Quentin Tarantino Really Hates 'The Hunger Games'

If you’ve followed Quentin Tarantino’s career, you know he is an encyclopedia of world cinema and that he has absolutely no filter. That's what makes him such a great podcast guest.

In a recent appearance on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast, he unloaded on The Hunger Games franchise. He said the movies and books were blatantly stealing from Kinji Fukasaku’s 2000 film Battle Royale.

"I do not understand how the Japanese writer didn't sue Suzanne Collins for every fucking thing she owns," Tarantino said. "They just ripped off the fucking book!"

For filmmakers, this reignites an age-old debate about originality, homage, and the fine line between influence and theft.

Let's dive in.

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Tarantino vs. Hunger Games

Tarantino has long championed Battle Royale as one of his favorite films (he famously cast actor Chiaki Kuriyama as Gogo Yubari in Kill Bill).

During the podcast, he harped on the similarities in the premises of both movies—teenagers forced by a totalitarian government to fight to the death—and also with the critical reception of The Hunger Games.

"Stupid book critics are not going to go watch a Japanese movie called Battle Royale, so the stupid book critics never called her on it," he said.

Tarantino vented, "They talked about how it was the most original thing they'd ever fucking read. As soon as the film critics saw the film, they said, 'What the fuck! This is just Battle Royale except PG!'"

He’s not entirely wrong about the premise. Battle Royale (based on Koushun Takami's 1999 novel) features a class of junior high students collared and forced to kill each other on an island. The Hunger Games (2008) features tributes forced to kill each other in an arena. The mechanics are nearly identical.

But the worlds in which each story takes place are pretty different.

For what it's worth, Hunger Games author Suzanne Collins has maintained she had never heard of the Japanese book or film when she wrote her series.

She told The New York Times, "I had never heard of that book or that author until my book was turned in," she said at the time. "At that point, it was mentioned to me, and I asked my editor if I should read it. He said: 'No, I don’t want that world in your head. Just continue with what you’re doing.'"

Homage, Pastiche, and Rip-Offs

There is a distinct irony in Quentin Tarantino—the undisputed king of pastiche—calling out another artist for "ripping off" a work.

Tarantino’s entire filmography is built on the language of recontextualization and homage. Reservoir Dogs borrows heavily from Ringo Lam’s City on Fire. Kill Bill is a love letter to Lady Snowblood and Shaw Brothers kung fu flicks.

So, why is The Hunger Games "theft" while Kill Bill is "homage"?

The distinction often comes down to acknowledgment and transformation.

Tarantino wears his influences on his sleeve; he wants you to know he’s referencing Sergio Leone or Jean-Luc Godard. He wants you to see The Bride wearing the Bruce Lee motorcycle suit.

Even in Inglourious Basterds, he has his own riffs on The Dirty Dozen while still honoring that movie's legacy.

His complaint suggests that The Hunger Games sanitized a gritty foreign film for a Western YA audience without acknowledging the source material that paved the way.

While I don't totally agree with it, I can see how he feels there was not enough of an original spin on The Hunger Games to make them distinct from Battle Royale.

Summing It All Up

This argument has been around since The Hunger Games came out, and Tarantino is definitely not the first person to make it.

But The Hunger Games keeps expanding its lore and has built a large and complex world that is totally different from the world built in Battle Royale. That consistent worldbuilding and characterization is what I think sets it apart the most.

Let me know what you think in the comments.