0:00 Hello! I'm Reese, and I'm so excited you decided to join me again on Adventure With Me today! On the Adventure With Me podcast, we look at creations and experiences in art media music and even video games to explore exactly why we think the way we think question what we believe and learn something new.
And what better media to talk about than squid game squid game is netflix's hottest new show as of now, which is probably… incorrect. Because, I know people have already moved on to Hellbound. Which is the newest popular K-drama. But hey, So it WAS Netflix's hottest show. I’'m usually tardy to the party. So here we are!
The show deals with a lot of moral issues considering the worth of a human life, the struggles that not only come with poor socioeconomic class but also with behavioral addictions such as gambling addiction. And I do want to add that the series does a great job at depicting how crime is sometimes the only alternative for people who are vulnerable and desperate to survive. So many people ignore what a huge influence inequality does have in crime and how it perpetuates crime. Specifically, this is ignored by people in power as it's convenient for their narrative.
1: 28 So, it's pretty clear that this show exists as a commentary of the downsides of capitalism and the economic inequality that is caused by the capitalistic system & the illusion of choice. So, squid game is just fun! Right? It's it's just, fun to watch!
It was released in September of 2021. It's totally a bingeable series. If you're looking for something to do on a Sunday. Because, that's exactly what I did. I watched all nine episodes.It's a nine part series , and I watched all nine episodes in one day. In a sunday. And it was fantastic. I don't regret this decision.
Right now, it only has one season. So, you have about roughly eight hours of content to consume. So, it's just all in a day's work right? So squid game, being such a worldwide phenomenon we're gonna get into the show's depictions of human nature violence for monetary gain and desperation versus addiction so of course we're gonna get into some like korean cultural nuances that you may have missed if you're not familiar with Korean culture or if you watch the dubbed version which has some notable differences.
As always, full source notes are available on hewworeese.com that's the h-e-w-w-o r-e-e-s-e dot com. So first, just in case if you haven't seen it i'm gonna set the scene for you really quick. Plus, if you just binged it, you know, like I did in a Sunday afternoon… a recap would probably do you some good.
So in a nutshell 456 people are invited to play a series of children's games and they agree because they are desperate to win money, but what they do not know upon entering this game is that if they lose they are eliminated. Which means killed. By elimination, it means they are killed. So, if you die in the game you die in real life. Insert meme here, you know?
3:35 The game features Song GiHun, who is a divorced father, in crippling debt, who may be about to lose contact with his daughter. Like, can you get any more Korean drama than that? Can you? No. You cannot. So, if he can't get his life together, his daughter, her stepfather, and her mother are going to be moving to the United States. When GiHun figures this out, he's desperate to try and fix his monetary situation. And if he can prove he can financially provide for his daughter he can attempt to seek custody.
Why does he have a money problem? There can be tons of different things. We are introduced fairly quickly that it is because he has a crippling gambling addiction. So because of this gambling addiction, he wants to prove he can provide for his daughter. All right. What does he do? Well, he tries to make a fortune by gambling. That's what he does. Then he owes money to dangerous people, or “bookies”.These people want to get paid back and they threaten GiHun with violence by beating him up in a dirty bathroom, and they threaten to kill him if he doesn't get their money back within a month.
The bookies make GiHun sign a waiver that waves away his human rights. Which by the way, is illegal. That is illegal using common law, if anyone tries to make you sign a form where you consent to illegal activity it is invalid. I don't think you guys are out there, you know, signing documents um where you consent to illegal activity. But hey. Just in case. Throwing that out there.
5:07 So, the very same day GiHun’s life was signed away to the dangerous gangsters he owes money to, a mysterious man approaches GiHun on the subway. And he wants to play a game. Now this is not saw vibes. YET. But, this mysterious beautiful man, who goes unnamed in this show but the actor's name is Gong Yoo. Cultural note here,Gong Yoo is like, super famous like, he was in a coffee prince in like 2007. Before starring in like other really popular stuff like train to Busan. Which everyone knows. So, with getting this tiny role in this netflix special. People are all like “Oh my gosh there has to be a squid game 2! ”. “There has to be a sequel!” Or Gong Yoo, you know, has to play a bigger part. So, i'm really excited for the next season because I love Gong Yoo.
