Quentin Tarantino didn’t mince his words when he outwardly slammed The Hunger Games, the highest-grossing franchise.
“I do not understand how the Japanese writer didn’t sue Suzanne Collins for every fucking thing she owns,” he said. “They just ripped off the fuckin’ 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 fuckin’ thing they’d ever read. As soon as the film critics saw the film, they said, ‘What the fuck? This is just Battle Royale except PG!”
The director blasted out on an appearance on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast that The Hunger Games was a copy of the 2000 Japanese movie Battle Royale. Based on the 1999 novel of the same name by Koushun Takami, Tarantino has frequently listed the film among his most beloved.
Battle Royale takes place in a dystopian future in Japan. It follows a group of junior high kids who are compelled by an authoritarian regime to battle to the death in a contest until only one remains. The Hunger Games is another dystopian series that revolves around a live tournament in which two youths from each of the twelve provinces in the faux nation of Panem are anonymously selected to battle to the death.
Takami and Collins’ works are marred by familiarity in their theme, placement, and choice of the ‘survival’ genre.’ Collins, the author of The Hunger Games series, has frequently disputed the claim that Battle Royale inspired it. “I had never heard of that book or that author until my book was turned in,” she explained to The New York Times in 2011. “At that point, it was mentioned to me, and I asked my editor if I should read it. He said, ‘No, I don’t want that world in your head. Just continue with what you’re doing.’”
