What I Watched -- Battle Royale

I heard some press that Suzanne Collins had ripped off her idea for The Hunger Games from an earlier Japanese book and film called Battle Royale.  I decided to check it out, see what this was all about.

There are definitely similarities. As in The Hunger Games, Battle Royale involves a dystopian society in which a group of kids must fight each other to the death in order for the government to maintain control (or at least the illusion of control) over the people.

There is less overt, America-is-damned political commentary in Battle Royale (probably because it's Japanese), but there are definitely the same questions regarding the lengths to which oppressive government regimes will go to make their point. 

In some ways, Battle Royale was more frustrating to watch, because the kids try to fight the system.  In The Hunger Games, everything is from Katniss's point of view, so you get only very rare glimpses of other kids in the game (at least in the first book) who also see the futility of it all.  In Battle Royale, though, there are lots of kids like that.  It's frustrating because they each have their own idea of how to survive the game; sometimes they get close to making progress, but then they collapse on themselves.  What does that say about our chances as a society?

Parting words of wisdom from the film: "No matter how far, run for all you're worth."

Bottom line: probably the original source material for THG, but more gruesome.  Interesting commentary, but certainly not for the faint of heart.