Released in 2014, “Hunger Games: Uprising, Part 1” sounds like the beginning of the end of a saga that will have marked its time. So much so that certain elements of his story quickly entered the collective unconscious, and were reused in protest contexts.
The Hunger Games: the revolt rumbles
In recent years, producers have found a few ways to stretch out long sagas like splitting the concluding episode into two parts. This is how the sagas Harry Potter Where Twilight have chosen to make their final sections diptychs. In this context, The Hunger Games did not escape the rule. It must be said thatThe Hunger Games and Hunger Games – Catching Fire blew up the box office with respectively $694 and $865 million in revenue. Faced with such dizzying figures, Lionsgate, therefore, had no choice but to separate the final episode into two feature films. Therefore, Part 1 was released in 2014 while Part 2 was released in 2015.
In this part 1, Katniss Everdeen has now become the symbol of the rebellion after destroying the Hunger Games games forever. She must now do everything to fight and save her partner Peeta, held prisoner by President Snow.
From fiction to reality
In the same year of the release of Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1, a terrible military coup takes place in Thailand, which is largely criticized by the population. The response to the putschists was made by taking up a symbol seen in the films: the famous three-finger salute. The gesture of thanks and respect that the people of District 12 use during funerals (Katniss uses it in particular after the death of Rue in the first part), it later becomes a sign of revolt against the totalitarian regime of President Snow.
The junta has banned the demonstrations, the revolutionaries therefore posted on social networks photos of themselves reproducing this famous salute. And this, even if the authors of the coup had warned that people using this symbol would be arrested and imprisoned.
Note that the gesture has also been emulated in other Asian countries such as Taiwan, Hong Kong (during the major protests of 2019 and 2020), and Burma.
