Why can't I have a little Peeta in my life...

Maggy · Mar 25, 2012

Typhlosion said: ↑

Here. Have a pony.

http://www.hedweb.com/animimag/cool-pony.jpg

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;_________; so beautiful

Heart ❤ · Mar 25, 2012

Maggy said: ↑

TEAM PEENISSSSS

I wanted to cry and THROW THE BOOK OUT A WINDOW.
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I have the hard copy and you know the paper coverish thing that covers the book? I was so pissed off that I ripped it... To be honest, by the end of the book

the characters changed so ****ing much that I really didn't care a lot about them.

Maggy · Mar 25, 2012

Kingdom Hearts530 said: ↑

I have the hard copy and you know the paper coverish thing that covers the book? I was so pissed off that I ripped it... To be honest, by the end of the book

the characters changed so ****ing much that I really didn't care a lot about them.

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I feel you, bro....I feel you

(yeah I just took off the cover of the hard copy and read without it)

Makaze · Mar 26, 2012

All the Pretty Faces said: ↑

We've pretty much already had our Hunger Games.

Battle Royale
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Let's take a look at which came first and which is objectively a better work of art.

Hey, did you know that Suzanne Collins’s apocal-epic YA trilogy “The Hunger Games” is set to hit the big screen this weekend? Not a surprise? Maybe it’s because, you know, it’s all anyone’s been talking about for pretty much forever.

What’s ironic — and by ironic, we mean “Alanis Morisettian irony,” e.g., not actually ironic — is how saturated the conversation around “Hunger Games” is with the language of one-on-one, winner-take-all violence: “‘The Hunger Games’ vs. ‘Harry Potter’!“ “Can ‘The Hunger Games’ crush ‘Twilight’?” “Imax aims to kill with ‘Hunger Games’!”

Why, it’s almost as if the movie were … a teenaged contestant in a deadly populist amusement engineered by the leering master of a dystopian future world! Ha ha, that sounds familiar. You know, because it’s exactly the theme of “The Hunger Games” itself? But wait, it’s also eerily reminiscent of another book-turned-movie about kids violently murdering other kids: Japanese cult author Koushun Takami’s “Battle Royale,” which was published as a light novel in 1999, adapted into a hit feature film in 2000 and then turned into several equally popular manga series (the third of which, a two-chapter spinoff titled “Battle Royale: Angels’ Border,” just came out in January).

After all, “Hunger Games” is about adolescent boys and girls being randomly pulled into a gory deathmatch in an arena filled with natural and artificial hazards. Some of the contestants embrace the opportunity to cause mayhem; others try to navigate the situation with diplomacy, only to be ruthlessly murdered by more vicious players. The story ultimately focuses on a trio of protagonists, one slightly older and embittered by loss; the other two are younger and more innocent, and turn to their more mature peer for guidance and inspiration. “Battle Royale”? Same description. Collins herself has repeatedly denied having ever seen or even heard of “Battle Royale” until she’d already turned in the manuscript of the trilogy’s first novel, at which point she asked her editor if she should read it. “He said: ‘No, I don’t want that world in your head. Just continue with what you’re doing,’” she told the New York Times last April, and claimed to have still never read the book or the movie.

But that didn’t prevent the similarities from predictably inflaming passions on the Interwebs ever since Collins’s novel first hit bookshelves, generating, well, a battle royale between Hunger’s tweenage girl army and Battle’s manga-nerd suicide commandos. And over the past two weeks, with media hype over the movie blaring, the fracas has extended into the (largely clueless) mainstream, confusing some readers and viewers who still think “manga” is a where the little baby Jesus slept on Christmas day. (Not you! If you’re reading this column, we assume you’re up to speed on the whole manga thing. And if not, just go take a peek at the bookshelves of the nearest 13-year-old.)

Of course, even if “Hunger Games” isn’t a ripoff of “Battle Royale,” the latter has nevertheless been impacted by its explosive arrival on the pop-culture landscape — the new movie seems destined for a $100 million-dollar-plus opening, maybe even taking away the box-office record from the last installment of “Harry Potter,” which earned $169 million in its first-weekend bow.

Back in 2006, producer Roy Lee (“The Grudge”; “The Ring”) was attached, along with Neal H. Moritz (“Fast Five”; “21 Jump Street”), to the U.S. remake of “Battle Royale”; the project was already controversial due to the original film’s gleeful depictions of youth-on-youth violence.

“It was very difficult to get anyone interested in doing the remake,” says Lee. “The studios were very scared of comparisons to the Columbine shootings — if it got linked to something in which a kid killed another kid, and the perpetrator said they were influenced by the movie, that would of course be a disaster.”

The bloody massacre at Virginia Tech the following year, in which disturbed student Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 and injured 25 of his classmates and teachers before taking his own life, put the project on indefinite life support. But, according to Lee, it was the publication of “The Hunger Games” the following year and its pickup for remake by Lions Gate in 2009 that ultimately pulled its plug.

“Look, there isn’t a studio out there that would invest the money to do a ‘Battle Royale’ feature film remake now,” he says. “Audiences would see it as just a copy of ‘Games’ — most of them wouldn’t know that ‘Battle Royale’ came first. It’s unfair, but that’s reality.”

