Battle Royale Vs. The Hunger Games

Two iconic films from different cultures with similar plot lines were released in the 2000s. Battle Royale, a Japanese film that originated from a book, took place in a dystopian version of present-day Japan. At the dawn of the millennium, the Japanese nation had collapsed with ten million people out of work and 800,000 students whom boycotted schools. The adults lost confidence and feared the rebellious youth, passed the BR Act in order to scare the rising group of violent youths. The BR act required that a ninth-grade class be chosen at random and gets transported to a deserted island where they would murder one another until only one survived. On the other hand, The Hunger Games, an American film, took place in a post-apocalyptic wasteland
of what was North America. The Capitol, the government of the 12 Districts, enacted The Hunger Games as punishment for a previous rebellion against them as a reminder that the Capitol is still the boss. The Games required two tributes from each district around the ages of 12-18 to participate in a battle until there could only one survivor. Both movies have similar themes regarding the government’s actions for maintaining control, but all for different reasons. As a result, these characters’ actions reveal certain political ideologies and cultural values that Japan and America share and contrast.