So, Gong Yoo offers to play a game of Ddakji. So, it's the the square game where they're flipping over the paper right? Players try to flip their opponent's paper tiles with their own. In squid game, the loser owes the winner a hundred dollars and if the other player can't pay, they get slapped! Gong Yoo basically uses the game to test how far each player is willing to go to win money. And this is pretty much, like, setting the tone for the rest of the series.
So, a little tip on Ddakji, the game is not necessarily about strength, but about angles, aim for the edge of the paper to flip it over! So, GiHun ends up winning all of Gong Yoo’s money. And I cannot believe it! Gong Yoo offers “Hey, you know, you could win a lot of money competing in more games like this!” And Gong Yoo gives GiHun a business card. This is the business card where you call to join the squid game.
Now GiHun is ready to just take his money and run. Like, he's like, nah I don't know what kind of cult you're from buddy, but no thanks Gong Yoo. And Gong Yoo is like: “OH. That's funny. Because didn't you sign your life's rights away to those gangsters today?” Gong Yoo knows everything about GiHun. Why would he know that? He knows his places of employment, the amount of debt he owes. He has no choice. And for some reason, doesn't think this is as sus as as it is. He calls the number on the card, and he joins the game.
7:75 Now at this point, Gihun has 1.) Stolen from his elderly mother who he lives with in order to go gamble by betting on horses. 2.) In order to buy his daughter a birthday present he plays chappongi or the claw machine. Betting everything that he has in order to win a small albeit worthless prize for his daughter. And 3.) Now he's being slapped silly byGong Yoo here in order to win some cash.
Now GiHun’s gambling addiction it is in full swing. Okay. And what squid game interestingly does really well is paints a picture of GiHun’s life as a gambling addict. And it's interesting to note that casinos are actually illegal in Korea. The only legal forms of gambling in South Korea are the lottery, horse racing, boat racing, and cycling. Casinos however, are prohibited. And they do exist in Korea, but they're for foreigners only. Local nationals can face jail time for playing in tourist-aimed casinos. And culture-wise, squid game really hones in the comedy of this irony.
So considering gambling as a behavioral addiction. What does that mean? Addiction professionals recognize that certain non-substance behaviors such as gambling, internet use, video game playing, eating, & shopping bear resemblance to alcohol and drug dependence. So addiction has been proposed to have several defining components which is: diminishing self-control, compulsive engagement, continued engagement, and an appetite or urge for that behavior.
And this makes contestants like GiHun PERFECT for this squid game.As squid game creates a competitive atmosphere, where contestants are vetted to be sure that they're willing to endure punishment for this game, and who are susceptible to impulse. And they exploit people's socioeconomic status here, because they are in crippling debt. Essentially, backing people into a corner. So then, with this, GiHun decides to join the squid game. And here we go into the games! And the first game is red light green light! So in korean it's: 무궁화 꽃 이 피었 습니다 or the hibiscus flower has bloomed.
9:56 So, when all of these people first play this game, and someone expectedly moves and loses the game. There are motion detectors in the room and the moving players get shot. The player who loses the game gets eliminated, or killed. People start panicking, running, motion detectors going off. Crazy. People getting killed left and right. And there's this massacre, but there's also a timer. The contestants have five minutes and if they don't win the game within the time frame they get eliminated.
10: 28 Half of the contestants make it out alive of this game, and if the majority of people want to end the game they get to leave. And it's revealed that many of the contestants have families, and spouses, and basically reasons to live. Because they must take care of their family. With this, the remaining living contestants are allowed to leave but they're also allowed to come back to the game and participate in the games for the chance of winning the cash prize.
So now, we're hit with this moral dilemma. People who are playing the game have chosen. You know? They seemingly have chosen to be a part of the squid games. But, with the type of people who are recruited --- the people who are recruited into these games, they basically have two choices. 1.) Live your life the same in this economic hardship. Or 2.) have this small opportunity to have 38 million dollars at the expense of 455 other people's lives, but YOU don't have to live in poverty.
Seeing the squalor, and the desperation that these people are in. Ali being exploited by his boss. GiHun’s mom in medical debt, SaeByeok’s family is caught across the border in North Korea and she needs to pay for a broker from China to sneak her family out. These are not dramatized in any way. These are real family struggles. Whose issues in their lives need to be solved by money. These are things that you can't control in your life. With money that is supposed to *poof* just pop up out of nowhere? You can't work yourself out of those situations.
