Squid Game [Netflix] [ SPOILERS ]

26-10-2021 3:15am

I wont bother talking about the show per se.

But did it take anyone else a few mentions of WON to realise it was the currency?

With the subtitles(maybe dubbing was different) it took me a few mention to realise it wasnt a phrase. "6000 Won/gained from someone" in that kind of way. Especially when the first mentions were in a gambling sense.

OptimusTractor · 26-10-2021 2:48pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118073078#Comment_118073078

Freddo bars are currently trading at 542 WON back in my day you could get them for around 135.

RoryMac · 27-10-2021 12:01pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118072999#Comment_118072999

A few people have said he wasn't shackled to the rope like the others, I haven't gone back to check so not sure

unkel · 27-10-2021 12:10pm

He looks shackled to me, just checked. I guess he was very confident that his superior tactic would win it. He wasn't wrong 😂

Officer999 · 31-10-2021 5:06pm

Why did Gi Hung dye his hair red??

Also, the VIP that was found collapsed, did he return? Were the other VIPs not wondering what happened??

breezy1985 · 31-10-2021 5:57pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118017030#Comment_118017030

I kept forgetting the cop was looking for his brother so when it was revealed I was like " who's that guy, why is the camera focusing like I should be shocked"

The 001 thing was very obvious to me though. The skipping of his kill, the shot of the elderly host and bthe dementia seemed suspect too

Penn · 31-10-2021 7:24pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118098629#Comment_118098629

Yeah for some reason when the cop is looking through the records and finds his brother's page from 2015, the pic was in shadow in the top corner so you couldn't see his face. Then when his face was revealed after taking off the mask, it was only really obvious that it was his brother due to the circumstances (before the cop said it).

nomdeboardie · 01-11-2021 9:48pm

(Posting this before I go back and read other viewer's observations.)

Decided to take out a month's Netflix sub and give a few offerings a look. Didn't know if I'd like it much, especially as it's not the first 'survival-game' type story, but I ended up doing the nearest thing to binge-watching that I've ever done. Compared to viewing a couple of other interesting, raved-about-by-many and 'worthy' series from another streaming platform recently, where the over-stuffed and over-ambiguous plots just left me 'meh' from episode to episode, this had my little brain trotting along happily to the end.

(Then again, not having actually watched /paid much attention to films/series with similar plots before might have helped, in that it more 'new-to-me' (and I don't watch a whole load of TV/streaming series in general.)

nomdeboardie · 01-11-2021 11:16pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117906567#Comment_117906567

Ah, I'd forgotton about the second thing you mention, but it makes sense by the final episode!

nomdeboardie · 01-11-2021 11:34pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117969001#Comment_117969001

Agreed. I tried a couple of times to let the music play out through the final credits (of the last episode) but bloody Netflix just whipped the screen out to small window and then closed that as it insisted on showing me uts other wares! 🙄

nomdeboardie · 02-11-2021 12:47am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117986640#Comment_117986640

I was wondering why Seong Gi-hun didn't just

finish the game off by proceeding to the head, thus winning without knives and other madness, when he temporarily disabled his opponent by throwing sand in his eyes

- assume I've misunderstood something

Potatoeman · 02-11-2021 2:40pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118098483#Comment_118098483

There are a few things not explained. Why did the detectives brother stay, if he won and got the money also why not just pay his rent or tell the brother he was travelling? He was also only missing a month?

Why show the old man getting shot instead of it happening off screen and hearing the shot if they are going to say it didn’t happen.

nomdeboardie · 02-11-2021 8:30pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118106910#Comment_118106910

Just looked back at the latter scene now...

We see the gun pointed at the old man's head, then hear a gunshot as Gi-Hun walks away and the wall/screen obscures the guard and presumed victim, then guard comes partially in to view again, but nothing more. So the guard could have used a blank.

EoinMcLovin · 09-11-2021 5:23pm

https://twitter.com/totalfilm/status/1458094550946308098?s=20

Season 2 is happening

Apothic_Red · 12-11-2021 2:20pm

I'm a bit late to the party, I was very impressed but the loose threads bothered me

(1) Did the detectives messages end up getting sent ? That storyline just dissapeared.

(2) On the glass bridge, why didn't the contestants just run along the box rails or at least grab them as they fell

I won't gripe too much, the gut wrench of Episode 6 (marbles episode) was heart breaking.

