Why Battle Royale is better than The Hunger Games

Overall I liked The Hunger Games (film) but after recently watching the 2000 movie, Battle Royale (which bears more than just a slight resemblance to the more recent, Hollywood offering) I decided I could come up with some obvious reasons why the Japanese film is just plain better.

1. It doesn’t sugarcoat the violence by removing most of the blood. In fact it revels in blood spraying. While this may not seem better in everyone’s (read those with more delicate, easy-to-offend) eyes, it is at least a tiny bit more realistic than the trickles of blood that appear in The Hunger Games movie.

2. It doesn’t take itself too seriously. While there are some moments where the film stumbles into deeper meanings (like when a card with Japanese writing comes up on the screen and ask: “Know what it all means?”) it also uses tongue-in-cheek deaths to great and sometime L-O-L effect. Like when a man who’s just been riddled with bullets from a semi-automatic gets up and answers the telephone. 

3. The story moves. Quickly. While this may be more to do with the length of the stories (Battle Royale being short, and The Hunger Games having a lot more source material to cover) Battle Royale never really lets up in the relentless murdering stakes. It’s fast-paced with a few, lingering moments, whereas The Hunger Games sometimes slowed down to a point where I was able to check my watch.

4. It doesn’t shy away from the horror of children killing other children. Battle Royale is focused on showing what people will do to survive and what they won’t. It realistically portrays the options of the people who have been placed on this island. Not everyone who goes on the island is happy or actually able to kill to ensure there own survival (a few commit suicide or die to save their friends), and that includes the lead character, Shuya. 

Anything to add fellow movie fans? Or do you disagree in an almost hostile way?