People who are like advocates of capitalism are always saying, you know, you have the choice to work hard. And if you work hard, you get rewarded. You know, that's this this ---narrative that comes along with capitalism. The squid games show us that economic growth always comes at the expense of others. So, we have these two competing narratives here.
So this illusion of choice is strengthened when as a part of the rules of the squid games. If the majority votes that they can leave the games will end. But, they will be invited back. So this notion of choice in capitalism is something that's really pushed on you. In American education at least. You can choose to work more, you can choose to work harder. You can choose to earn more.
13:20 We can kind of see, like, how capitalism and its illusion of choice works within these games. For example, The VIP’s use the illusion of choice to gain control over the situations. When people find out if you lose the games you die, The VIP’s saw that there was a crowd of panic. And they were almost uncontrollable. And then, they were like “Okay you guys can leave. You guys can go, you have the choice to go. And you can come back. And this illusion of choice was created through this democratic process of a vote. And with the majority rule, they followed through, had people leave, and we had the majority of people come back. And i think it's this commentary on how democracy and capitalism and this illusion of choice can be used to exploit people into thinking that they have a chance for a better life when there honestly is no alternative.
And i've heard some critiques say that the illusion of choice was given to the squid game players so the VIP’s can feel better about themselves, you know? Since the players chose to come back, you know. Now the VIPs can be like “Oh, see!” “We're not forcing them to do anything!” But, I don't think that's it at all. I think this is about control. If people think they're in control themselves, they'll follow the rules that are given to them. Giving the squid game members a vote, but putting them under conditions that make them want to come back controls the hysteria. It controls the behavior. But it does allow the VIPs to have a type of willful ignorance, if they wish, like “Oh, they came back, all right, game on :)” But, I do think that the main end game is not the VIPs having this moral wash, it's definitely about control.
14:59 And this illusion of choice is touted a lot in American conservative economic arguments, like “Oh capitalism is a free market, with equal opportunity, and so that's kind of like their baseline argument. Since there is a standard of free public education up to 18, “It's free! You can go to a cheap community college, and get a degree!” It over simplifies the lifestyle of someone in poverty, as if poverty is something you can work your way out of. When honestly, it's much much harder than that.
15:32 Sangwoo graduated from Seoul National University. That's kind of like, the equivalent of like a Harvard graduate, right? So, he ends up betraying Ali in the marble game. And this is a great parallel to see how not only people in poverty struggle as well, you know, it's people of privilege too. And people with privilege come with their own stressors as well. Then I thought that was really interesting for squid game to do that. It shows that even people who seemingly have it all, who graduated from Seoul National University, they still fall prey to keeping up with appearances. Like, (SangWoo) putting your (his) mom's business on the line because you wanted to invest into something. Wanting like, the need and feeling like you need more and more and more. Like when does it end?
But Sangwoo you know, in a lot of people's eyes he achieved the top achievement. He went to SNU. It's the equivalent prestige of like Harvard or MIT in Korea. And it's said that if you go to a SKY university, your life is set. These are like, three different universities. Seoul National University, Korea University, or Yonsei. If you go there, your life is made. You're, you're fine now. Yet, we see him attempting suicide before he's invited to the squid game in the bathtub scene. Where he seemed partially submerged underwater while wearing a suit. It briefly like, the screen briefly showed like a briquette by his side. And this is like a type of fuel or heat source which is associated with poverty and has been used by Koreans as a means to commit suicide, by inhaling toxic fumes.
So, then SangWoo resorts to these inhumane tactics to beat out the competition before ultimately dying by suicide. Which I guess is ironic, his character makes me upset. Coupled with the prestige of his job, and his education, it leaves viewers to think about the costs of high achievements, and the pressure of high achievements. And he seemingly had everything, yet he was greedy or pressured? We're not sure.
17:47 And another thing, we can like talk about here with cultural nuances. There's this type of like---like some people might think of bankruptcy is an individual financial failure. Like maybe if someone is bankrupt here in the states, you don't--- you don't attribute bankruptcy to like a moral failing here, in the states. Sometimes, it's just like, your business didn't work out or something. But there's a different perception in like Asian, or Korean culture.
