Wow. Not sure what you are watching, but I have never seen a more violent TV show. Certainly not a "fun little show". Harrowing
I don't remember calling it a "fun little show" but now that you mention it, I guess it was. TV shows are getting more violent all the time & The Boys would be another recent example. This was just goofy entertainment & not a documentary so I guess I didn't find it all that harrowing.
You said "fun little show" in your first post. I guess if you find many people being shot in the head, falling to their deaths and being stabbed in fights to be "goofy" then you have a different view of entertainment than I do. Of course it is fiction not a documentary but if you are watching well made drama then you start to identify with characters and when terrible things happen to them it should affect the viewer. If you didn't find some scenes heartbreaking and almost impossible to watch then I guess you are not invested in anything to do with it.
Are we supposed to know if the cop died at the end? Seemed like your typical "winged" shot followed by a fall into water, bad guy can't see anyone floating to top of water. Every time they use this trope, the person is alive. I'm assuming we're not supposed to know if his messages actually got through before hitting the water (assuming the cell phone at least is now dead). They should have had an American or English writer come in just polish up that awful English dialogue. I wouldn't assume Steven Zaillian can write decent Korean dialogue, don't know why Producers didn't think to see if it would play in native tongue. As others have mentioned, Korean actors really good, the English-speaking actors were not and given nothing to work with.
I had all of those reactions to Midnight Mass but not to Squid Game. Midnight Mass is the best thing I've seen since The Leftovers. I enjoyed Squid Game but it didn't draw me in enough to take it very seriously. There is probably no doubt that I take a different view of entertainment than you. Different strokes.
Finally finished it Tuesday night. Dubbing was a little amateurish. Episode # 6 was easily my favorite. Quick question. The cop who was Imposter 29 switched masks at the brawl to the square mask. Then like 2 episodes later he was wearing the circle mask. Which would have been a dead guard. Did I miss something?
Finished this up recently (subtitles version). I'm not one that's normally into blood & gore type shows, so some of the violence was hard to take. Still, I made it through and there were some really moving moments. My question: wasn't it implied at the beginning that anybody that survives the 6 games would be a winner? That is, there could be more than one winner? The husband and wife team was a heartbreaking story, but if it was clear that there would be only 1 winner, they knew at least of them (and likely both), wouldn't make it. It seemed like there were nods in the set and costume design to things like The Black Hole, Tron, Mr Roboto/Kilroy and MC Escher/Dr Suess (maybe even the 5000 Fingers Of Dr T specifically). Those were fun. Here's my thought on the amateurish nature of the VIPs' acting skills. If you're familiar with Japanese asadora shows, whenever they need a westerner to utter a few lines in English, they seem to use people that sound like they found them on the street. Sure, they're native speakers, but they're not actors so they come across as tentative and stilted. However, 99% of the audience probably don't notice. That's what I was thinking was happening there. Of course this has become a hit in English speaking countries so it's been noticed. Or was this simply a matter of Covid preventing finding western actors in South Korea during the lockdown?
I agree with your analysis of the English speaking VIPs. If the show was intended for a Western audience, I’m sure they would have been cast differently (and given better dialog).
I also remember that being implied earlier in the series, and the final game (the squid game) I think is won by one team or the other, with players divided into an offense team and a defense team, versus only one individual victor. Had Kang Sae-byeok (the North Korean defector girl) been around for the last game, they would have had to fit an odd number of players into the final game. Maybe they would have chosen a different game that would result in one victor, in that case. But for dramatic purposes, I don't think you could have Seong Gi-hun (Player 456) defeat her in the final game; it had to be a showdown between the last two characters that made it to the final game. I do suspect the show was limited in their choice of white, English speaking actors they could find to film in South Korea during the pandemic. But the show is shining a light for American audiences about how terrible foreign, non-English bit parts might be in American shows. For example, in the MCU movie Black Panther, there is one part set in South Korea. South Korea audiences have complained about how terrible the Asian bit part actors were in that, some saying the black American actor spoke better Korean than the Asian actors did. Apparently the Asian actors' Korean is noticeably off, plus they have a totally wrong regional accent for the location. The studio apparently later redubbed the Asian actors' lines in Black Panther, so it wasn't so noticeably off for Korean audiences. One of the articles I posted above, where the VIP actors give excuses for why their performances were terrible, gets into why shows fall flat in this area. The director doesn't know the foreign language, so they have no idea if the actors are saying their lines well. The editor doesn't know the foreign language, so they might pick one take where the actor flubbed his line, not aware of the error (as happened to one of the VIP actors in Squid Game).
I found that the English dubbing made it sound over the top, but the original language was more subdued.
