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Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino has many strong opinions on film. In a conversation with The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast he shared one of them, and the target of his ire was The Hunger Games. His issue with it? The similarities to Battle Royale.
Speaking of his favorite movies of the 21st century, he named the Japanese movie from 2000 as one of his favorites. Like The Hunger Games, Battle Royale was based on a novel. Journalist by journalist Koushun Takami wrote it after a dream in which he saw his old high school teacher telling his class that they had to kill each other.
The Hunger Games movies are based on a series of novels by Suzanne Collins’. They both tell the story of totalitarian future governments that require chosen youngsters to battle it out to the death, both for entertainment and to keep the populace in line.
Tarantino didn’t hold back:
“I do not understand how the Japanese writer didn’t sue Suzanne Collins for every f—ing thing she owns. They just ripped off the f—in’ book. Stupid book critics are not going to go watch a Japanese movie called Battle Royale so the stupid book critics never called her on it.
They talked about how it was the most original f—in’ thing they’d ever read. As soon as the film critics saw the film, they said, ‘What the f—? This is just Battle Royale except PG!’”
Battle Royale was adapted into a manga series as well as the famous feature film.
Takami based the world of Battle Royale on his experiences in 1960s Japan, when large groups of revolutionaries fought back against police brutality. His depiction of a totalitarian fascist government using entertainment was also influenced by his favourite Stephen King novels, The Long Walk and The Running Man.
Concepts found in both stories could also, arguably, be traced back to Lord Of The Flies. Is Tarantino guilty of thinking the world only started at the same point as his pop culture references again?
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