Quentin Tarantino Accuses ‘Hunger Games’ of Stealing From ‘Battle Royale’: “I Do Not Understand How the Japanese Writer Didn’t Sue Suzanne Collins”
Quentin Tarantino recently sat down for a long talk on “The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast,” and during the conversation he brought up a subject he’s been outspoken about before: the connection between “Battle Royale” and “The Hunger Games.”
Tarantino has always admired the Japanese film, and he once again argued that the famous Hollywood franchise borrowed far too much from it.
While discussing some of his favorite movies from the 2000s, Tarantino mentioned that “Battle Royale” has remained one of his top picks for years. He explained that he first watched it long before most people in the U.S. even knew it existed.
He was in Japan preparing for “Kill Bill” when director Kinji Fukasaku invited him to a private screening. The movie shocked him with its violent story about students being forced to fight to the death under a harsh government. He later watched it again at a festival in Seattle, where he said the audience had no idea what they were about to witness.
Tarantino then turned his attention to “The Hunger Games,” and he didn’t hide his frustration. He said the two stories share such a similar setup that he can’t understand why no legal action was ever taken. According to him, critics who reviewed the book at the time didn’t recognize the similarities because many of them never watched the Japanese film.
He said, “I do not understand how the Japanese writer didn’t sue Suzanne Collins for every f**** thing she owns. They just ripped off the f**** book!” Tarantino also said book reviewers made it worse by calling the story fresh and original. He added, “Stupid book critics are not going to go watch a Japanese movie called ‘Battle Royale,’ so the stupid book critics never called her out on it. They talked about how it was the most original thing they’d ever f***** read.”
He explained that film critics reacted very differently once they saw “Battle Royale.” As he put it, “As soon as the film critics saw the film they said, ‘What the f****! This is just ‘Battle Royale’ except PG!’”
Tarantino shared other thoughts on movies during the podcast, including praise for Steven Spielberg’s recent work and a fond memory of showing “Jackass: The Movie” to the “Kill Bill” crew because he found it so funny. But his strongest comments came when he talked about originality in Hollywood and how he believes “Battle Royale” never got the recognition it deserved.
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