has a gratuitous romance thrown in? Because the protagonist needs a motivation other than, oh I don't know - survival instinct? Sounds like tween trash to me.

However I am going to see it this weekend so I'll then be able to compare the two in more depth.

 

[Revnak_v1legacy]

It has a gratuitous romance thrown in? Because the protagonist needs a motivation other than, oh I don't know - survival instinct? Sounds like tween trash to me.

However I am going to see it this weekend so I'll then be able to compare the two in more depth.

For the protagonist it is all survival instinct and rebellious spirit. In the latter books add in some guilt and depression. If at any time you feel the protagonist is genuinely attracted to a character, you are more than likely wrong. Romance is not the protagonist's motivation, though the same cannot be said of some other characters.

 

[Mebulous]

The Hunger Game and Battle Royal both took their core concept from Greek myth, so calling either a rip off doesn't really seem fair (unless you really want to go back to whoever wrote the story of the minotaur). Personally I really liked The Hunger Games precisely because it does focus on the politics of the situation and on the relationships between the characters.

Director Kinji Fukasaku has said that he based this movie on his experiences in World War II Japan, where he worked in a factory that was regularly bombed by Allied aircraft and many of his fellow workers were killed on their first or second day on the job and he never got to know any of them.- IMDB