The Japanese movie made the director's 'best of the century' list
By Victoria Luxford 27th November 2025
Quentin Tarantino. CREDIT: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Epic Games
Quentin Tarantino has criticised The Hunger Games author Suzanne Collins for “ripping off” 2000 Japanese film Battle Royale.
- READ MORE: ‘Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood’ film review – Tarantino’s most satisfying work in decades
Released in 2008, and later made into a film series that began in 2012, The Hunger Games was set in a dystopian future where teenagers from different regions are picked at random to compete in a battle to the death in a televised event. The games are used as a control exercise by the totalitarian government.
AdvertisementThe book shares several similarities to the film Battle Royale, in which a high school class is chosen by the government to fight to the death. The movie based on the 1999 novel of the same name by Koushun Takami, and parallels have been made between the two stories before. However, during an interview on The Bret Easton Ellis Podcast, the Pulp Fiction director said he believed legal action should have been taken.
“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! Stupid book critics are not going to go watch a Japanese movie called Battle Royale, so the stupid book critics never called her out on it. 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!’”
Tarantino remains a huge fan of the Japanese film, putting it at number 11 in his favourite movies of the 21st Century. He also revealed he got to see an early private screening of the drama at the invitation of director Kinji Fukasaku, as the filmmaker was in Japan scouting locations for Kill Bill.
Recommended“I had no idea what the fuck I was about to see,” he said. “And holy fucking shit! I don’t even know what I saw. It was so wild… three months later I was at the Seattle Film Festival. They were going to be showing Battle Royale at midnight. Nobody had seen this in America yet. I got to the midnight screening and that was one of the most exciting screenings as I waited for the movie to start. I knew what they were going to see. This is going to deliver more than they even know! They are not prepared for how this is going to deliver. To have that knowledge was power.”
In other news, Quentin Tarantino has made an animated Kill Bill short titled Yuki’s Revenge, which will be coming to Fortnite on November 30.
