Starts Sept 17th. Intriguing. A very well put together trailer.
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.
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!
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
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’.
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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
Was Hunger Games not a kids show?
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).
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.
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
I lasted 5 minutes with the dubbing and switched to Korean with English subtitles. Much better IMO.
Soundtrack very, very good. Music fits well
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.
Can i fast forward through the VIP scenes, they're so bloody cringe.
>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 :)
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
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.
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.
Watch this yesterday. It's entertaining but a lot of reviews go into hyperbole with stuff likes it's hard to get through the violence. The VIPS were a terrible addition almost like there couldn't be any bad guys unless some where white. The cop side story was a bit anticlimactic. The arse was dragged out of the last 2 episodes they could have been combined. I don't think this needs a season 2.
I really enjoyed this show. I haven't sat down and binged watched a series in a while so this drew me in straight away. Well made, stylized and engaging throughout (as everyone has pointed out the VIP scene is painfully acted). Would definitely welcome a prequel or sequel.
I watched the first episode, and granted it was late and I was tired but I wasn't bowled over - just a bunch of people being shot? Does it get better? If it's a whole series of relentless violence then maybe I'm not gonna be into it.
Im halfway through the series - Brilliant show!! Watch it without the dubbing. It will encourage you to watch without a phone in your hand.
It's certainly advertised as a tv show battle royale in the trailers but to answer your question
Yes. There's more to it than people being shot.. definitely the exploraion of the second episode starts the extra stuff
but there's still a lot of the violence /shooting too.. because it's a battle royale type thing
might be the first episode is like a filter about the violence.. as there's a lot of it
I found that it only really go compelling about 2 and 1/2 episodes in.
Persevere until then.
Then it's pretty decent.
Probably will suffer from "Prison Break" syndrome as far as subsequent series go, where the success of this type of show which very much effectively works best as a one series effort gets shoe-horned into a multi-season cluster-mess.
Unless you have reading difficulties you should always watch a show with original soundtrack and subtitles as you get the original acting and emotion and not another version/interpreation and you also the lips sync correctly
Would people regard watching 2.5 episodes of a show as persevering?Judging an entire series on that is not enough. Also E2 was very unexpected to me and set up the context of the whole series for me.
Even saying E1 was just about people getting shot is totally wrong imho.
Very enjoyable except for the VIPs. Absolutely awful when they were in it - cringe inducing.
I meant that it doesn't starts to really grab you until then.
And I said nothing about Ep 1 just being about people being shot so that's conflating two separate points.
And yes completely with the massive choice these days with literally 1000's of shows out there, getting to the second half of the third episode would be a commitment for a lot of people
Many will give up if the first episode or two don't hook them in because there are so so many other shows out there to go instead if it hasn't appealed.
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