What movies to watch and what movies to like is a very personal matter, and there is no need to have a unified calibre. But this question still reflects a certain psychology, that is, "The Hunger Games" and "Battle Royale" have many similarities, at least in terms of plot, and they are comparable in some form. For example, the background is the future world, boys and girls are selected as tribute, exiled to a deserted island, killing each other, until finally one person wins. Many years ago, when I watched "Battle Royale", I have heard about this classic name for a long time, but the brutal and inhuman killings exposed in it still make me disgusting. I don't understand why such a film can become a classic. What exactly does the director want to prove from the mutual cheating and killing of such teenagers? Is it just the ugliness and distortion of human nature? Or is it to show the fear of the future world?
A few days ago, after the mainland premiere of "The Hunger Games", I always saw the two movies on par. I revisited "Battle Royale" at home, and found that the impression many years ago has not changed. This is an ugly movie. Although the ending of the escape can still show a glimmer of hope, but before watching the movie For the audience, this is a desperate movie, without any beauty, a twisted rule that turns people into a killing machine. I admit that I still don't see the director's great meaning in this movie. In this sense, I prefer "The Hunger Games".
"The Hunger Games" is adapted from Susan Collins's trilogy of best-selling novels of the same name. Twenty-four innocent boys and girls, in the dilemma between murder and being killed, only one person can win in the end. Judging from this few plots, the film inevitably reminds people of "Battle Royale". However, in my opinion, the most essential difference between "The Hunger Games" and "Battle Royale" is that the heroine Katniss' persistence to survive has made the film's most moving icon, and it has also made it compatible with "Battle Royale". A completely different temperament: it is a force to resist despair and fate.
Since the movie script itself is based on the original novel, there are different cultural connotations in the setting of many details. In this regard, it is not comparable to "Battle Royale". The first few sentences of the movie explain the background of the story. Shi Huiguo, a future world country located in the North American continent, is composed of the capital city of Kapite and its 13 administrative districts. About seventy-five years ago, problems such as the wide gap between the rich and the poor and the uneven distribution of materials led to riots in thirteen administrative districts. That period of history was called the "dark period." The final resistance was suppressed, and the thirteenth district, the main force, was razed to the ground by a gas bomb attack. In order to rule and warn all citizens, Kapite's new law created the annual "Hunger Games". Every year, one man and one woman from the twelve districts are selected as tributes, and they are allowed to participate in the killing game. Similarly, there is only one winner in the end. The most important thing is that the game is broadcast live to the twelve districts throughout the whole process. In addition to the entertainment meaning, the deterrent effect is obvious. In other words, the public's rebellion is fruitless, because this game has proven the power of the country. Everything in this game is controllable. The designer of the game can even design fires, traps, change the weather, and release beasts at will. The geographical environment, weather, biology, day and night time and other natural conditions of the arena are all controlled by the computer. If the organizers think that the game progress is too slow or lack of excitement, they can "create" beasts to attack the players. Rather than saying that this is a game, it is better to simply say that this is a "military parade" for rulers to show their ruling power. No one can come out alive. If they want you to die, it is as easy as pinching an ant. This is the purpose of the game itself.
The same is death, but the ending of "Battle Royale" is nothingness. Although life is an endless escape, in the "Battle Royale", escape became a synonym for escape, especially in the next two parts, the escape also ended and became repeated meaningless killings. . This is a very stupid movie. It has no effect other than showing the bad effects of the killing. But in "The Hunger Games", we can see the shadow of a dictatorship, we can also see the fire of anger of people living under oppression, we can see hope. Knowing that the ending is death, then bravely face death and resist the rule, even in the name of the game. Although I haven't read the original novel, I can imagine that in the course of the next story, the rebels will be their end. The purpose of the game killing is not only to show the cruelty of human nature, at least to let us see that even those humble people in the future world, even if they have no weapons, even if they use primitive fists, primitive bows and arrows, to face high-tech Weapons, also do not lose their fighting spirit and hope. Interpreting the figure of Katniss Everding, played by the heroine Jennifer Lawrence in "The Hunger Games", holding a bow and arrow from this perspective, there will be more charm. In Western culture, bows and arrows have always represented the resistance of the grassroots class. For example, Robin Hood, a folk hero in the Middle Ages in England, was proficient in archery, chivalrous and courageous, and possessed a lofty chivalry spirit. The scene of Kate holding a bow and arrow heroic and fiercely fighting seems to let us see the shadow of the female version of Robin Hood.
There is a deeper level of culture in "The Hunger Games" that needs to be interpreted and criticized. It is a culture of entertainment that goes deep into the bones of the bone. In the film industry, there has always been a rule not to be, that is, try to avoid scenes of juvenile killings. But in more and more movies, this kind of rule has become a stranger, more and more teenagers, younger and younger teenagers have become the objects of being watched and consumed in the killing movies. From the perspective of entertainment, both "Battle Royale" and "The Hunger Games" are the epitome of the self-depraved contemporary entertainment culture. Killing has become the highest form of entertainment. The setting of this scenario has been foreshadowed in the movie "Passing the Pass" which was released in 1987 based on Stephen King's novel. Many later films such as "The World of Truman" have similar background settings. In the future world, the biggest dictator is not politics, but the media, or the hybrid power of politics and media. The Italian scholar and novelist Eko once joked that if dictatorship can still occur today, it cannot be political but in the media industry. In the modern world, if you want a regime to collapse, you don’t need to line up tanks anymore, just occupy the radio and television stations.
The power of the media is not through outright violence, but through entertainment. As Huxley mentioned in Brave New World, those libertarians who are ready to resist dictatorship "completely ignore people's endless desire for entertainment." In "Nineteen Eighty Four", people are controlled by pain, while in "Brave New World", people lose their freedom due to enjoyment. In short, Orwell fears that what we hate will destroy us, while Huxley is worried that we will destroy what we love. "The Hunger Games" seems to be a combination of the two, hunger is something we hate, and games are something we love. The existence of "The Hunger Games" shows the highest form of a dictator. But just like the spirit of resistance contained in the film, we seem to have seen the hypocritical, crazy, and entertaining country on the verge of collapse.
Siyu
2012-6-17 book
View more about The Hunger Games reviews
