Squid Game

[Cuellar]

I don't know if it was our telly/connection or whatever but the subtitles were intermittent for us. There'd be whole scenes where they'd just not appear, so we completely missed loads of the dialogue. Like right at the end, when

Spoiler alert

Gi-hun is on the phone just before getting on the plane and he says 'Listen carefully...', nothing appeared after that.

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Had to rewind which is a pain in the arse on TV netflix anyway.

[bgmnts]

Well maybe this person should get a job doing subtitles foreign shows.

I'm not learning Korean to watch a show where people play marbles.

[SteveDave]

Everyone wasn't joking about the awful acting of

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the VIPs. "ONE MILLION DOLLARS!" particularly stood out.

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[BeardFaceMan]

Everyone wasn't joking about the awful acting of

Spoiler alert

the VIPs. "ONE MILLION DOLLARS!" particularly stood out.

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I saw something from one of the English-speaking VIP actors, can't seem to find it now, I think it was an Instagram post, and he was bemoaning the fact that the script was fucking awful and that everybody was talking about their bad acting instead and it wasn't their fault, I think it was along the lines of "you can't string out a 69 joke for 30 minutes without hamming it up". And while he does have a point that the dialogue was awful and they didn't have a lot to work with, unless they were specifically directed to speak like they've never spoken English before, that was bad acting.

[bgmnts]

It was very reminiscent of "Don't OPEN THat DoOR" Resident Evil shite.

[Butchers Blind]

The bad acting from those VIP's reminded of those Jackie Chan movies where the baddie is English but they haven't splashed out on a real actor and used one of the English speaking stuntman to fill the role instead.

[kngen]

Binged this starting last night and just finished it. Thought it was mostly great (as folk said, up until and including the marbles game, I was 100% sucked in, but yeah - fucking hell - the VIPs. That's the sort of thing where someone, somewhere from Netflix should really have stepped in and said: 'We're going to reshoot all those bits for English-speaking audiences. And, actually, scrap a lot of the footage, too.' I liked the nods to Kubrick from the 2001/ACO set dressing to the use classical music as a whole but I'd gently suggest Eyes Wide Shut is not the richest of sources to draw upon.

Is there any cultural significance to the

Spoiler alert

red hair

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, btw?

[Consignia]

I've noticed there's been a bit of upset at how this has been translated into the English subtitles. The main concern being that it distorts the actual meaning of what the characters are saying.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-58787264

So I'm certainly no expert on Korean, but my limited understanding has been roughly that the dialogue conveys the meaning. Certainly not much different level of adaptation from other subtitles of foreign language things. But apparently it's an accusation based on the closed caption subtitles (i.e. the transcript of the dub with sound effects so the hard of hearing can watch the dub) rather than the standard subtitles. See this twitter thread: https://twitter.com/seoulocello/status/1444350083403821061

Either way, translation is an art not a science. It's really kind of annoying when people with a little knowledge of the language start slating translations when they differ even slightly from the transliteration.

[Fr.Bigley]

This squid game looks like absolute shite. It's another cultural phenomenon propagated by what ever shite  like the hunger games preceeded a decade ago or the Arnold schwarzenegger running man shite 2 decades prior to that.

Avoid death and be rewarded. Give me a break. Yawn.

I'm sparticus etc etc.

[evilcommiedictator]

Amazing innit how a big company shows something a little bit different, advertises it well, and it goes really, really well, despite being a product that needed a editor amongst other things.
Anyway, off to watch Bond and the next Marvel installment

[MojoJojo]

Is there any cultural significance to the

Spoiler alert

red hair

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, btw?

I've not seen it, and this is a Japanese thing not a Korean thing, but westerners having hair colours other than black was a bit of a headfuck for the Japanese, and it's been suggested this is why manga/anime has so many weird hair colours.

[Catalogue Trousers]

This squid game looks like absolute shite. It's another cultural phenomenon propagated by what ever shite  like the hunger games preceeded a decade ago or the Arnold schwarzenegger running man shite 2 decades prior to that.

Avoid death and be rewarded. Give me a break. Yawn.

I'm sparticus etc etc.

But...but...it's got a BIG CREEPY LITTLE GIRL DOLL! It is so FRESH and SCARY!!!

[sevendaughters]

watched ten minutes of it and it seemed precision tuned to be as on the nose as possible. i might go back to it one day but didn't get an immediate 'watch this' vibe.

[SteveDave]

I enjoyed it with

Spoiler alert

the twist of the old man being the one in charge. And there's me thinking the only reason you didn't actually see him get offed after the marble game was that the actor was too frail to fall over. I agree that the cop brother/badman brother thing should've been resolved a bit better though I did like that the badman brother looked like if Mads Mikkelsen was Korean

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My wife immediately started watching "Alice In Borderland" after it but I'm done with such things (reading) for a while.

[metaltax]

It's the 21st Century's The Prisoner.