This can be explained by academics themselves, so there is a Kim Saeji from Yonsei University who is given an interview about the squid game. And she stated that bankruptcy in South Korea can be defined as not as a chance to start over, but as a devastating fate that is underlined in squid game. Saeji said, when contestants are given the option to leave--- but choose to keep playing even at the risk of their own lives, in the regular world, it's not just about the death of their body it's the death of their pride. It's the shame of having to be in such an unsuccessful position as an unsuccessful person in front of your family, she said. So, with kim Saeji’s explanation, we can see that comparatively from western culture perspective to koreans, the option of financial freedom versus death. I mean, like, you might as well die if you're going to have to commit bankruptcy because it's so shameful.
From an American perspective, I don't think people who are bankrupt, like we make moral judgments on that. But, of course that's probably subjective. This is really interesting considering South Korea's household debt rates, which are actually very very high. And knowing that like, economic reality of people who are in this outrageous household debt, it just brings some perspective towards how you know people who watch the squid game would feel.
South Korea ranks as one of the countries with the highest household debt in the world. The competitors in squid game are technically given multiple opportunities to choose whether or not they want to play, but just like in real life, crippling debt limits your realistic options. In order to even pay rent on an apartment, there's something called “key money” in Korea. Where you have to put down a deposit of say like 10 000 USD to ensure a lower rent amount. So, out of pocket, people are having to pay thousands of dollars for not only--- just raise their children, and clothe them, and feed them. But to educate them, to house them, and it's this huge huge burden.
20:29 So, some more explanations for high household debt in Korea can also be attributed to the significant number of workers hired on temporary contracts, with really low wages and no benefits--- if any. Which results in like, this really high inequality in wage income. So like, for example, I didn't have any friends who had career jobs. They had jobs based on like six months to a year contract.
Korea has also this aging demographic, as we explained earlier, and the elderly require health care and even though Korea does have national health care, it's not free. And if you're aren't able to work at all, and you grew up in a system where jobs don't give this these like huge amounts of benefits, and then you can't save up a nest egg. You--- What are you left with?
21:21 So now, I think, it's important to first touch on the experience someone got because of the decision of how they decided to watch the show. So sub vs dub. When this came out, there was lot of discourse over the internet about the“best way” to consume the show. Some people say that english subtitles don't give the show justice and that the dub is even worse. Now, I watched it in Korean with english subtitles, I'm not a fluent Korean speaker, I didn't grow up in Korea, but I do speak conversational Korean, therefore I was able to pick up on some differences and based on my experience of working and going to college in Korea for four years. And I also got my master's degree there. So, that's where I'm coming from with my input here. It's hard to get correct nuances with subtitles, just, in general. And, the funny thing is--- about the sub vs dub debate is that subs and dubs vary widely based on language. For example, as an English speaker, it's easy to stay within this bubble of english media, movies, tv shows, because there's so much content produced in english. But for example, living in California, I have a lot of spanish-speaking friends. And they shared with me, well, that in mexico, that dubbing is known as art. And they're actually really great at dubbing, and they their voice actors are internationally famous. And apparently, the intentions of the dialogue in a dub is greatly considered.
So, I would imagine that the sentiment of consuming media dubbed varies greatly from country to country. Now, as an english speaker, it's kind of like, looked down upon to watch things dubbed, i guess. And maybe, that's because of ---that english language bubble. It's like, this weird sentiment that english speakers have. I love foreign films, I really enjoy bollywood, and Thai movies too! Like the ongbak series, and bad genius is literally one of my favorite films. And sometimes subtitles can keep cultural nuances in the subs and it's still kind of intelligible, you can like google it if there's a phrase that you're not familiar with. So, subjectively, i'm okay with a like descriptive complicated subtitles. Like sometimes you see that with Japanese or Chinese subs in english---that come with little cultural notes.
So, for what it's worth, could the subs for squid game have been better? Sure. But, it's understandable why they didn't put cultural nuances. Because you have to understand the audience. It's on Netflix. Like, people aren't trying to sit there, also on google, and look up Korean cultural nuance, and like phrases, while they watch this tv show. So, they're targeting the subs towards the passive viewer, so, at this point, I think it's more of a stylistic choice. Like, do they want the subs for the viewer to understand the cultural nuances, or do their creators want like a passive layman who's maybe never heard the Korean language before to be able to enjoy the content on its own.
