What is Battle Royale based upon?

Question

After seeing the movie Hunger Games, I was told about a Japanese book/ movie that has a similar story. I know what the Hunger Games is based upon. It is a combination of Ancient Roman culture, The Running Man, Orwell's 1984 and so on. But I was wondering what Battle Royale is based upon.

Answer 1

Forty-two students, three days, one deserted Island: welcome to Battle Royale. A group of ninth-grade students from a Japanese high school have been forced by legislation to compete in a Battle Royale. The students are each given a bag with a randomly selected weapon and a few rations of food and water and sent off to kill each other in a no-holds-barred (with a few minor rules) game to the death, which means that the students have three days to kill each other until one survives--or they all die. The movie focuses on a few of the students and how they cope. Some decide to play the game like the psychotic Kiriyama or the sexual Mistuko, while others like the heroes of the movie--Shuya, Noriko, and Kawada--are trying to find a way to get off the Island without violence. However, as the numbers dwell down lower and lower on an hourly basis, is there any way for Shuya and his classmates to survive?



same basic principal as Hunger Games which as you pointed out was just a rip off of Running Man, Surviving the Game, Etc. I'm beginning to wonder if there are any ORIGINAL movie ideas left out there!!!

Answer 2

The movie Battle Royale was based on the 1999 Japanese novel by the same title.



The novel, in turn, was influenced by Stephen King's novellas "The Long Walk" and "The Running Man," and inspired, indirectly, by "Kinpachi-sensei," a teen drama on Japanese TV. Koushun Takami, the author of Battle Royale, is an avowed fan of King's, and even worked a couple of references into the novel: the main character refers to a book that's supposed to be "The Body," and the students come from a town called Shiroiwa, which translates to "Castle Rock."



Many Battle Royale fans believe Suzanne Collins appropriated the idea for The Hunger Games from Battle Royale, despite her refusal to admit it. While BR wasn't officially released in the States until last week, there were plenty of ways that it could be viewed here, and it was familiar among literary and entertainment circles as the last film by legendary Japanese director Kinji Fukasaku, and for the fact that no American film distribution company had been able or willing to release the film in the U.S. Quentin Tarantino publicly named it his favorite movie of the last 20 years. The general public may not have been aware of it, but if you're a novelist or a TV writer, which Collins was, it would have been impossible not to have heard of Battle Royale.

Answer 3

What Is Battle Royale About

Answer 4

Although I can't give you much information, I just want you to know that Hunger Games did NOT give the idea to Battle Royale. Battle Royale was published in 1995 (I think) and Hunger Games was in 2008. I have not read Hunger Games (not planning to) because nothing will ever be as good as Battle Royale.



I have read the book, and just would like to inform you that it is slightly more gory and dark and twisted more than Hunger Games. (Guessing...)



Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia.



"Battle Royale takes place in an alternate timeline—Japan is a member region of a totalitarian state known as the Republic of Greater East Asia (大東亜共和国 Dai Tōa Kyōwakoku). Under the guise of a "study trip", a group of students from Shiroiwa Junior High School (城岩中学校 Shiroiwa Chūgakkō) in the fictional town of Shiroiwa, in Kagawa Prefecture, are gassed on a bus. They awaken in the Okishima Island School on Okishima, an isolated, evacuated island southwest of Shodoshima (modeled after the island of Ogijima). They learn that they have been placed in an event called the Program. Officially a military research project, it is a means of terrorizing the population, of creating such paranoia as to make organized insurgency impossible.

The first Program was held in 1947. According to the rules, fifty third-year high school classes are selected (prior to 1950, forty-seven classes were selected) annually to participate in the Program for research purposes. The students from a single class are isolated and are required to fight the other members of their class to the death. The Program ends when only one student remains, with that student being declared the winner. Their movements are tracked by metal collars, which contain tracking and listening devices; if any student should attempt to escape the Program, or enter declared forbidden zones (which are randomly selected at the hours of 12 and 6, both a.m. and p.m.), a bomb will be detonated in the collar, killing the wearer. If no one dies within 24 hours, there will be no winner and all collars will be detonated simultaneously.

After being briefed about the Program, the students are issued survival packs that include a map, compass, food and water, and a random weapon or other item, which may be anything from a gun to a paper fan."

Answer 5

The film Battle Royale is based on the original novel, also called Battle Royale.



Here is the wikipedia link for the novel -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Royale



I have had a quick research and as far as I can see the author just wrote the story from his own imagination, it doesn't seem to have many influences like those you listed for The Hunger Games. I think it was just supposed to be a horror novel.