I was lazy today so breakfast is all on Jake's. Thanks babe!

Oh wow, so it's Sunday! Hurrah! We survived the rapture! But seriously, it's lazy day today. Time to just relax, watch movies and grub. AND do laundry. Ahohoho!

So yesterday, we got our Entertainment Weekly in the mail and on the cover is Katniss for the Hunger Games movie. This Hunger Games movie sounded like a big deal because of how people are talking about who is perfect for the cast and shit like that. I have NO CLUE what the movie is about until I read the subtitle which said "A girl named Katniss is forced to fight in a televised death match." And I just blurted out, "Wow, this kinda sound like that Japanese movie wherein highschool kids are killing each other." Imagine, just that one super simple line made me think about the connection...! I started to research more about Hunger Games and the more I read about the plot, the more it really sounded like that Japanese film. YES, I am talking about BATTLE ROYALE. Who knew that I'd be one of those critics saying that this is a rip-off of Battle Royale. Okay, okay, maybe not a rip-off, but you can totally see the similarities. Very fishy. Now, I haven't read both books but from what a lot of other bloggers wrote already, comparing the two books, it really sounds like Battle Royale inspired Hunger Games. HG sounds like an Americanized version -- can't use HS kids in the plot, not when we already have kids here bringing guns to school. People also are saying that this is written in first person narration, BR isn't. Know what's the problem with first person narration? It limits character development. Unless the author jumps away from it on certain important scenes.. which would make a not so good written book. Oh, and I heard that the author claims she never knew about Battle Royale until after her books sold. OH REALLY??? She did not even mention other books that are of similar plot as her "inspiration".. WHAT.. you mean to say that all things in your book are ORIGINAL? COME ON!! Something's not right.

I know a lot of kids love reading Hunger Games, which makes me wonder if it's any better than Twilight. Oh by the way, that was also written in first person. God, you'll get tired of hearing Bella's voice in your head complaining about how dumb she is, how powerless she is, and how broken her self-worth is... very inspiring for these young Twifans. (Didn't finish the first book. I don't care if you tell me that I should read the Trilogy before making comments. I won't waste my time reading crap. .. I take it back, I like reading crappy blog sites.)

But back to my point, I'll give Hunger Games a try, but for some reason, I feel like I won't enjoy it that much because I developed this little resentment towards the author. Maybe if she at least mentioned Stephen King or Koushun Takami, I'd be fine. But she sounded like "Oh I don't know these books ever existed! My ideas are all mine!"


Okay, BR and HG both have
1.) previous game's winner participating in the current game
2.) the kids are sent to an island for the fight
3.) televised (HG to everyone. BR to the government, the people only know who survives)
4.) main character is protecting/partnered with another character
5.) the killing game is a result of the kids rebelling - in HG, the nations rebelled, in BR, the kids boycotted
6.) the participants are updated if anyone was killed (HG, some hitech screen, BR, announced through towers)

[edit]
Thought it's only fair to point out differerences too. Sadly, I only read about one: The participants in Hunger Games know about the battle and they actually train and master skills so they can be ready for the fight. In Battle Royale, the class picked is randomly selected so the students don't have a choice, except for one volunteer "transfer" student.

[/edit]

HAY..

So today.. I made Jake rent Battle Royale (oh wow, one local video store has a bluray copy!) so we can watch it (me second time, Jake first time) before we see Hunger games when it comes out.

Oh yeah yeah yeah, I know, Hunger games spend time in characters and Battle Royale is more about on the killing... that's why they said HG is the kid friendly version.