It is also a killing game. "Battle Royale" has put a lot of effort into character characterization, while "The Hunger Games" is like going through the motions. Except for the hero and heroine, other game participants rarely impressed us.
Why it came out like this?
I personally think that one reason is that The Hunger Games wasn't very successful - if you read the Hunger Games book, you might feel the same way. There are many details and psychological descriptions in the book, and everyone's entanglement, regardless of the amount of writing, is presented. But in the movie, everything seems so rushed, hastily fought, hastily died.
The second reason may be the most important, that is, in Eastern culture, a very important feature is intrigue, or in layman's terms, calculation. In the West, opposition to tyranny and pursuit of freedom are the top priorities, and courage and perseverance are the most admirable characters.
So Susan Collins set the setting of "The Hunger Games" as a country with 13 districts, 12 of which had rebelled against their rulers but were suppressed. Those who participated in the brutal killing game were to select 2 teenagers from each district, a total of 24 teenagers. The 2 participants in each district had never known each other, and had no grudges against other districts. Their later tensions were also related to the instinct and ability to survive that outweighed the vigilance of their "opponents". But in any case, their real invisible enemy is only one, and that is the totalitarian "king".
And Fukasaku Xinji and Fukasaku Kenta and their sons set the scene of "Battle Royale" as an elementary school class. There are more than 40 elementary school students, each of them has different personalities and backgrounds, but they are familiar with each other and even close to each other. When they first knew that they wanted to kill each other, they thought it was absurd and they shared the same hatred. But soon, the game began, and the "dark matter" called human nature appeared, and all the evil things in human nature unfolded scene by scene. For Chinese audiences, this must be very infected and even empathetic. Especially when Fukasaku and his son let a female student die, through the review of her life experience, it shows a kind of "I was sold by my mother since I was a child, and I was almost ravaged by a cup of people. I lived strong, and it is not easy to live until now". Attitude, extremely tragic.
So when I watched "The Hunger Games," one of the movies that came to my mind was "Braveheart." And when I watched "Battle Royale," I thought of another Japanese movie, "The Life of the Disgusted Matsuko."
I'm a little picky. But this is not to discuss which is better or worse, but to compare the differences between Eastern and Western cultures. For example, Chinese people love "The Legend of Zhen Huan", while Americans love "The Last Emperor". The reason is the same.
Blog: dongfangyu.org
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