Squid Game [Netflix] [** SPOILERS **]

The Black Oil

Starts Sept 17th. Intriguing. A very well put together trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqxAJKy0ii4&ab_channel=Netflix

gmisk

Looks really interesting, obvious battle royale/hunger games vibe, also reminds me a bit of that other Brazilian Netflix show 3%

Millypenny

Looks good, a bit like the other Netflix Japanese series Alice in Borderland.

pixelburp

Honestly I thought this was a movie til the trailer said the series was dropping September 17th. Looks demented and won't be in the least bit subtle with its social commentary, yet still looks like it might entertain while beating its audience over the head 😁

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oqxAJKy0ii4

CastorTroy

Will likely watch it. The red light green light game made me think of As The Gods Will manga and film though that was all with school kids. Then they went on to show other games.

Just googled the conversion outta curiosity and it's about 33.2 million Euro

Slydice

1: Yikes! 😲 .. although.. as expected I guess.

First half of the episode though..

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yer man is meant to be very annoying I'm thinking.. or maybe just to setup the desperation of his situation with his daughter.. I was kinda moved about his plight.

Slydice

2: Well.. that was clever

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So.. I'm guessing the players who return now are likely to be more vicious than earlier

also these signs that someone might take the system down

That opening minute though!

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with whoever that was who was still alive in the coffin! 😦

Slydice

3: Freakin hell!

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Those revolver kills.. each one kinda made me jump a bit.

Liked how

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resourceful the North Korean defector was. Also that the old guy survived and 456 especially when he got the umbrella and figured out to lick it. I don't think I've heard of that game before.

This other dude

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who got help from the inside/guards.. something going on there. I'm almost thinking the staff might be former players and this is part of a longer run rebellion

Slydice

4: Oh you

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Absolute Fuckers!! Fortuneatly this is a streaming show and the next episode is there. That's some cliffhanger!.. kinda literally!

When they let

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one guy be killed.. I was like.. Uh oh! Could see that kicking something off. Wierd how they ended the special game when the old man started screaming about it

Slydice

5: I think that this

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cops brother has got to be one of the staff. Surely if he won and got out, he'd have made contact.. unless it's like The Running Man where old winners were just killed anyway. To be revealed I guess.

Doesn't look good

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for the old dude.. still think he might have a chance to come out at the end.. there are signs I think that maybe when the players become few enough that they might work together... just for survival

At the start

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with the Tug of War.. I guess it wasn't a surprise they won given our lead characters were all over the team. Still gotta give nods to the old dude for his starting strategy.. even if it didn't completely work.

Can't believe.. but, at this stage, I guess it's hard not to at this stage..

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that there was an organ harvest side-gig going on the whole time under the bosses noses.. although.. when the boss was there.. the way he talked felt a bit like he knew about it.

Slydice

6: Well

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That felt ****.

The showmakers

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structured the episodes and games and character stories and interactions to have that really hit hard.

The Black Oil

Only watched the first one. Pretty decent setup. The dubbing works well for convenience.

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The climax must have been a logistical challenge to shoot and possibly a record for the number of squibs used, kinda manic scene that establishes a few players outside of yer man.

Now all we need in a few weeks time is people inspired to wear Halloween costumes based on the green outfit, marshalls and the as yet anonymous man in the dark mask. Clever move, Netflix.

Slydice

7: My hands got sweaty there.

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Something about the heights and the glass. Wasn't sure if yer wan was gonna push the tug or do what she did. Definitely thought she would try to take him out.

I was full sure

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the marble made it sound like he had hit regular glass.. but I was wrong

Half guessing

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the North Korean has a big lump of glass in her gut and could be in bad shape now

Slydice

8: 30 minute episode. Well..

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front man is the cops brother.. I'm not 100% on the cop being dead. No body shown in this show seems to leave the possibility open.

Felt

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crap to see the North Korean die like that. Great performance from her all season (wiki: Jung Ho-yeon as Kang Sae-byeok (No. 067)).

Real Matrix.. Not-like-this moment.

Wierd they

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didn't show the VIPs this episode. Guessing It all happened really fast after the last one.

Slydice

Finished: Overall, it provided what it advertised in the trailer.. and then a lot more by way of story. Lots of games, blood, violence... but also like a fair amount of story and plotlines too. Not for kids (blood, gore, sex, nudity)!

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Some real think-about-it points. Think I spotted a bunch of themes including debts, trust, bonding, choices, sacrifice, greed, love. Saying that, I reckon people just going in for the trailer get what they were looking for but anyone looking for more also got something.. maybe/maybe not what they wanted.

