The obsession with Battle Royale
I have to say that I am not sure what Suzanne Collins got the inspiration for The Hunger Games series and I do not care. One story inspires another story and so on. This was proven in court a few times in regards to songs, George Harrison proved it but did not win the court case and if she got inspiration from Battle Royale then great. It just shows that Battle Royale was such an excellent story.
It might be interesting to know that before Battle Royale there were other books in literature about similar dystopian futures such as The House of Stairs by Barbara Vine where five teenagers were put in this house that was made up of stairs so that scientist would study their behavior and they beat up on each other and were cruel. Or, Goldings "Lord of the Flies" where it is not a future but modern day that talks about a group on young boys without proper role models or supervision and the savagery of human nature, or is it.
The whole point to a lot of these stories is so that we can prevent them from happening. Both movies involved a dystopic future where children were used for the "entertainment" of adults or more specifically, adults who call the shots, a totalitarianism government society or for some other reason that crushes individuality, questioning, and focuses on how to make people conform without question. Kind of like most religions. It shows that totalitarianism will never work because humans have a natural desire to be free and that a society can have rules and laws, but that things change over time and rules that applies long ago do not apply now. It shows the resentment and anger at rules that were place upon them without any consent, representation, nothing. It is about the importance of knowing that not any one society or form of government is not without it's faults but can work so long as things can be balanced and as equal as possible. It allows for individual achievement as well as the common good and what happens when due to some incident that we never really quite know in some stories is the result of something that happened much like in Lois Lowrey's "The Giver."
It shows that every thing starts with an idea and it grows to the point that people have finally had enough. How it all happens is unique in every story but he premiss is usually the same. Both movies are good examinations of this but are two totally different stories and they make us all question what we would do in the same situation and is a cautionary tale to not allow a government to get too big. Now for a portion of Americans who blame Obama, I would like to remind them that the Patriot Act started a lot of this *beep* and now one cannot even joke with a friend without being arrested or we cannot really speak free because someone will take offense and threaten us with having the police kick down our door for thinking that they are being threatened which is a crock if you ask me. The US is an alarmist country and leaders make laws that are both too broad and too narrow with the hopes that a few individuals will have enough sense to sort it out.
Just enjoy the story and forget about who inspired who. Frankly, it is great that any one can be inspired these days.