Watched to the end. I enjoyed the season, my daughter less so. She felt the characters lacked back stories like they had in season one (some of them anyway). CGI baby seemed more like a prop to me than anything else. A complication, if you will, especially for Gi-Hun. The cop was mostly a diversion. There was an interesting shift in the perspective of front man at the end, which was cool, because I think he’s one of the most interesting characters. Not nearly as much screen time as he had in season 2.
I can’t see how this story is going to work in the US and A.
My major question of this season is did they dub English actors with Korean actors speaking English for the VIPs or something? Why did they all sound so awful? Like they had no actual understanding of the words they were speaking and were just saying sounds. So bizarre!
Because the number of half-way decent non-Korean actors working in Korea (who can take direction in Korean) is limited. They were just not very good actors. They were also probably reading from a script (badly) translated from Korean.
It’s also a bit of a thankless role. They are there to represent a cruel and detached privileged class, and provide exposition, while having most of their face covered. We’d probably find them annoying even if played by a good actor (which they clearly aren’t).
There are a few bits of writing / direction that could have helped with this IMO:
Firstly in the episode where they were helping with “cleanup”, someone should have been shaken up by the experience.
Secondly, in general there should be times where they find one or more deaths unpleasant . Even people capable of great evil have times where they felt some degree of pity or disgust. OK, not everyone is capable of those emotions but I didn’t really buy a whole room of people with the same level of absolute psychopathy.
Thirdly, as a minor thing, there should be a bit more excitement about the games themselves; there were token statements of “Wow you’ve really put on a show”, or whatever, then on with the betting. I think they would either be awe-struck if it’s their first time seeing the games, or excited to see what the games are, if they are returners
Finally, when poochie is not on screen, they should ask “where’s poochie?”
(IOW I’m aware I might be asking a lot with this shopping list)
Okay. Reading a few articles online it looks like it depends on what version you were watching. If you were watching it in Korean with English subtitles like I did you get the VIP actors undubbed (with the exception of a little bit of corrective overdubbing). It’s the versions where Korean was dubbed into other languages by Netflix where it gets weird. In some of these versions the company contracted by Netflix to do the dubbing apparently took it upon themselves to dub everything, even the VIPs. There was also the matter that the VIP scenes were filmed in a vacuum with nothing to actually react to except each other and the Front Man all of whom were 30 feet and two masks away from one another. It doesn’t sound like they even had playback of the game scenes they were supposed to be reacting to. So, yeah. Bad acting, but also a lot of just plain bad direction and production.
What games would they use in the US? Tug of war, hide and seek, and jump rope can carry over. I suppose red rover and tag could be adapted to murderous intent. But what else?
They also used games that are similar to jacks and hacky sack in season 2.
The USA has no shortage of familiar children’s toys and games to use as the basis for killing. Mousetrap? Beyblades? Slot cars? Hungry Hungry Hippos? Perfection? Cat’s cradle? Tag?
So, the rules… Two teams set up in two large circles. You leave the circle, you get shot.
Some random event determines who plays first. That team gets three lawn darts, which they throw at the other team. The other team tries to avoid getting killed by the darts. After all three are thrown, the second team throws them back at the first team.
Last team standing wins. The question now is how many people per team, and how large are the circles?
Oh, right. Yeah, I noticed the USA version was apparently using the same game.
I think the best decision a US version could do is to come up with their own stuff for the main games and make it a continuation or as “happening separately in the same universe” type thing.
I think almost everything I love about Squid Game derives from the cultural differences in dramatic aesthetics. I like it because it is bat shit crazy and preposterous. I’m almost certain I would be disappointed by a version primarily made by Americans for an American audience. I loved the original Japanese version of Iron Chef with the eccentric chairman Kaga. Or the original Japanese version of Ninja Warrior where the participants apologize profusely for failing the course. I lost all interest in those shows when they were specifically made by and for Americans.
I’d be interested in seeing a bunch of non-American VIPs making fun of the players, though. Have them look as weird to our sensibilities as the VIPs in the original probably looked to the Korean audience.
As for games: Hot Potato. The potato is a bomb, of course.