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The Hunger Games and Battle Royale 2597 Views
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Description:
What makes battles to the death even more exciting? Having kids involved! Wait, maybe that wasn't the direction we really wanted to take there…
Transcript
- 00:04
The Hunger Games and Battle Royale a la Shmoop.
- 00:09
Our dystopias so far have been lacking in action.
- 00:12
Sure, there have been fires, sledding, and one or two sexy games of Scrabble...
- 00:16
...but there haven't been any action scenes that would make Michael Bay green with envy.
- 00:23
We'll fix that this unit with The Hunger Games and Battle Royale.
Full Transcript
- 00:27
Better don some goggles for this one.
- 00:30
In both books, we've got kids battling other
- 00:32
kids to the death. Hardcore? Yes. But no one can deny there's a lack of action.
- 00:38
Mr. Bay would be proud.
- 00:42
Of course, in both The Hunger Games and Battle Royale, the kids are forced by their government
- 00:46
to be killers.
- 00:47
Why can't these horrible governments ever just force people to make donuts and garden
- 00:51
all day?
- 00:52
It would be so much nicer...
- 00:54
In The Hunger Games, the United States has been restructured.
- 00:57
And just as when a major corporation restructures people get... umm... downsized.
- 01:08
In Suzanne Collins's novel, instead of pink slips, kids across the country are given weapons
- 01:12
and filmed as they fight each other to the death.
- 01:15
A fun premise for an action story, but not exactly realistic, some might say.
- 01:20
The idea that any society anywhere would sponsor such a thing is laughable.
- 01:28
We would hope... The best dystopic <<diss-TOPE-ick>> novels
- 01:31
are almost always inspired by very real things.
- 01:38
Just because they're set in the future doesn't mean they don't reflect contemporary concerns.
- 01:42
Sure, we don't have shows where children kill each other...
- 01:45
...but we do have a reality TV culture that gets more and more voyeuristic by the day.
- 01:50
Let's face it: uglier things get higher ratings.
- 01:54
We love watching people's lives fall apart--the more spectacularly terrible things go, the better.
- 02:00
Are we really that far from a return to the real life Hunger Games of Roman gladiatorial arenas?
- 02:07
We have to honestly ask ourselves: if such a show came on TV, would we watch it?
- 02:12
Battle Royale takes place on the other side of the Pacific...
- 02:15
Over in Japan, entire classes of high-school students are selected at random to fight each
- 02:19
other to the death for...um..."research purposes."
- 02:21
We're not sure what they're working on, but it's probably not a cure for cancer.
- 02:26
Maybe they just think it's fun.
- 02:31
They do have a kooky sense of humor over there.
- 02:35
The original novel of Battle Royale by Koushun Takami <<KOE-shun tuh-KA-me>>, the manga series,
- 02:40
and the movie that followed, were all controversial due to their extreme violence.
- 02:44
But, of course, all the controversy...and probably the violence itself...has launched
- 02:48
the Battle Royale franchise to legendary status in Japan...
- 02:51
...much like The Hunger Games in the U.S.
- 02:54
We guess kids doing battle with kids is popular no matter which side of the Pacific you're on.
- 02:59
Both books show us dystopian societies that seem similar on the surface...
- 03:02
...but actually reflect the cultural attitudes of the different countries they come from.
- 03:06
In this unit, we'll see what we can learn about each country by digging into these action-packed...
- 03:10
...but gruesome... depictions of kids at war with kids.
- 03:16
How jolly.
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