Lee won’t comment on whether he personally thinks “Games” was inspired by “Battle.” “I haven’t read the book, and I haven’t yet seen the movie,” he says. “I just know that the concepts are similar, and I have no claim to understanding why this concept is so much in the moment — but it’s obviously a compelling one.” (Author Takami, who Lee says has been head-down incommunicado for years, writing his followup to “Battle Royale,” has also avoided taking sides, only telling ABC News by email that he appreciated his fans’ support but that “every novel has something to offer.”)

And Lee has long since moved on to other projects, though his biggest current film is also a remake of a controversial and violent Asian movie: An adaptation of Park Chan-Wook’s brilliant “Oldboy,” to be directed by Spike Lee (no relation) and star Josh Brolin and Elizabeth Olsen. “We’re anticipating starting production this September, and we should be finished by year’s end,” says Lee, saying that the movie should please fans of the original. “Spike was a huge fan of Park’s movie, and came to the project with a vision of what it might look like already in his head.”

The remake will “definitely be an interpretation, not a straight adaptation” — but, Lee says, “it actually has a darker take on the ending, if you can believe that’s even possible.”

(It’s very possible, given the off-the-record spoilers Lee provided to Tao Jones. But you’ll have to wait for Summer or Fall 2013 to find out how!)

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Anchor Bay Entertainment finally released its official U.S. home-video version of the original film, along with its (inferior) sequel and some interesting behind-the-scenes docs and outtakes, bundled as a four-pack of DVDs or Blu-Rays. Could the resurgent awareness of “Battle Royale” change the landscape for Lee’s suspended remake plans? Lee isn’t sanguine. “Give it ten years,” he says. “Maybe after the cycle of three or four ‘Hunger Games’ movies are over, we can pick up and develop a ‘Battle Royale’ movie for the next generation.”

But what about other formats — for instance, television? With the example of Anchor Bay jumping on board the massive publicity of “Games” to bring out its home video set, wouldn’t it make sense to pitch a “Battle Royale” television series to the nets — or perhaps to cable, as a more mature and satirical take on the concept?

Hearing that suggestion, Lee suddenly pauses for reflection. “You know, until you just asked that question, I hadn’t thought of that,” he says. “I’ll have to make some calls.”

***

Tao Jones Index Must-click quick-hits from across Asia and Asian America

So what’s the real deal behind the numerous parallels between “Hunger Games” and “Battle Royale”? To save you from having to navigate the online firestorm, 90% of which is of the “Hunger Games is just a sucky ripoff of Battle Royale LOLZ”/”No it isn’t Katniss FTW!!!!” variety, here’s a special Tao Jones Index of the Interweb’s best “Hunger Games”/”Battle Royale” comparisons, organized by where they generally stand amid the raging controversy:

“Hunger Games” = “Battle Royale”

io9: “It’s undeniable, there are a hell of a lot of similarities between the two….There is no such thing as an original idea in Hollywood,” writes Meredith Woerner.

ABC News: “The similarities are difficult to ignore. Both evolve around children who are picked at random to take part in a death match. Participants are given duffel bags containing random weapons. The tyrannical government ships them off to a remote location, where they are told to kill and fight for survival,” writes Akiko Fujita.

Indiewire: “We can certainly trace the line from ‘Battle Royale’ to ‘The Hunger Games’ without too much difficulty, even though ['Battle Royale'] was never released in the U.S. until now. Its influence on Western cinema over the past decade has justified having our own kiddie-porn death-match,” writes Robert Nishimura.

“Hunger Games” <> “Battle Royale”

Cinema Blend: “There are five very key differences between the two stories that will hopefully convince fans of the Japanese cult classic that the book by Collins and the film from writer/director Gary Ross is, in fact, not a rip off, but simply a different usage of a similar idea,” writes Eric Eisenberg.

Shock Til You Drop: “There is almost nothing similar about these two stories except the core idea for the plot. But there is a lot more to the stories than simply their plot, as outlined above. Similar stories does not make it a ‘rip-off.’ And what’s so bad about having movies with similar plots anyway?” writes Spencer Perry.

The Website of Leading SF Publisher Tor.com: “It’s not really helpful to argue about whether Collins was even slightly influenced by Takami or by the film — and she says she wasn’t. It’s more interesting to read them both for their respective central themes, and to note that in both cases, the literal sacrifice of the future leaves the characters — and by extension society at large — with deep psychic wounds that will never really heal,” writes Karin L. Kross.
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There you go. io9 and TOR both have my respect on the issue, though anyone who has read Battle Royale outside of simply wishing to compare them has agreed that it is the better series. That I have known of, anyway.

PS: Spencer Perry is an idiot. In my professional opinion.

Now, let's start our own Battle Royale over which series is the best. Just remember...

Maggy · Mar 26, 2012

Who let Makaze in the thread?!

OFF WITH THEIR HEAD!

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Why can't I have a little Peeta in my life...

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Heart ❤ Enjoy every moment with all ya got

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Makaze Some kind of mercenary

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