9: I thought

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he was going to win and he did.. he'd been the main character throughout so it didn't seem like it could go another way especially when the same game popped up from the first episode kids playing. It was too early in the episode and the game didn't seem like it could be drawn out.

When he got out and went home, I was like.. please don't be dead please don't be dead, please don't be dead.. 😔

Then after the year it looked like he hadn't even helped yer mans Mother or the North Koreans Brother and that was annoying.. glad he did in the end

Then at the end .. I can't believe he went back instead of going to his daughter.. but not because of his personality.. if the show did one thing.. it got accross that him throwing away the chance to see his daughter made sense.

So I guess games were already going on, he had his game, and then the games continue so that looks like it opens future possibilities for the series.

Future: I'd guess that it would be possible for Prequels or Sequels to be made.

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Prequel could be the game where Front man won and got his job. Sequels.. again Front Man could probably be the host. Feels like an easy one to fall down that dodgy quality gore-fest route though unless they could think of a really strong story.

PogoRach

Can't remember the last time I binge-watched a whole series from start to finish in pretty much one sitting.

That was a superb series and definitely exceeded my expectations.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117909966#Comment_117909966

Yeah, binge watched it myself in two sittings. Best series of the year for me. I'd say there'll definitely be a second series.

The Black Oil

I gave up on the dubbing halfway through episode 2. The English audio sounded too much like it was inserted from a voiceover booth, almost to the point of distraction. The episode itself had a few more character breadcrumbs and bursts of violence. Fair warning, if a Korean detective has an umbrella he's not going away easily.

Cina

Im surprised anyone dubs Korean shows. Their mannerisms and the way they use their voices to express themselves are what makes their shows and cinema so good.

Slydice

Forgot that I'd been thinking during the show about how it was proper bingeable .

I'd been keeping an eye out for episodes for planning breaks.

Probably good episodes for breaks if needed during a binge could to take a break after either episode 1 and/or 3 and/or 6.

1

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because it felt a bit like an intro to the game but no the deeper takes the story goes into from episode 2

3

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because episode 4 is the tug-of-war cliffhanger

6

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because after feeling invested in some characters it felt a bit cold/raw to move on after it. i definitely didn't feel a need to know what happened next. so it feels some absorbing time could be taken with this episode.

sok2005

Binged this over the weekend. It was a treat! I can see where there would go with another season too.

Korea are bringing some great shows as of late, we probably would have never seen half of them if it wasn't for streaming services.

ozmo

Glad I didnt watch trailer- just watched it above now - so many spoilers!

Slydice

Ah.. just rewatched the trailer.. I see what you mean. It had been so long since I saw it, I could barely remember an outline so it was fine for me.

Definitely recommend avoiding the trailer if about to watch for the first time.

ollkiller

Finished it yesterday. Brilliant television. Quite moving in parts of the last few episodes. Also do not watch the dubbed version. It's awful. The subtitled version is a million times better.

Burty330

Amazing show. Very well written , acted and extremely compelling. . One of those shows you don't want the episodes to end.

khalessi

Binge watched it, it was soo good

Pawwed Rig

Finished it a few nights ago. Very good series and very watchable all the way to the end.

Some threads not sewn up though

khalessi

Possible second series?

retalivity

It was ok. - i watch a fair bit of korean dramas and it was no better or worse than home sweet home, extracurricular, strangers from home etc.

2nd series is in the pipeline.

Yeah, it was OK.. the vips seriously took from it I thought..

pixelburp

mod: threads merged

retalivity

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117952438#Comment_117952438

They were bloody awful. Guess it comes with being one of the most homogeneous countries in the world - there are no good non-korean actors.

PieOhMy

Really enjoyed over all. As I did with 'Alice in borderland'.

One thing though and maybe I am just thick but the storyline with the cop and his brother didn't really go anywhere or had any resolution? Likd we learned one thing about what happened the brother I suppose but that plot line and the main plot line had no interaction with each other. Not sure if we can post spoilers and i don't know how to do the shaded thing so I'll say no more!

johnny_ultimate

Thought it was excellent overall - looks great and followed through on its premise. Any battle royale story is only as good as the escalating stakes and moral dilemmas - and this really did ramp up the cruelty of the game with each passing episode. If I had one overall complaint it was that the show went a bit too out of its way

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to nearly totally absolve its protagonist of wrongdoing - even the one clearly cruel thing he does (throw the old man under the bus) is sort of forgiven by the narrative.

A sequel seems inevitable, but all these battle royale stories stumble when it comes to following up with an ‘after the game’ premise. Here’s hoping this either stays one-and-done (unlikely) or has a genuine justification to come back beyond ‘it’s popular and Netflix wants more’.

