Finally, I get to post this. Even though three days have passed since I watched the movie (and then read the book), I hope enough retains for me to at least briefly touch on this hugely popular film and book, the first in a trilogy.
I shall comment on the movie, which was really good and worth the $9 I was scammed of by the price-discriminating Junction 8 cinema. Anyway.
The movie is about 24 boys and girls between the ages of 12 and 18 to participate in the inaugural Hunger Games. One boy and one girl from each District, numbered 1 to 12. Thirteen districts rebelled against their authoritarian leaders in the Capitol, and the last was annihilated; the rest were subdued, and their people specialise in different areas due to the geography. District 12 for example mines coal.
The setting reminds me of William Golding's Lord Of The Flies. I read that when I was in lower Secondary and I don't think I'll ever forget how harrowing it was to read about the complete chaos that comes about when people are divested of rules, and try to set up their own in a new place (in that case, an island; in The Hunger Games, an America that has been destroyed by civilian warfare over scarce resources). People get into cliques. Fight each other. Lie. Anything to ensure their own survival, at the expense of others. Life is but a zero-sum game to them. But to the heroine, Katniss, it is not. And while others killed to get weapons and food, she escaped and sought only to survive.
The Hunger Games also reminds me of Liar Game. In the first game, people are given a million dollars - a loan by a company. They are expected to return all that at the end of a given period of time, and hence end up neither gaining or losing. But they can steal other's money, and thus get that amount of money while the loser ends up in debt to the company. Human greed does the rest while the company benefits. But that changes when a girl, Nao, and another man is thrown into the picture. They seek to overthrow the system, to defy, much like what The Hunger Games does.
Another book that isn't really similiar is George Orwell's 1984. A dystopian world where people are constantly being watched, register to ths and that. My memory's hazy on this book, so I can't comment too much, but there are some similarities between the Capitol, with its deployments of Peacekeepers to towns to keep an eye on the people; where people are mutilated, their tongues cut off for daring to rebel and run away. Rule through fear. Big Brother is watching you. The Capitol is watching you, always.
The Hunger Games are just that, a grosteque game, not about hunger, but about betrayal, about humans turning against one another for survival, for fame, for glory. What lies at the top after killing off twenty three others is fame, money, and riches showered upon the winning district for that year till the next Hunger Games. It's nothing more than a sick ploy by the Capitol to keep any rebellious thoughts in check.
The brilliance of the film (the book is not as compelling, but nonetheless a very good read) comes in precisely that - reflecting upon all these issues, getting people to think about what is happening in the movie. About its relevance to our modern-day society, the rich-poor divide within a country, the divide between developed and less developed countries. No amount of politically correct terms - MEDCs versus LEDCs, DCs versus LDCs - will ever hide the truth that the poorer countries suffer much more than the richer ones.
For satire, to poke fun at the ridiculousness of the Capitol, people are made to put on a lot of face powder; exotic pets; crazy hairdos and attire. In contrast, the people living in the districts are made to survive on little food, with hunting not allowed (technically, but the rules are lax in Katniss's town so she gets to hunt for some income to support her mother and sister and herself) in order to ensure most goes to the Capitol; that starving people would not dare to revolt. The opulence and glamour of the Capitol, the abundance of technology and luxuries are contrasted with those serving those who live there - rebels with their tongues cut off, Avoxes; and the plight of those living in the dstricts. And if you think this isn't happening in the real world, think again. Googlesearch. Poor Africans, with malnourished bodies and huge bellies that signify extreme malnutrition, putting the food on the developed countries' table. The ornate ballrooms of our local Resorts World Sentosa and Marina Bay Sands. Urban in the newspaper featuring strangely dressed models with weird done-up hairdos by stylists. They call this fashion. I think nothing of it. Impractical. Resource-wasting.
This is the world we live in.
It makes me sick. To think that The Hunger Games are actually being played out, unknowningly to virtually all of us in the developed world. We are benefiting at the expense of others. I'd be surprised if terrorists didn't exist. But sadly, they don't lobby for just causes, but for their own good. Just another example of the greed of human beings.
And I find it strange why this has happened. Both in real life and on the movie screen. shouldn't freed people be much more productive, given more technology, a higher standard of living? Wouldn't this benefit the Capitol more than it does from twelve poor districts? I don't have a reason for this, but perhaps they fear that such a thing happening is tantamount to an uprising. There would be vengeance and ultimately the Capitol would lose all that it has. Another reason is the power that they enjoy, knowing that they control the fates of others.
And the Hunger Games are practically entertainment for those living in the Capitol. No way of knowing how people feel when they're being hunted. No way of knowing what it's like out in the wilderness, shivering in the cold, being chased by beasts and not knowing what to eat. They laugh and place bets on who would win. The value of human life has gotten a price tag.
And there are volunteer Tributes, who want to be picked for the Games. Not knowing that they would be playing right into the hands of the Capitol, ejoying the status quo, that their lives are good now because they produce luxuries and are paid handsomely for it; that they would want to willingly pay the price of having blood on their hands in exchange for a life of glitz and glamour. But it all seems so empty to me. How much parties can one go to before one is sick and tired of it? To walk around, a moral bankrupt, not knowing what has been lost. I pity them.
The premise of the movie is that thankfully, there is hope yet, in the form of Katniss. In the book, she is slighty less bloodthirsty than in the film. But overall, she replaced her sister just because; she tried to not kill anyone, unlike some who simply ran straight to get weapons and started massacring others who were daft enough to stay and fight. And a little bit of romance. Well, in Pandora's Box, even after all the evil, sins and whatnot that have afflicted mankind since we came into being, at the very bottom ofthe box lies a wisp of hope. Small, but strong, can be nurtured, can grow and start a movement, and lead to the betterment of society and the environment.