I know that that might be kind of a hottake, and I'd love to hear what you guys think about it in the comments, if you are watching this on youtube! I love to have informed discussions with you guys! You guys are so much fun:)
25:14 Some notable nuances that get lost in translation, I noticed, were from the characters Ali. The man from Pakistan, and SaeByeok, the player number 67, who was from North Korea. So first, Ali. Ali's language skills were not fluent, but I can confidently say they were fantastic. Like, he was so good! He can express himself, follow directions so well, and I say this because foreigners have this kind of stereotype in korea--- um of basically not knowing Korean. Especially the people who work in manual labor. They're thought of as like--- and this, of course, not everyone thinks of this--- but it is a stereotype, that they don't speak Korean. And it's safe to say, that Ali's limited language skills are not a problem. He's able to ask the definition of words and understand the description to understand that Korean word.
And there are nuances in the way that Ali uses the Korean language, as he's really really respectful. So, this honorific--- respectful way of speaking, is something that's really difficult to translate because it's not really something, like a word that you translate, it's a concept. Since names differentiate depending on the relationship to the person being addressed, the subtitles show that Ali kept calling Sangwoo “sir” and the more accurate translation to the word that they said in korean which is like “boss” which is a respectful, but awkward word to use in this context.
The context that you lose is that Ali using this really really respectful language--- is endearing and something that I can personally empathize with, because being over polite is a really safe way to act, and it's always more comfortable to seem more respectful than disrespectful, as someone who's like considered an outsider and where negative stereotypes are attributed to you based on the way you look. You want to present yourself in the best way.
There was some misunderstandings of like, hierarchy going on, when people evaluated this on the internet. I’'ve seen arguments with Ali referring to like these other Korean men as sajangnim or “sir” and you know, everyone knows that he's a foreigner, he's obviously a foreigner, and this was misinterpreted for Ali being in a position of lower class, and being a victim of colorism. And i've seen these arguments and…I see where they're coming from. But I believe that they may be misunderstood in the context of this squid game contestant's relationship. Ali referring to like everyone as sajangnim, you can tell that it makes other people uncomfortable too. Like, they even say like “Oh… I'm not your boss… like why--- why are you like talking to me like this.”
But as a non-korean speaker, there are so many honorific mistakes that you can make. Honorifics are so important culturally, that you stress yourself out and refer to people as like really like in the highest form that you can just to avoid any sort of accidental conflict. Like, and I know that because that's that's what i've done too. I think this culture clashing, and type of like, reality of being a foreigner in Korea is something that is shown really well in squid game. And I actually really like to see Ali's relationship in comparison to the rest of the characters.
Foreign people in Korean media, are usually like, the wealthy people, usually white Americans or Europeans visiting Korea on vacation. And they don't like speak korean. Right? And so, it's really cool to see Ali as just a player in the game. He was just a citizen in Korea, just trying to work and make a life for himself. So, in that kind of way, it it equalizes Ali on the same playing field as the rest of the players. He's just somebody who is struggling to make ends meet, and so is everybody else.
30:04 I’'ve seen a lot of people critique Ali a lot. This is a quote from Uju Anya who says “Please explain why squid game portrays the only non-korean main character as a brown-skinned man who the entire time snivels and sirs gratitude sacrifice and subservience”. So, this is how the subtitles can fail us, because Ali's “sirs” were not of subservience, they were of respect. They were of someone who was trying to you know, fit in. And with everyone else. And I think this can be further be shown when the same man who betrays Ali with the rocks in the marbles game tells Ali to call him “hyung”. It's a huge thing, in like korean culture, that you might not understand by just reading the subs. I noticed that they basically ignored the word “hyung” which is sort of like slang-ish but also endearing for males to call other males, right? It's really hard to translate these type of honorific concepts directly into english as there's no like hierarchical gendered term. I think I can comfortably say that we don't have direct word translations so “bro” for hyung I guess, are the best that you can do without explaining the concepts. Even when he realizes he's being betrayed because of the marble game, he shouts “hyung” because Ali just sees the best in people.
And Sangwoo’s betrayal isn't done on the basis of Ali being a foreigner, or on the basis of colorism. Sangwoo betrays everyone at this point. You have to remember who he is. He put his mom's shop up as collateral for his stock market debts. Sangwoo is horrible to people who he's supposed to protect, who he's supposed to love--- like his family, and his mother. Ali is also a victim of his betrayal, and Ali is being exploited by Sangwoo because Ali is kind. And despite being exploited by Koreans in his workplace, by not getting paid , that's why he joined the squid game ---his his experience with his Korean co-workers and boss doesn't carry over that hatred into the squid game. He harbors no ill will towards Korean people themselves.
