Some critics argue The Hunger Games is a rip off of Battle Royale. Battle Royale is a Japanese novel/film about Shuya Nanahara, a high-school student who is forced by the government to compete in a deadly game where the students must kill each other in order to win.
It was one of the ten highest-grossing films in Japan. The novel was published in 1999 and the film released in 2000.
That sounds remarkably like the Hunger Games. BTW I’ve read the first two books and enjoyed them. I do not detect any liberal agenda, quite the opposite in fact. I will look into Battle Royale, thanks for the tip.