I cross my fingers and hope.
I shall comment on the movie, which was really good and worth the $9 I was scammed of by the price-discriminating Junction 8 cinema. Anyway.
The movie is about 24 boys and girls between the ages of 12 and 18 to participate in the inaugural Hunger Games. One boy and one girl from each District, numbered 1 to 12. Thirteen districts rebelled against their authoritarian leaders in the Capitol, and the last was annihilated; the rest were subdued, and their people specialise in different areas due to the geography. District 12 for example mines coal.
The setting reminds me of William Golding's Lord Of The Flies. I read that when I was in lower Secondary and I don't think I'll ever forget how harrowing it was to read about the complete chaos that comes about when people are divested of rules, and try to set up their own in a new place (in that case, an island; in The Hunger Games, an America that has been destroyed by civilian warfare over scarce resources). People get into cliques. Fight each other. Lie. Anything to ensure their own survival, at the expense of others. Life is but a zero-sum game to them. But to the heroine, Katniss, it is not. And while others killed to get weapons and food, she escaped and sought only to survive.
The Hunger Games also reminds me of Liar Game. In the first game, people are given a million dollars - a loan by a company. They are expected to return all that at the end of a given period of time, and hence end up neither gaining or losing. But they can steal other's money, and thus get that amount of money while the loser ends up in debt to the company. Human greed does the rest while the company benefits. But that changes when a girl, Nao, and another man is thrown into the picture. They seek to overthrow the system, to defy, much like what The Hunger Games does.
Another book that isn't really similiar is George Orwell's 1984. A dystopian world where people are constantly being watched, register to ths and that. My memory's hazy on this book, so I can't comment too much, but there are some similarities between the Capitol, with its deployments of Peacekeepers to towns to keep an eye on the people; where people are mutilated, their tongues cut off for daring to rebel and run away. Rule through fear. Big Brother is watching you. The Capitol is watching you, always.
The Hunger Games are just that, a grosteque game, not about hunger, but about betrayal, about humans turning against one another for survival, for fame, for glory. What lies at the top after killing off twenty three others is fame, money, and riches showered upon the winning district for that year till the next Hunger Games. It's nothing more than a sick ploy by the Capitol to keep any rebellious thoughts in check.
The brilliance of the film (the book is not as compelling, but nonetheless a very good read) comes in precisely that - reflecting upon all these issues, getting people to think about what is happening in the movie. About its relevance to our modern-day society, the rich-poor divide within a country, the divide between developed and less developed countries. No amount of politically correct terms - MEDCs versus LEDCs, DCs versus LDCs - will ever hide the truth that the poorer countries suffer much more than the richer ones.
For satire, to poke fun at the ridiculousness of the Capitol, people are made to put on a lot of face powder; exotic pets; crazy hairdos and attire. In contrast, the people living in the districts are made to survive on little food, with hunting not allowed (technically, but the rules are lax in Katniss's town so she gets to hunt for some income to support her mother and sister and herself) in order to ensure most goes to the Capitol; that starving people would not dare to revolt. The opulence and glamour of the Capitol, the abundance of technology and luxuries are contrasted with those serving those who live there - rebels with their tongues cut off, Avoxes; and the plight of those living in the dstricts. And if you think this isn't happening in the real world, think again. Googlesearch. Poor Africans, with malnourished bodies and huge bellies that signify extreme malnutrition, putting the food on the developed countries' table. The ornate ballrooms of our local Resorts World Sentosa and Marina Bay Sands. Urban in the newspaper featuring strangely dressed models with weird done-up hairdos by stylists. They call this fashion. I think nothing of it. Impractical. Resource-wasting.
This is the world we live in.
It makes me sick. To think that The Hunger Games are actually being played out, unknowningly to virtually all of us in the developed world. We are benefiting at the expense of others. I'd be surprised if terrorists didn't exist. But sadly, they don't lobby for just causes, but for their own good. Just another example of the greed of human beings.
And I find it strange why this has happened. Both in real life and on the movie screen. shouldn't freed people be much more productive, given more technology, a higher standard of living? Wouldn't this benefit the Capitol more than it does from twelve poor districts? I don't have a reason for this, but perhaps they fear that such a thing happening is tantamount to an uprising. There would be vengeance and ultimately the Capitol would lose all that it has. Another reason is the power that they enjoy, knowing that they control the fates of others.
And the Hunger Games are practically entertainment for those living in the Capitol. No way of knowing how people feel when they're being hunted. No way of knowing what it's like out in the wilderness, shivering in the cold, being chased by beasts and not knowing what to eat. They laugh and place bets on who would win. The value of human life has gotten a price tag.
And there are volunteer Tributes, who want to be picked for the Games. Not knowing that they would be playing right into the hands of the Capitol, ejoying the status quo, that their lives are good now because they produce luxuries and are paid handsomely for it; that they would want to willingly pay the price of having blood on their hands in exchange for a life of glitz and glamour. But it all seems so empty to me. How much parties can one go to before one is sick and tired of it? To walk around, a moral bankrupt, not knowing what has been lost. I pity them.
The premise of the movie is that thankfully, there is hope yet, in the form of Katniss. In the book, she is slighty less bloodthirsty than in the film. But overall, she replaced her sister just because; she tried to not kill anyone, unlike some who simply ran straight to get weapons and started massacring others who were daft enough to stay and fight. And a little bit of romance. Well, in Pandora's Box, even after all the evil, sins and whatnot that have afflicted mankind since we came into being, at the very bottom ofthe box lies a wisp of hope. Small, but strong, can be nurtured, can grow and start a movement, and lead to the betterment of society and the environment.
I cross my fingers and hope.
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