Enjoyed in spite of BR ripoff
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — The Hunger Games
DarkRealityX — 11 years ago(July 12, 2014 06:28 PM)
When I saw the trailer for THG, like many others I thought, "Oh, Battle Royale is getting an American adaptation." Then I learned it was unrelated, just a possible ripoff. So I stayed away, figured it can't be that good if it's not an original idea.
It was, and I learned a lesson here. Let the courts and BR author/filmmakers and THG author/filmmakers decide if damages were done, and enjoy a good movie. I haven't even heard of any legal action being taken, so if the BR people aren't bothered, why should we be? If THG fans like the idea, they have another movie to watch (also the WWE film starring Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Condemned, was based on BR) and likewise if BR fans want yet another BR type movie, they can watch THG. No reason to fret over the business side.
Nihil novi sub sole. (Latin: There is nothing new under the sun. That is, truly original ideas are becoming rarer and rarer. Enjoy or don't.)- Dark Reality
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heatherderringer — 11 years ago(July 12, 2014 06:59 PM)
I haven't even heard of any legal action being taken, so if the BR people aren't bothered, why should we be?
No reason at all that I can see unless your a creator/copyright holder yourself, in which case you might take offense to having your brainchild raped for corporate profits, none which you will ever get to see.
However in this case THG may have re-galvanized the BR hype for a new generation and thereby made more money for Japanese studios, which may not have had such a pronounced effect had they simply been honest about the plagiarism stuff. -
summeriris — 11 years ago(July 13, 2014 07:38 AM)
Then how fortunate Takami wasn't sued when he rewrote his book after 'The Hunger Games' became a huge hit. It still didn't make his book anything like popular in North America or Europe. It still remained unknown.
I am the Queen of Snark, TStopped said so.
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turdbadge — 10 years ago(July 23, 2015 08:27 PM)
Then how fortunate Takami wasn't sued when he rewrote his book after 'The Hunger Games' became a huge hit.
Why would Takami be sued when it was his works that were plagiarized, making him the victim in this scenario?
It still didn't make his book anything like popular in North America or Europe. It still remained unknown.
Nope. With the rampant plagiarism of Battle Royale, which was already very well-known both in the Far East and the Western World, his book became even more famous. In fact he is building a new University in Osaka just on the royalties alone (not a pun). -
Ezra369 — 10 years ago(January 01, 2016 06:29 AM)
No way, a tween version of Battle Royale did better selling in it's home market than a Japanese book!
It's almost as if there's no prior precedent for this like with vampire novels and Twilight!
I do envy you though, with such limited knowledge of this world you must be in pure awe every day by the things that other people regard as dull.
The English version of the book was released 2 years after the film in America -
ikissedaguru — 9 years ago(August 06, 2016 11:47 AM)
You have something in common with Suzanne Collins. She had not heard of Battle Royale until she submitted The Hunger Games for publication. The editor who read her manuscript said something along the lines of how the book was slightly similar to Battle Royale. Suzanne responded by asking if she should read it. The editor said no, wait until she had completed the story arc so it would not be influenced. I wonder why no one mentions this (it is documented in many interviews) when they discuss the similarities. Instead they yell "plagiarism" or "ripped off" and do not even think it is possible that two authors could possibly have a similar "basic" story-line without having heard of each other.
There have been hundreds (if not thousands) of inventions that were simultaneously invented by more than one person; including the cotton gin, the radio, using electricity, light bulbs, and the telephone, where the inventors had no idea someone else was working on the project. The names in the history books though are the "first" ones to patent their ideas. The point is - it happens every day when someone comes up with something they think is unique but someone else, somewhere else, has already thought of it. -
clirby — 11 years ago(February 25, 2015 11:04 PM)
I used to be one of those guys until I saw the movie and then read the trilogy. Other than the base premise of kids killing each other to the last, the rest of the story rips off Batle Royale's notorious sequel.
In regards to the two films, I much preferred the BR portion of the games as I felt the THG really pulled back to hit the PG-13 rating. But I thought THG was far superior in creating the tension leading up to the games than BR. BR starts off too quickly and you never really get to know any of the characters nor the tension they are feeling going into everything.
To me, THG portion of the movie leading up to the games actually felt superior to the book which is fairly rare for me. As they couldn't implement a lot of the book into the film due to the inner monologe, the book also couldn't really express the tension a lot of the characters felt that the actors were able to portray.