It’s always fascinating to see how different cultures view the same product and just premiered Netflix drama Squid Game is generating opposite reactions from inside and outside South Korea. Unlike it’s predecessor D.P. (Deserter Pursuit) which got rave reviews and reception domestically, even reviving Jung Hae In‘s career and perception with K-netizens and rocketed Koo Kyu Hwan to a new level of recognition, Squid Game dropped on Friday and within a day the domestic reviews are really meh. The K-viewer feedback is that the acting is poor, Lee Jung Jae does not suit the male lead, the story and concept is not fresh and too similar to As the God’s Will, and the drama feels slick and lacks heart. On the opposite side, the international viewers are loving it as it’s currently #4 on the Netflix Worldwide chart and #10 on the US chart. I think I-audiences are not as familiar with similar Japanese manga stories like God’s Will and Alice in Borderland though Battle Royale the original movie was a cult hit in the US but that was over 20 years ago. I don’t mind that Squid Game is yet another take on people rounded up to play a deadly game conceit but I watched the first episode and found it really predictable even in all the beats and Gong Yoo‘s cameo didn’t even excite me, sadly enough. The best parts of some of the set design in the dorm used to house the contestants but the first game of Red Light, Green Light was not thrilling/scary at all as we knew who was going to survive and the faceless majority culled. I’ll give it another episode to see if it grabs me more.
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I disagree with everything the k-viewers said lol. Well, I do agree the premise has been done many times before, but I like this particular concept, and if it is done well, I don’t mind.
This reminds me of the Korean response to Sweet Home vs. the international.
Actually it’s not generally from a K-viewers,this is come from 10%/20% from 100% K-viewers. A lot of Korean have the same responded like international that thought it’s great/enjoy it. Well tbh Korean reality shows have the same concept about games in Squad Game, its just in Squad Game they plots in certain story like usually k-dramas/movies who is smart that with people emotions. When I watched it kinda flashed me back when i wacthed like running man/other korean games reality shows.
*that play with people emotions
*when I watched
I’ve seen some of these same complaints from some I-fans as well. Most especially the unoriginal concept and all-flash, no-heart part. I’ll watch it when I can and see if it works for me.
the complaints came from kinda like people who didn’t really like Korean movies/series kinda stuff. I found their comments under inter pages that posted about it
I personally loved it. Bad acting? Where/who? So confused lol.
Exactly lmfao I find the actors / actress great ,even tho the story isn’t new I was still invested
same here. i felt goosebumps seing the veteran actors’ acting. i can feel their desperation from their acting. a baeksang worthy performance. some ppls are blind.
I agree. It’s a fun watch so far and I dont see any bad acting from anyone (yet!). Who specifically is weak is this?
@wintergarden – maybe they’re talking about the foreign actors? They were indeed terrible.
I found the bad son actor overdoing it so much I couldn’t watch more than the first 10 minutes or so. When he’s asking for more money for the gift and when he’s looking for the mother’s credit card are two examples of the live theatre type of acting I can’t stand when it’s recorded.
Theaters need to be more obvious, series and films don’t. It’s a pity, I really wanted to line it
I agree with k-viewers, it was boring. I wasn’t attached to any of the characters, which I feel you need for a show of this genre. Also saw some said Lee Jung Jae was overacting, but isn’t that pretty normal in Korean dramas? lol
How are people blowing through 8+ hours of content so quickly? Everytime Netflix drops an original series I feel like I’m on a sprint to watch it.
So far, I like Squid Game and I’ve watched Alice in Borderland too. Acting is fine to me so don’t get the complaints.
Based on global performance, this is another success for Netflix,
I found the first couple episodes to be pretty good, just fun twisted games, then the games started becoming less creative and the poor writing started revealing itself. I can’t be the only one who found the last two episodes kinda forced and lame. Also I have always found Lee Jung Jae’s acting to be too exaggerated sometimes, same goes for this show, but mostly he wasn’t bad and had some good moments.
So yeah overall it was meh, I’ve seen shows and anime that did the genre better. I wasn’t even expecting entirely original creative content but there were too many ridiculous plot points. The sets were really beautiful though.
Squid Game. Slow beginning. Pretty good middle. Blah ending. But for me, still tons better than Alice in Borderland and Sweet Home. Both bored me to death.
Definitely agree that most of the twists were predictable. The only thing I didn’t get right was the brother. Because I was expecting someone younger.
The directing for me though was okay. Quite formulaic but executed quite well.
To me, it’s in the middle. Not too bad and I definitely agree on the lack of heart.
It would be esp difficult to find the originality for those who have watched Alice in Borderland and As God’s Will and truth to be told, Korean unlikely can beat Japanese when comes to this genre.
Already said my opinion in the last article so I agree with the kfans 100% lol i liked GY cameo though, he’s really charming onscreen hopefully his netflix series is good
I agree it was just okay especially in comparison to Alice in Borderland which was based on a good manga and adapted well but I have no clue what they are talking about bad acting. LSJ’s acting made sense for his character, I didn’t for a second think he was overacting Sounds like some of them are just piling on it. And I was excited about Gong Yoo because he has his own Netflix show coming up so it got me hyped!
I did not expect THAT cameo at the end.
It was a good watch, but nothing groundbreaking. Retread of same territory.
Also think LSJ and everyone else’s acting was fine. Especially liked the girl.
It is alright but it falls to the same things in Kdrama, exciting beginning and then become more lackluster as it progresses
They think it was plagiarized from a Japanese film/manga.
This kind of drama always uses the same characters : the villain, the crazy, the traitor, etc. In this case, I didn’t feel attached to any characters. I already knew who will win. The identity of the guy with the black mask wasn’t a surprised, for the actor, I remembered thinking that the voice seemed familiar to me, so when we could see his face, I knew why!
It wasn’t a great drama.
It was okay for me, not bad but not best either but recomend for anyone who didnt watch this genre before.
I wholeheartedly agree that it lacks heart and as a diehard fan of these kind of genre, there’s really nothing fresh or exciting. All the games they played were meh and the plot weak. I presume the poor acting is from those 6 VIPs. So cringy. ALSO, you would expect that security would be super vigilant so I was left dumbfounded when the police guy managed to tail undetected?!?!? and sneak into the place. The way that scene played out is soooooo dumb. Smh. There are other plot holes too but I’ll leave it in case of spoilers.
I just want to add that maybe 9 episodes is a bit too long. 6 episodes has been the gold standard for Netflix k-dramas thus far and IMO that’s perfect.
I just want to add that maybe 9 episodes is a bit too long. 6 episodes has been the gold standard for Netflix k-dramas thus far and IMO that’s perfect length.