In 2000, filmmaker Kinji Fukasaku came out with his adaptation of the novel "Battle Royale," a dystopian fable set in a near-future totalitarian Japan where a law called "BR" has been established to keep ninth-graders under strict control in a world of torturous fear and brutal murder. Twelve years later, "The Hunger Games" was adapted by Hollywood from a best-seller YA (young adult) series by Suzanne Collins and grossed $68.3 million on opening day.
There are obvious similarities between the two: In each story, a group of teenagers are thrown together in an isolated location, given weapons and ordered to fight to the death. In both cases, only one survivor will be allowed to walk free.
In Japan, "Battle Royale" became a social phenomenon, condemned at the Diet and rated R15+. The controversy reached fever pitch when Fukasaku finally talked to the press about how the project had its roots in World War II. When Fukasaku himself was a ninth-grader, he and everyone else were plucked out of school and thrown into munitions factories to toil 14 hours a day in the name of the war effort. One day, Fukasaku's factory was bombed. He scrabbled around in the mud and rubble, trying to retrieve the body parts of his best friend who had been blown to bits.