Homelander · 13-11-2021 1:37pm

I really enjoyed this but I struggle to understand the worldwide acclaim and it being heralded as some sort of masterpiece that stands among the TV greats. Let alone being the best thing Netflix have ever made, I can think of a ton of shows that are better off-hand, like Midnight Mass, Haunting of Hill House, Godless, The Queen's Gambit, etc.

Like - it's definitely entertaining and well made, the actors are good and it's fairly unique in a general sense, but that's about it for me.

Outside of the actual games themselves, which are handled pretty well, didn't find the characters particuarly compelling, dialogue was weak, plot resolution was incredibly uninspired. Just an average decent quirky show.

Kinda funny how Alice in Borderlands came out shortly before Squid Games with a very similar premise and is of similar quality and barely a whisper about it.

Overall yeah I liked it but I'd say it's a 6.5/10.

castletownman · 13-11-2021 6:49pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118155906#Comment_118155906

My 'hack' for that game was to sit at the edge of the safe glass on row one and test the next one by applying pressure/tapping it with your legs. Gap was definitely short enough.

Either that or hoping your nimble enough to run across the entire bridge, hopping from one to the next by spending a split second on each tile.

Pawwed Rig · 13-11-2021 7:47pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118161843#Comment_118161843

Wouldn't have made for a very good episode though

loyatemu · 15-11-2021 11:42am

just finished it last night and really enjoyed it. As with all these things there are a few minor holes in the plot. The one scene that didn't ring true for me was

Gi-hun's anguish at the death of Sae-byeok. Unless I'd missed something, they'd hardly interacted prior to that, and he hadn't batted an eyelid at the death of Abdul who he had formed something of a bond with.

Also I feel stupid for not realising that,

in a show so obviously indebted to The Prisoner, I should have been asking "Who is Number 001?"

eviltimeban · 17-11-2021 2:26pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118161843#Comment_118161843

They may not have allowed that as part of the rules, and might've shot anyone who tried it.

B.A._Baracus · 17-11-2021 2:29pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118155906#Comment_118155906

The detective story line is definitely going to play out in season 2. If you don't have a shot of someone's face dead then they ain't dead.

Pawwed Rig · 17-11-2021 9:47pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118180543#Comment_118180543

They changed the rules when anyone broke the game so no reason to think they wouldn't have with this example.

pixelburp · 22-11-2021 10:06pm

Very late to the party but up to episode 5 and kinda gripped. The characters are all painted with broad strokes but that only makes them distinct, impactful IMO. Matches the tone of the games themselves.

Slydice · 23-11-2021 8:28pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118208166#Comment_118208166

Up to episode 5! Yeah, definitely that's.. that's episode 5 alright.

El Gato De Negocios · 23-11-2021 10:45pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118161843#Comment_118161843

Why didn't contestants just walk slowly along the two middle support bars of the bridge?

pixelburp · 28-11-2021 5:04pm

The premise of this meant I was always waiting for the moment the comfortable status quo everyone had established would be whipped away. Damn, episode 6. There it goes. Easily the saddest episode, for that reason, as reality dawned for some.

This is why it's so important to write interesting, engaging characters; so that when the axe falls you feel the cost that bit more. 456 has been interesting as a lead, being such a loser deadbeat in reality, but a pillar of decency in the Game. Nobody came out a hero regardless - while at least one returned a qualified, unrepentant shíthead (someone more dishonest than the gang leader).

I know hype can sometimes be the worst thing for expectations, but I'm loving this. Well deserving of its status.

Slydice · 28-11-2021 9:35pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118235889#Comment_118235889

Sure was a rough one!

EoinMcLovin · 29-11-2021 11:35pm

MrBeast recreated the whole game

https://youtu.be/0e3GPea1Tyg

pixelburp · 12-12-2021 11:51am

Wrapped this last night and hot damn, what a show. The last little shoe drop didn't quite work for me, but gotta applaud for an overall gripping ride. Great characters and sense of escalation, while never either wallowing or grotesque for its own sake (sometimes these battle royale ideas are more interested in violence than anything else).

Not quite sure what I'd want to see from a season 2; there are many ways it can be done "wrong", especially if they just do the same again, just bigger.

