I just recently watched the movie "Battle Royale" on Netflix. It is a movie released in 2000 where a Japanese class is forced to battle to the death on an isolated island until one student remains. From what I understand, this movie is based on a really popular manga comic.
WARNING: Possible spoilers.
(This image is from http://geekfurious.blogspot.com/2012/03/battle-royale-movie-review.html)
I really liked this movie a lot. Sure some of the violence in this movie is very graphic considering the ages of the actors that were cast, but there was a lot of interesting concepts within this movie. The majority, except for two, of the students all knew each other prior to being forced to kill each other. Many of them had very close relationships with each other which brings a lot of tension in many ways at times. Those who seemed to be outcasts were better at this game, which made them appear as monsters to everyone else. It can get very horrifying when trust is lingering and everywhere there is danger.
Comparing this to the movie "The Hunger Games," there is only the main character, and there maybe one or two characters that she cares about who she is forced to participate in these games with, but in "Battle Royale" it gets very traumatic for the main two leads, as well as other characters the movie focuses on, when their friends die. There is more tension in "Battle Royale" because of this.
Also, when comparing the two movies, some of the students ended up committing suicide, which seems more realistic as some people can not bring themselves to kill or some people can not live with themselves after they have killed.
Another thing, in this movie the students are given necklaces with bombs on them that can not be taken off and will go off if they are in a declared "Dead Zone" on the island, which gives them the necessary fear to proceed with this game. In "The Hunger Games", the children in the games did not go against this at all because most of them were trained for these games. It is more terrifying in "Battle Royale" because most of them are entirely unprepared for this.
Lastly, in this movie there are particular students who manage to rebel against the games entirely, remove the explosive powder in their necklaces, figure out a way to hack into the computers the adults use for this inhumane game, and even plan on an attack with explosives they made and gathered on their own. Yet there was one child who voluntarily came back into this game for the chance to kill more. Sometimes there are people who will fight the system, and other times there are people who are completely lost to it. I think "The Hunger Games" seemed lacking in these aspects.
Overall, I highly recommend this movie. I don't know if it available dubbed over, but I really enjoyed reading the subtitles anyways.
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