Battle Royale is a 1999 Japanese book written by Koushun Takami. It takes place in a alternate reality Japan ruled by a totalitarian government. Each year a class of 42 students is chosen to participate in "The Program" which is a winner take all fight to the death. The winner of the games is set up for the rest of their life by the government.
The Hunger Games is a 2008 young adult novel written by Suzanne Collins. It takes place in a futuristic North America in the wake of WWIII. A totalitarian government rules the region from a large city in the Rocky Mountains. Each year one girl and one boy is randomly selected from the 12 districts surrounding the capitol to participate in "The Hunger Games" which is a winner take all fight to the death. The winner of the games is set up for the rest of their life by the government.
I liked both of these books. Battle Royale more so than The Hunger Games. But as I read The Hunger Games it became clearer and clearer how much of a blatant rip off it is. The similarities are noticeable even in my brief descriptions of the books and they just get deeper. It brings up two points of interest.
1. Cultural Appropriation- The west has a long history of co-opting, bastardising, and marketing Eastern culture. Why do we feel the need to constantly re-create as opposed to create? There are constant re-makes, re-boots, re-imaginings, sequels, spin-offs, and adaptations but very little original material. This speaks to me of a lack of creativity on our part. We don't have ideas so we take others idea's alter them and then reproduce them. The other thing that really bothers me is that there's never any nod to the source material. The Hunger Games never gives any credit to what's gone before it. Someone had that idea 10 years ago. The Hunger Games is very popular and rightfully so, it's a good fun read. But I don't understand how huge it's blown up and how ignored Battle Royale is. The plot and character similarities are startling. I don't mind that everyone has heard of The Hunger Games, I mind them not having heard of Battle Royale.
2. Artistic Inspiration/Plagiarism- Someone has said that all stories have already been written. All characters, themes, ideas, and scenarios have already been used not once but many times. So anyone creating art of some kind is already copying someone else whether they know it or not. I don't know if I buy that but I don't know if it's wrong to start with someone else's idea. If you can improve upon it, change it, make it you're own, you're just furthering artistic expression. Maybe. One of my favorite authors Jonathan Lethem wrote an interesting article about this
"The ecstasy of influence: A plagiarism." He makes an aggressive case that plagiarizing or 'borrowing' from other artists in fact advances art because it creates more art and is therefore accessible to larger amounts of people. If someone creates something which inspires someone else which inspires someone else, we're building, we're progressing. He ends the article by offering up all his creative works for copy and re-creation. Needless to say I'm of two minds about this. All I would ask is, if you've read
The Hunger Games and enjoyed it, do yourself a favor and check out...
Battle Royale
Even a church can be a canvas. 
Sucker Punch is a misogynist fantasy mascaraing as feminist empowerment. The main character Babydoll gets committed after a tragic accident. In order to orchestrate her escape she goes into a world of her imagination. The movie is an incoherent collage of movies that have already been made, full of dream sequences and trope scenarios. The monsters in two of the fantasy sequences are taken directly from 'Hellboy' and 'Lord of the Rings.' The women are always scantily clad and aggressively controlled by the men in the film. There is build up to a big vengeful pay off that never comes. The plot makes no sense and the characters are so two dimensional you have no investment as to how the story is resolved. There's no creativity or skill involved in Sucker Punch. This same film could have been made by a 13 year old boy with decent pop culture knowledge. As long as he had a budget of $100 million. 
Battle Royale is a 1999 Japanese book written by Koushun Takami. It takes place in a alternate reality Japan ruled by a totalitarian government. Each year a class of 42 students is chosen to participate in "The Program" which is a winner take all fight to the death. The winner of the games is set up for the rest of their life by the government. 
The Hunger Games is a 2008 young adult novel written by Suzanne Collins. It takes place in a futuristic North America in the wake of WWIII. A totalitarian government rules the region from a large city in the Rocky Mountains. Each year one girl and one boy is randomly selected from the 12 districts surrounding the capitol to participate in "The Hunger Games" which is a winner take all fight to the death. The winner of the games is set up for the rest of their life by the government.
Went to Cozy Noodle & Rice before iO yesterday. The decor of the restaurant is kind of interesting, it's filled with old kitch from the 50's, 60's, and 70's. The curry was disappointing to say the least. The upside was it had the most components of any of the curries I've had so far. It included carrots, basil, red, green, and yellow pepper as well as the standard chicken and curry sauce. The curry itself was very watery, lacked flavor, and had little to no kick. The proportion of the chicken to vegetables was ridiculous. It was probably 80% carrot, 15% various peppers, and only 5% chicken. I figure my expectations shouldn't have been that high considering it's advertised as a noodle place rather than a Thai place. Would I go again? Maybe. Would I ever get the Panang there?
Terminator businessman. I don't know if this is funny, sad, or scary. The implications are somewhat disturbing...
Bradley Cooper stars as a shlub who gets a hold of a drug that allows him to access and use his entire brain. The movie opens with Cooper at a bar trying to describe his book he's been attempting to write but never actually started. He has long stringy hair, a pot belly, and inexplicably a broken finger. The costuming is a little over the top, we get it he's a loser. It's also difficult for me to believe Cooper as an unattractive loser no matter what. He tries certainly but it has no ring of truth. I doubt Cooper was ever so unattractive or down on his luck. He went to the Actor's Studio for Christ sake. His girlfriend dumps him and he can't write his book.
This past week I watched a movie that really inspired me, 'Exit Through The Gift Shop.' After watching I realize my classification for this series of posts may have been a little inappropriate or inaccurate. I should have titled these 'Street Art' but for the sake of continuity I will continue to use the term 'Graffiti.' Also some of the things I've featured wouldn't necessarily qualify as street art. Like this sticker for example has a website on it so it's more promotion or advertisement than genuine street art. Moving forward I may make that distinction.