"The Hunger Games" vs. "Battle Royale"

The Hunger Games has often been compared to a Japanese novel and it's film adaptation from many years ago, called Battle Royale. While there are many similarities in terms of plot structure, there are also key differences.

Battle Royale involves a class of 7th grade students, who enroute a class field trip are sent to an isolated island. As part of the battle royale act, instituted after a massive school walkout, a competition is held among schoolchildren, in which they fight to the death. The main protagonist is a boy, who's mom left him and who's dad committed suicide recently. The story follows the forty kids as they die, one by one, in quite gruesome means. Making it even worse is that these kids know each other from school and their friendships. In the end, three of the remaining students, including the protagonist, survive and outsmart the system. The protagonist and the last girl standing become fugitives on the run for murder.


The Hunger Games differs in certain respects. In there, the competition is between children who don't know each other, for the purpose of keeping order in the land and showing them that the Capitol is boss. Our main character is Katniss Everddeen, and at least from the novel, we get a good feel for her character, and her motivations. The entire background behind the competition is different than in BR. The main similarity is a competition among kids to the death, and not much more.


Which do I prefer? After having seen both just now, back to back, I side with The Hunger Games, probably because I have a deeper understanding of it from the novel and the sequels. However, Battle Royale was interesting in that it was a much more intimate struggle to kill each other, to murder your friends and lovers. The violence was also much more explicit, and would likely have garnered an R rating here, which The Hunger Games avoided by masking the violence through shaky camera work. Overall, both are good films, with unique strengths.

Posted with Blogsy