Thecageyone

I enjoyed this, didn't think I would so much tbh but ended up binging it over 2 sessions - got it watched just before the hype really blew up. I watched it dubbed first couple of episodes, then tried the original sub titled for the next and it didn't feel right; I'd gotten used to the voices at that point. I think the dubbing was done pretty well for the most part.

Zaph

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117960990#Comment_117960990

I thought the dubbing was absolutely shocking. For nearly all characters there was a complete lack of emotion or conviction in what the voice actors were saying, and in the case of some characters, in particular the tattooed gangster and the annoying woman, they almost made their scenes unwatchable. Even minor characters with just a few lines were dubbed really badly, as if they were considered so insignificant that it wasn't worth dubbing them well. I gave up towards the end and turned it off so I could read the subtitles instead and it vastly improved my enjoyment of he show.

Pawwed Rig

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-58729766

In any case, all the hype surrounding his show has led to calls for a second season. But fans may have to wait a long time for that.

"I don't have well developed plans for Squid Game 2," he told Variety. "It is quite tiring just thinking about it."

Thecageyone

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117961471#Comment_117961471

We had different experiences then, but remember, like I said I watched it before any of the hype kicked off so I wasn't expecting much to start with.

callaway92

Two episodes in - might start again but in Korean this time with English subtitles. Not enjoying the dubbing.

It’s a good show but probably the last of the Battle Royale type rip-offs that I can bear now. Been done so much (Belko Experiment, Hunger Games etc).. Big difference is it’s a series.

Pawwed Rig

Was Hunger Games not a kids show?

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117967422#Comment_117967422

Not quite. "Young adult" is the phrase, meaning the books were ostensibly written for preteen to teenagers; so still quite simplistic but also baring more fangs and outright adult themes than books that'd skew younger. I read the Hunger Games and it was quite dark, definitely not for kids. The films kept things arguably less bloody than the books. It was, after all, a story of a deathmatch between children - so far from Paddington.

While The Harry Potter novels are an interesting example cos they started as definite books for children, progressively maturing as the audience did (such that Deathly Gallows was more YA than the first novels kiddy adventures - ditto the movies).

Pawwed Rig

Squid game was definitely 18s though.

Tbh I get the point about Battle Royale however I think, like the zombie genre, that this is a theme that can run and run as a different spin is put on it.

"Kingdom", for example, is a Korean take on zombies and is actually a very good watch although it took a few episodes before I would commit to it.

Shows like this HAVE to be 18s imo which is why I wouldn't be arsed with Hunger Games.

Do people normally watch the dubbed version of foreign shows? I always watch with subtitles. For the record I thought that woman's voice was annoying in Korean aswell so maybe that is what they were aiming for in the English dubbing.

Thecageyone

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117967556#Comment_117967556

I've watched many sub titled films and it never bothered me, I do prefer the original actor's voices but I was just being lazy with this one. I watched on the PC and was doing other stuff along side, as I expected it wasn't going to be very brain taxing, just casual popcorn stuff for me - so I left it on dubbed [it is dubbed by default btw for anyone who's not watched yet] - I did try the original track and yup, that annoying beyatch is even worse! lol

Bacchus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117961471#Comment_117961471

I lasted 5 minutes with the dubbing and switched to Korean with English subtitles. Much better IMO.

callaway92

Soundtrack very, very good. Music fits well

johnny_ultimate

Dubbing has an important place for accessibility reasons, particularly for anyone who might struggle to read subtitles. But if that isn’t a problem for you, subbing is always the superior option - it leaves the original performances intact, and will always flow far more naturally than a dub. It doesn’t matter how good the dub is - the subs are always the way to go, outside of the aforementioned accessibility reasons.

Vicxas

Can i fast forward through the VIP scenes, they're so bloody cringe.

ozmo

>the subs are always the way to go

i watched this with english dubbing and subtitles.

They were quite different in some cases- subtitles were the best in most but not all parts- you do get used to hearing and reading the two versions of the story :)

Pawwed Rig

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117970021#Comment_117970021

Asian portrayals of 'westerners' tend to be very 1 dimensional. Equally the depiction of the Pakistani guy was a bit basic and possibly a bit racist.

Probably the same with western movies when they portray stereotypes I suppose

johnny_ultimate

I watch lots of Asian films and their English speaking characters are almost as a rule terrible. You have to remember the directors aren’t directing in their native language so they have no idea about the right tone or pitch often times.

Theres an ‘American-Japanese’ character in Shin Godzilla that’s farcically unconvincing when speaking in English in an otherwise pitch perfect film.

Slydice

Agree by and large that subbing tends to carry the original message better.

Dragonball Z being the only big exception for me that I can think of just at the minute with the English voice cast just feeling more suited to the show there.