[Consignia]

So I finished this last night and I really enjoyed it throughout. Maybe I've just seen too many K-dramas which are too drawn out, but this felt tightly paced. Of course, there's enough slack for it to be cut down to film if needed, but still it worked well for me in it's serial format. The only real sore point for me was the VIPs. Just atrocious dialogue, poorly written and delivered.

Otherwise, absolutely satisfied. Nothing super original, but well executed. Don't mind if there's a sequel or not, but if there is I hope it's not a re-tread.

[Butchers Blind]

https://www.kentonline.co.uk/deal/news/kent-schools-warn-against-watching-popular-netflix-show-255312/

Yeah because if you don't want kids to do something, get teachers to tell them not to.

[peanutbutter]

This sounded like wank and I was very suspicious of the way everyone was abruptly talking about it a few days ago so I'll never bother with it, but I read the description of the final episode and

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it reads like it's very much leaving the door open for a second season? I def got the impression people thought they were watching a miniseries so I'm wondering if this is a new move the likes of Netflix do to make a first series semi-self contained so people think they're committing to something small when everyone involved is eyeing up loads of future seasons.

I notice Netflix are being very tight lipped wrt whether there will be a Stranger Things season 5, which all but confirms there will be to me unless it gets abruptly cancelled without and ending

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[Consignia]

There are sequel hooks, but it's very self contained. Whilst there's pretty much a story thread

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the cop and his brother

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that's never fully resolved, and the last scene does

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imply the main character returning to the game to take revenge

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, neither really need to be elucidated.

I imagine there will be more just because it's done gang busters for Netflix.

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

Why does Netflix default to an English language dub instead of original language and subtitles? I suspect it's for the American market, who probably can't handle subtitles and moonspeak, but I like to think we're a little bit more cultured than that over here. Whenever there's a foreign language film on telly it's always in its original language.

[Consignia]

It never defaults to dubbed for me, on anything foreign language based. I was even surprised when a colleague mentioned the dubbing, because I didn't even think Netflix dubbed Korean dramas.

[olliebean]

It defaulted to dubbed the first time I watched a foreign-language thing (3%), but I think once I changed it, it must have remembered my preference because I don't remember it ever defaulting to dubbed after that.

[bgmnts]

Mine defaults to subs I think. Does it default to dubs if you were to switch it to dubs a few times?

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

Hmm, maybe it remembers your choices then. I was watching it on somebody else's TV. The English dub is shit btw. Like 80's Kung Fu bad, but without being funny.

[Rizla]

This squid game looks like absolute shite.

Yep. Can't remember when I've ever been more pissed off with telly wasting my precious time - last series of Black Mirror, probably. Should really have know from the utter cunts cooing about it on my facebook. Good visuals to begin with, excellent first game (giant doll, marvellous), performance of main actor initially very enjoyable. Great soundtrack. Then...all the other stuff. Even before the VIPs. Why do the guards have playstation buttons on their faces? Black mask bloke fucking risible. That one with the marbles, fuck off. Fuck off.

[chveik]

the games (which are supposed to be the main focus of the show) suck quite a bit. last time i buy into netflix hype

[Gregory Torso]

Oh for fucks sake, which thread are we using?

[thugler]

Enjoyed this massively, an easy watch. Didn't care about silliness in the vip's bit. It's a very tongue in cheek and on the nose show. The characters and drama were great. Watched the dubbed version by accident and thought they did a very good job, i basically always hate dubbing and find it distracting.

No issue with the ending either, in fact predicted that the old guy would come back later as they didn't show him die.

[Mr Farenheit]

Loved the game and the contestants, really tense.

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A bit draining with almost everyone being killed.

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I did get some enjoyment out of the VIPs being so (intentionally?) bad as well, reminded me of watching Tim Thaler the Boy Who Sold His Laugh where I remember the dubbed dialogue being risible, as well as video game dialogue.

I do think their apalling banter has a ring of truth to it, in that way that rich people josh each other, you can see it on Dragons Den sometimes.... fucking SHOCKIN patter. I felt a bit sorry for them thinking about how uncomfortable the masks would be and what they would do on the island between games- it doesn't look like there's anywhere to go. I felt claustrophobic imagining them being there listening to each other's SHIT banter in different dark windowless rooms.

The last episode was alright.

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I thought Gi-Hun still being deeply traumatised a year later was interesting and realistic. Then the old guy being evil ("I make money by lending it") and behind the whole thing... why not? But god he went on and on trying to explain... I'm not sure what. For the ending, I can buy Gi-Hun going back to the game because there doesn't seem to be much for him in the real world after what he's been through.

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Spoiler alert

In terms of a sequel, not sure if I could stand Gi-Hun going through the wringer again. I wasn't sure if the cop's messages went through or not? There's also a chance his boss tracked the location from his phone.

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[kngen]

While I enjoyed Squid Game, I'm pretty positive that Squid Game 2 will be absolute shite - like Battle Royale 2 shite.