Pawwed Rig · 12-12-2021 6:43pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118308530#Comment_118308530

A season 2 will be difficult as the story is done. A season 2 could end up like Prison Break or 12 Reasons seasons 2 which were just made to cash in on the success of season 1 but were completely forgettable and unnecessary. A season 2 of this would need to be of the quality and imagination of a standalone series which I cannot see happening.

pixelburp · 12-12-2021 7:29pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118310825#Comment_118310825

Well we're definitely getting a season 2 so it's just a question of what the creators can think of in terms of taking the story forward. The surprise of that first discovery is gone, so I guess it's whether the writers can think of something that's as engaging.

In my head, I'd chuckle if the first episode would be like Suicide Squad where we follow a new batch... Only for everyone to get killed in the first game. Statistically, it's bound to happen!

Slydice · 13-12-2021 1:05am

A standalone season 2, with small tie-ins,does sound like would be good.

Definitely going to be a challenge for the creators. I imagine this was in the works for years (at least in someones imagination) and from what I gathered, season 2 is gonna be fresh and had to be thought about so it doesn't sound like it's going to have that luxury of time building up in the creators mind.

Pawwed Rig · 13-12-2021 1:09am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118312804#Comment_118312804

The author has said that he has nothing else past a first season so I think they need someone new in. I would take season 1 as the finished product. A season 2 can only be a disappointment unless lightning strikes twice

CastorTroy · 13-12-2021 2:33am

Makes me think of the route they went with Battle Royale 2. Or just simply be more about the takedown of the games, teaming with the detective

pixelburp · 13-12-2021 10:00am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118312812#Comment_118312812

If this is to be believed, Hwang Dong-hyuk is at least considering the character journeys we might see in form Season 2 takes; with the obvious consideration being "what happens to Gi-hun?"

https://ew.com/tv/squid-game-season-2-tease-director-hwang-dong-hyuk-lee-jung-jae/

pixelburp · 28-12-2021 4:28pm

Seems like we might also be getting a season 3 too; Dong-hyuk saying he's in talks for 2 more seasons...

https://m.koreatimes.co.kr/pages/article.asp?newsIdx=321287

Slydice · 28-12-2021 7:07pm

I wonder if that means he's figured out a story arc. Making it feel like an even bigger difference in how long he had to plan the first season.

mzungu · 31-12-2021 12:21am

I really enjoyed that, it was solid from start to finish.

I hope they go in a different direction for season 2, and not merely a rejig of season 1 with different games.

CastorTroy · 31-12-2021 2:47am

That's the thing about these kinds of things. Will they make season 2 focus on games more? the way the likes of Saw became all about the traps and Final Destination became about the elaborate deaths

Pussyhands · 22-02-2022 1:55pm

I just finished watching it after a binge. Enjoyable. the best thing was watching the games and seeing them play out.

I didn't really pick up on many things people seemed to pick up on here so have a few questions:

Where did the money for the prize come from? Were the VIPs betting amongst themselves? Was the organ harvesting where the prize money came from?
I lost track of how the police man ended up getting on the boat to the island. I also didn't cop that 001 wasn't listed in the documents. He was looking for his brother that was missing for a month was it?

Couple of observations:

Annoyed me that main character (Gi hun?) didn't go and look after Pickpocket girls family like she asked. A year later and the money was untouched and he'd heading off the America.
I was wondering why Old Man wanted to win so badly to pay off his debt when he was so close to death, obviously answered at the end.
Old Man was taking a big risk. He could have easily died when someone pushed him when playing the first red light green light game. Shots were based on movement so he would have been dead. Aswell during the night when all hell broke loose he could have been murdered
It didn't say at the start whether there could be multiple winners. It's something I would have asked. They didn't seem to know as they seemed convinced several of them could get out.
Why did they let the annoying girl live when she wasn't paired with anyone
After the first one or two games, every game after that halved the number of contestants, so it would have crossed my mind when selecting a partner for the marbles game.
Koreans age well. The annoying woman is 45 in real life. The front man is 51.
There was no fat people in the games. Is there no fat people in Korea?
Gi Hun was willing to cancel the games with just two left. Why? He knew other guy would kill him if he got the chance.
And last but not least, the games went on for at least a number of days yet the men were all as clean shaven as the day they want in. :)

trashcan · 22-02-2022 10:12pm

I really enjoyed it, but I’m not sure a second season would work. Can’t just bring a new batch of people in to play more games, and now that the creator is revealed, would it even continue anyway ? Not sure where there is left for the story to go really, other than repeating itself.