The Hunger Games: Catching Fire - 飢餓遊戲:星火燎原

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (飢餓遊戲:星火燎原) is an 2013 film. The movie is the sequel to The Hunger Games from 2012. The primary cast members return, starring Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson. The supporting cast includes Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, and Lenny Kravitz. For this installment, the late Philip Seymour Hoffman joined the cast along with Sam Claflin and Jena Malone. At the moment, it is the top grossing film in the US for 2013 released movies.



The catch up with Katniss and Gale in the woods hunting game. The head back to the projects before splitting up. Katniss has a victory tour to make. During this tour, the different districts start to act up. This prompts President Snow to put in motions a plan to eliminate the species of The Hunger Games victors. Snow takes the Quarter Quell event as a way to make a special games made up of former victors. Thus, eliminating a huge chunk of their species. Katniss is the only female victor of her district and would be chosen for sure. Peeta and Haymitch make the other half, but Peeta volunteers when Haymitch is chosen. The training period starts and Katniss makes friends with the others and tries to survive. But she has every intention of helping Peeta survive to be the victor. This however take a turn. A twist if you will for continuation for the Mocking Jay book.

This movie is well made. Pace is good and it gets us on the side of the victors. Even though they won the lottery, they are trapped. We as "free" people want to see them free and able to decide their fate. As such, we wait and see if their fate will be positive. But we know this is the middle book of a trilogy and will have to wait for the ending. We also know that the book leads to a rebellion and revolution, ala USSR. Jennifer Lawrence doesn't have to do much, she just has to look conflicted. The character development is there, but in essence, anyone could be in those roles and make us feel for them. Looking forward to the next two. Sad it beat my Iron Man 3 for first place in 2013.

The Hunger Games - 飢餓遊戲

The Hunger Games (飢餓遊戲) is an 2012 film. The movie stars Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson. The supporting cast includes Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, and Lenny Kravitz. The film is based on the popular US YA book of the same name. The filmmakers expect to make this a long franchise.

The story is based in an alternative universe where Asians do not seem to exist. Maybe one district. The world is divided up into districts and they must offer up tribute to an authoritative regime. Imagine if North Korea were to take over Estonia or Finland. Strike that, imagine if the USSR were still around in the age of social media, etc. The district we're focused on is that of our two main protagonist, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark, played by Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson. When they're selected as annual tribute for their district, they must be trained into well oil killing machines, because the tributes have to kill each other. And the last one standing is given freedom and riches! It is a dual to the death for these teenagers! The country stays peaceful and the rich get richer!

This movie was really difficult to watch. I think its because I watched a similar movie out of Japan only a dozen years ago called Battle Royale (BR). BR was revolutionary for its time because of the teenagers involved. The stars of those films went on to acclaim and a certain gal even appeared in a Kill Bill story arc. With that back drop, the Hunger Games people claim no knowledge of BR and that it was inspired writing. Yupe, the lack of whites in BR was repaid with the lack of Asians in The Hunger Games.

That aside, was the movie any good? Yes, the movie was well produced and told a really compelling story. Can our society ever get to a point of this? Unlikely, but it comments on the what can you deem acceptable for your society? Will tributes ever be acceptable for the US?