MovieChat Forums > The Hunger Games (2012) Discussion > No Response Required to the BR Troll

No Response Required to the BR Troll


Newcomers to this board may possibly notice that 99% of all the posts are about a Japanese movie called Battle Royale (2001), based on the 1997 novel by Koushun Takami.

In this movie, a class of Japanese 9th graders is abducted on a school excursion and taken to an island where they are forced to fight to the death in a government sponsored competition.

Be warned that the vast majority of these posts are by a single individual (using a variety of extremely lame account names) who has apparently dedicated his/her life to swamping the Hunger Games boards with claims that Suzanne Collins plagiarised the BR book and movie in the Hunger Games trilogy.

By all means read all the posts, if you have absolutely nothing better to do for several days. You will soon get a strong sense of Deja vu. That’s because there are only about a dozen basic posts, started over and over again, all clearly written by the same person.

Do NOT waste any part of your life in responding to them.

The poster (henceforth to be known as the BRT) has no interest whatsoever in your opinion, or anyone else’s. He/she is fanatically dedicated to the plagiarism theory, and will summarily reject every argument you put forward to show that his/her posts are complete nonsense. The more logical your arguments are, the more aggressively BRT will dismiss them.

I’m not saying, by the way, that the theory is definitely wrong , because although I am personally sure of that, I can’t prove it. I’m saying that everything the BRT says in support of the theory is ridiculous.

If you really want to know how similar BR and THG are, then watch the movie and read the book…if you can track down copies. That way you can make your own decision…and realise just how many details BRT has invented to fill up his/her posts.

The BR movie isn’t bad. Although it has the usual complement of Japanese hams mugging wildly and screaming their lines at each other, they have hired some quality actors to play the major roles. If you like your gore, and endless scenes of teenagers killing each other with guns, knives, axes, poison and arrows, then you will almost certainly enjoy it. There is even some subtlety for those who like their movies to have a little depth.

The English version of the novel is fairly heavy going – every death is documented in detail, each one preceded by a rather drawn out confrontation between killer and victim, accompanied by their back story.

It is a very Japanese story, set very much in its time when resurgent Japanese nationalism was really taking hold. The debates between the various pairs of students (before they kill each other) are all in some way referencing this social transformation. Without some background knowledge of relations between Japan and the West, both before and after 1853, then it may be hard to see the point of Takami’s story (if you don’t know the significance of the year 1853, that’s a bad start.) Even if you do see the point, you may end up feeling that he hasn’t really made it.

Whether or not you get any sense of familiarity – the feeling that you are reading/watching a slightly different version of the same story – is entirely up to you. But, having made up your mind, don’t bother telling the BRT. Unless you agree with him/her, he/she doesn’t want to know!

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[deleted]

Unfortunately, most of the real commentaries have disappeared into the archive. All that's left is a handful of threads about specific issues - shaky cam, costumes, Lenny Kravitz as Cinna, Panem's political structure etc. Many of them are worth reading if you have the time to find them.

Alternative approach - write your own commentary and wait for other fans to respond to it. They will appreciate your effort, even if they are ripping your views to shreds!

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Agree with your advice. Just to tell you how futile it is to argue with the Troll.

I cited BR2's own plot summary on IMDB and some other sites to prove that CATCHING FIRE and MOCKINGJAY were quite different stories and not copies of his movie. The troll said that HUNGER GAME fans had gotten on the sites and rewrote the summaries to take out the "similarities". No explanation as to why he didn't fix the supposed "rewriting", with all the time he has on his hands.

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I seem to recall you gave me the same advice a few months ago. I kept going for a while for the sheer fun of mocking him, but it got old very quickly.

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Jesus Christ, are people still bitching about this? Seriously, when will those BR trolls get a life... I should ask my husband and I's hosts what they think on the subject next time we are in Tokyo, it never crossed my mind the month we traveled around central Japan. But maybe if I get confirmation that people from Japan don't really give a crap, the trolls will shut up...ok, yeah, they will probably never shut up.

Formerly Briongloid, member since 2004

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Well there's a reason Battle Royale and its notorious sequel are called "cult classics", -- and not in Japan BTW, (you'd have better luck asking in the US, Europe, China, Australia or especially the Netherlands) Although after the Hunger Games sought to ride its coatails I think it would be safe to say that Battle Royale is now a household word in America at least...

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I'm guessing your questions are rhetorical...yet you already have your answers...'yes' and 'never'!

But I would be interested to hear some genuine Japanese opinions on the subject.

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HG was sanitary.

BR was sanitary napkins.

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[deleted]

Meaningless question, like "Do you still beat your wife?"

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[deleted]

It was a BR ripoff plain and simple.

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See what I mean? He/she has started two new threads in the last two days. And added comments.

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And now created a brand new sock-puppet...calling him/herself Katniss!

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[deleted]

And welcome to the BRT's latest sock-puppet Bootyhatch (seriously?), under which he/she has already added comments to a dozen of BRT's old posts to push them up the list.

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Bootyhatch is hardly neither a troll or sockpuppet. Unless eveyone who admires the originality of Japanese anime and manga is to be called such....

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Big surprise - the BRT is adding comments to all his/her old posts to push them to the top of the board. How lame...and so easy!

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The BRT is working overtime to push his/her old posts to the top of the board - although to save time he/she is cutting and pasting old comments!

One recent one is a claim to have seen Battle Royale in 'film school' and to have wanted to 'throw things at the screen' because so many scenes had been lifted 'shot-by-shot'. A few months ago I challenged him/her to name a single scene that was the same in each movie: still waiting for a reply!

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