And Sangwoo betrays Ali not because he's not Korean. These things go deeper than what these characters look like, and I think just seeing the subtitles and maybe not understanding the the subtext of what's going on this is how the subtitles can fail us. For me, Ali's character was heartwarming and honest Ali’s mistreatment in this series felt like the writer's intent to criticize the exploitation of kind hard-working immigrants. When we are given a flash into Ali's home in Korea we're even introduced to his wife and children. And you can see there are Korean books and Hangul the Korean writing system for children posted on his walls. He's trying to be a part of the korean community, by working hard in his manual labor job and understanding not only korean culture, but the language and sharing that with his family, and teaching his child.
I believe Ali's character is an excellent and unique way to portray the struggles of a Korean migrant worker. It's really important to realize that when you're reading subs and watching media in a language you don't understand the nuances in language differ from a western lens. And sometimes people can make sweeping generalizations without understanding the nuances of culture and that's okay. I don't think what she [Uju Anya] did was necessarily of malice or bad. What she was trying to do is stand up for someone. But I see this situation based differently off of my own experiences, and I would love to hear what you guys have to say too.
34:35 Moving on with Ali, Ali is exploited through his work in korea, and like most asian countries, Korea has held a lot of economic isolationist policies within its history. Foreign immigrants were first allowed into South Korea in 1993. Mostly because Korea's rapid development made it impossible to fill all of those like blue collar jobs in manufacturing in construction and agriculture. So, these so-called industrial trainees began coming to the country from other places in Asia seeking better opportunities. And a lot of the time the situation is unfortunately exploitative, especially when we're talking about labor that is manual labor or blue collar work.
Ali is exploited through his work in Korea, and it is revealed that his boss hasn't paid him in six months. This type of labor exploitation is a huge problem worldwide really, but there's a common labor scam in Asia. So, for example, places like Korea & Japan are both aging societies. So, they have more elderly people than workers. And so, in countries that have this issue, but also have high GDP’s such as Korea and Japan, the able-bodied workforce is less likely to want to do manual labor because of the low wages. So, they have to import labor. This means, more able-bodied younger people notably from countries such as the Philippines, Pakistan, Vietnam, want to move out of their countries into countries who are willing to pay higher wages--- such as Korea.
So, since you have this group of people who are so willing, and have the ability to do these manual labor jobs, unfortunately this is how they are exploited, because of their desperation. So, this is how their labor can be exploited. 1.) Your employer takes your passport. For example, a Filipina woman is asked to come into the country to be a nanny. And when they come into the country, they [the employer] takes their passport. The worker is asked to give their passport as they need to compile the documents necessary to process their visa paperwork, or manage or translate their materials, and now that the person does not have their passport and they're not given their passport back by the employer, they can pay you low wages, or sometimes lower wages to what you agreed with, because you are now literally trapped inside the country. This might be an explanation on why Ali could not have left the country despite not being paid for six months as he told his wife and daughter to leave the country, his employer may have taken his passport. Which is a very common scam.
There are visa scams where people come into the country and the employer knows that the particular visa that they are promising they can't legally get paid with their visa. So, they might be coming in on a holiday visa, and they're saying “Oh, well… once you get in. and you get started working… don't worry, we'll change it over.” And they never do. And that visa expires, within the three to six months they are allowed to stay in the country, and then they are deported. After having done all of the work, and all of the manual labor.
If you're a migrant worker, you're not going to have that money to sue. And there's this fear that also comes with you being in a different country. And that, you know, you rather just cut your losses and just go home to your home country.
38:32 So, moving on from Ali as a character, into different characters in the show, we also have oversimplified translations from Minyeo. But, those already went viral. We all saw Youngmi Mayor's viral post on Instagram, but I think it's originally from TikTok? In the scene where she tries to convince the other players to be her partner, so Minyeo’s like trying to to assure her survival by getting a good partner, right?
The subtitles translate one of her lines to say “I'm not a genius, but I still got it to work out.” What she actually said was I am very smart I just never got a chance to study. That is a huge, that is a huge trope in Korean media. The poor person that's smart and clever, and just isn't wealthy that's a huge part of her character. And almost everything she says is like being botched translation wise, but you just missed like the writers--- all they want you to know about her is that you know what I mean? It seems so small, but it's like the entire character's purpose of being in the show.
