Children Fighting to the Death

I'm obsessed with children fighting to the death.

At least that's the realization I've had after two of my favorite recent pop culture experiences: Battle Royale and The Hunger Games. The premises of both are strikingly similar: groups of children are forced by their tyrannical governments to go to a desolate location armed with weapons of differing usefulness. Whoever is the last man child standing is declared the winner and gets to return home to his or her normal life.

It's twisted, but captivating. Perhaps it's the disgruntled former teacher in me that attracts me to young teenagers' brutal deaths, but more accurately this taste can be attributed to the same quality that draws me to reality television. My favorite narrative is one where X-number of people are thrown together and only one can come out victorious; the self-cannibalization is enthralling. Some argue that the same thing happens every series, but I disagree. A new cast of characters brings something different to the table every time. Unfailingly, people must wrestle with issues of strategy and morality; and the decisions are rarely easy. These decisions are only amplified when the participants' lives are at stake.

Battle Royale is a ten-year-old film that I previously avoided for being too gory and subtitled. (I don't like blood and since I like multi-tasking different films, it makes it difficult to also read the screen.) At Melinda's insistence, however, we watched it, as well as played the The Battle Royale drinking game. The game has just one rule: each time someone dies, you take a drink. With 40+ deaths, that's a lot of drinking, especially the massacre scenes where multiple kids are taken out at once. That much drinking is the kind that results in barfing on your friends' floor.

Not that alcohol would be necessary to enjoy the film. These kids are all hours away from dying, yet their primary concern remains who has a crush on whom. Check out the last words of the girl who went on to play Gogo in Kill Bill in the picture. Maybe there was a translation issue there, but I hope not because that cheese is delicious!

And then there's The Hunger Games. I don't care that the book is aimed at preteens, adult fiction only wishes it could be this suspenseful and entertaining. Katniss, our heroine, is one of the richest characters I can recall in a young adult novel. Though her struggle to survive against her friends and foes is often predictable, it's no less of a page turner. Like Battle Royale, there is also a love story: even a hardened tomboy like Katniss gets swept up in a romantic plot. While it's less cheesy than the aforementioned film's approach, I still can't believe that people look for love when it can't possibly thrive in a kill or be killed environment. Focus, young ladies and gentleman! For a more thorough review of the book, I defer to Stacy (but WARNING, it includes spoilers). I'd say we both feel the book isn't without its faults, but well worth the investment.

I've learned that both the film and the book have sequels, so my next step is to quench my thirst for child blood by indulging in them in the near future. Granted, it's a pretty gross guilty pleasure, but if that shows immaturity, I don't want to grow up. In fact, these slaughtered kids are fortunate that they don't ever have to!