Yeah, I thought so too. But then when the policeman is searching through the Squid Game archives and see the list of winners, each year only has 1 player listed. That's what had me wondering if I remembered that part about the possibility of multiple winners correctly.
If it were a single winner game like Highlander, then technically the final game is the bet that Players 001 and 456 made in the final episode. I've seen a theory online that the final bet was really won by Player 001, proving to Player 456 the case that rich people (now that both of them are rich) like to use poor people as the subject of their games. I think that's stretching it a bit far, but a fun interpretation of the ending.
I found a good YT video detailing what non-Korean speakers miss relying on the dub/sub. I learned a lot! There's even some helpful comments. I'm definitely going to watch the series again with these things in mind. Regards, Dave
I think he originally replaced the dead circle guard then when he switched to a higher up square, that circle guard was considered AWOL and then "returned".
'Squid Game' actor who was once penniless now global star thanks to Netflix hit American actor, author, director and radio personality Geoffrey Giuliano, who was stranded in India last year during the pandemic, has hit it big since his role in Netflix's top original series of all time, Squid Game. Giuliano, 68, was stranded in Jaipur, Rajasthan, with his son, Eden, then 12, last March when the borders were closed due to the COVID-19 outbreak, and they couldn't return to their home in Thailand. As their stay dragged on, Giuliano ran out of money, and he said they were forced to survive on "monkey nuts and bananas." They had no fresh clothes for six months and begged for beds in yoga ashrams. Giuliano, the author of more than two dozen books — many of them about The Beatles — is also a singer-songwriter, and he has appeared in more than two dozen films. He and his son returned to Thailand in January, where one of the first things they did was to take a hot bath. Squid Game director Hwang Dong-hyuk recognized Giuliano from minor roles and selected him for the role of an eccentric gay billionaire named "VIP 4" in the hit show. Giuliano said he has now been bombarded with offers for roles since the release of Squid Game on Sept. 17. "A year ago I really thought we would starve to death," Giuliano said last week. "I had to fight every day just to get food for my son and me to survive. ... It was the darkest time of my life, and I was thinking it was the end for both of us. "When I was asked to work on Squid Game, I wasn't expecting it to be such a hit. My life has flipped upside down and I've finally found success my son can be proud of." Giuliano said he traveled to India on a spiritual pilgrimage after becoming disillusioned with life. He took his son, who is also starting out as an actor, hoping the experience would help him. In Squid Game, 450 people who are mired in debt are desperate to take an opportunity to turn their lives around and they accept an invitation to take part in a deadly competition. Giuliano himself had been struggling with financial issues in Pattaya, Thailand, where he and his son live. But his fortunes forever changed after the Squid Game director told him he "was the only foreigner in the world" he wanted for the role of VIP 4. Giuliano appears in episode 9, "One Lucky Day." Hwang had seen Giuliano in a Korean zombie movie and was attracted by his portrayal of an American villain. In Squid Game, Giuliano wears a panther mask as a VIP, betting on the players taking part in a game. "Although I've had good solid parts in 28 movies, over the last 15 years nothing really moved the needle until Squid Game," said Giuliano. "Astonishingly, I have three films on Netflix: Kate, Peninsula Train to Busan and of course the biggest so far, Squid Game. "It's just been my son and I all these years and because of Netflix's faith in me, I have turned his life around for which I'm very grateful. In this difficult age of COVID, this is a truly happy ending."
He was discussed briefly on page 2. He seems nice. Geoffrey Giuliano barged in front of customer in Thailand | Daily Mail Online
I watched 6 episodes assuming it was going to get better after all the hype, I can't be bothered to finish it. Gratuitous boring tripe IMO, and I did enjoy Battle Royale. I really can't believe it's as popular as it is.
Well, it's admirable you made it as far as you did before issuing your final judgment. I imagine most wouldn't give it that much of a chance. I've never seen Battle Royale. I may have to rectify that sometime. Regards, Dave
Based on all the hype I watched the entire series. I think it jumped the shark pretty early, with some unnecessary distractions. For instance, the bathroom sex scene. As the series progressed, they just put in so many goofy scenes, it became a bit lame. Great idea, but bad execution.
I disagree about the sex scene. For me it set up just how extremely manipulative Mi-nyeo was. She was a real nut-job who tried to wrap Deok-su around her finger. We know how well that went. Regards, Dave
Understood. I thought for an environment that should have been closely controlled, there was a lot of behavior that was tolerated, the sex scene and the murdering of other participants are the obvious ones. If the loser of each event was killed, I would have been more engaged.
Yeah the privacy of the bathroom was perhaps a bit too convenient story-wise. I see the pvp murder as just another of the games, just not advertised as such. Regards, Dave