And Youngmi Mayor argues that the butchered translation fails to capture this popular trope in Korean media where a poor person is smart and clever, they're just not wealthy. So, they're not able to be like successful. So, we have this concept kind of in english too which she doesn't bring up. It's like being street smart instead of book smart. Now, that in itself is like a colloquialism as well, and it's not you know a direct translation because it still has that korean cultural nuance. But, this is a way in which i see the subtitles could have captured that nuance a little bit better. For example, if the subtitle would have said “I'm very smart, but I never got a chance to study.” An american person with their culture may not have known that uh like nuance in the translation would have come across as like clunky. But if the subtitles said like “Oh, I'm smart! I'm street smart, I'm just not book smart. That would have made the nuance come across a little bit--- a little bit better, and still have some personality and some flavor.
Albeit, people still probably would have torn that apart and said that the translation could have been better, but that's okay! Because that's correct. And you know, I think to talk about these cultural nuances isn't important. And the subtitles aren't always going to be a correct reflection on what the characters are going to say. There's always going to be some more nuance and I don't think that that means like the subtitles are bad or something. It's just room for conversation and something where we can like share knowledge with each other without this type of like anger and outrage towards the subtitles or the people creating them. Youngmi explains this so well, and I'm such a fan of hers, and I want to give credit where credit is due and her video is linked in the show notes. Not that she like needs me, she's like brilliant and everything but still you know credit where credit is due.
I saw a lot of people think that Minyeo was annoying. But, I kind of liked her! She was good at finding ways to survive on the spot, you know? Her character was great! And I think that her personality traits may come from the strategies that she probably had to use in real life to survive. She must have had a really hard time in life and got through that based on like you know being like a cute lady, or a cute woman, or with her sexuality. And I would have loved to see some backstory.
And we know that we're getting a season two of squid game, so hopefully we'll see. I mean, maybe not because like… they died, but I mean, we'll see. Overall, I think the concepts of things being lost in translation are true for both the subs and the dubs. And I don't think that's an inherently bad thing, or anyone is like behind all these subtitlers and translation like technologies being like “hahaha no one's gonna know this cultural nuance”.
42:29 I think it's great that people are open to watch content from around the world, and be able to like consume it in their own language whether it be dubbed or subbed. I think it's just important to also keep an open mind and question things and be willing to have meaningful conversations and perhaps not take things at their face value because you might be misinterpreting something. These conversations don't need to be battlefields as I've seen talks about subs and dubs be sometimes. It's okay to have preferences, and it's okay to think things like can get better.
But overall, we all really enjoyed squid game right? Let's just talk about it! And even from my own perspective, I don't know everything about Korean culture, obviously. I don't know everything about american culture. Those were just the things I picked up as someone who lived in both places for a few years, and I'd love to hear the things that you guys picked up onto in the comments if you're watching on YouTube, and if you're listening to the podcast--- send me an email! Do it! Join my discord. Send me a DM on Instagram.
43:55 That being said too, just because something is unfamiliar and foreign doesn't always mean that there's a deeper cultural context. And there's tons of foreign media where it can be taken at more face value and it's important not to over exotify different cultures and be like “Oh, well just because this is foreign and I don't understand it… it must be deeper”. Like, that's that's not fair. Assuming there's much more complexity in art or media because it is foreign is also disrespectful and that over exotification is something that people need to be wary of too. And you know, we see that in Afong Moy’s case in the last show.
We just need to be able to think deeper we can be interested in things that are unfamiliar, but also like give credit where credit is due. So, as we can see though there's a lot of cultural nuances in squid game the common thread of foreign worker inequality, exploitation through capitalism, that's a common thread that can be empathized with like past cultural boundaries. Like I really really enjoyed this series. I didn't super enjoy all of the gore, but that was scawy, but, it was fun!
And I think how popular battle royale games are is really interesting. And how there's always this theme of like childhood games involved… And i'm definitely going to be doing another Adventure With Me on that. Like, the implications of having childhood imagery and with battle games ---which are usually of people of desperation or teens or kids. And just like really talk about like why that's something that people across like culture and language why is that something that that people like to watch? Gosh, just talking about all this it's so overwhelming. And i'm scaring myself, and i need to go hug my cat! Okay guys, this was really fun! Let me know what you thought about everything in the comments, and okay love you bye :)