In the middle of Squid Game season 3, the character Geum-ja makes an impassioned plea to the remaining players to vote to leave the games, so they can save their own lives and the life of the baby who was born in the midst of all this chaos. Geum-ja, an older woman who just lost her son, is played by Kang Ae-sim, and her performance brought me near to tears. I think she was the standout actor on that season.
And then we would get a scene with the VIPs, the heartless billaionaires who get their kicks watching the players kill each other. I don't think I'm alone in saying that the acting for the VIPs was so wooden and lifeless that it took me straight out of the moment. I couldn't believe these VIP scenes were happening in the same show where Kang Ae-sim was giving multiple heart-breaking monologues per episode. We were supposed to hate the VIPs, sure, but this wasn't hate; this was cringe.
What happened? Bryan Bucco, who played the VIP in the eagle mask, shed some light on the situation when responding to a TikTok video. “Those are the English dubs. I was the actual actor. What’s being played here isn’t my voice,” Bucco wrote.
Unlike the rest of the characters, the VIPs speak mainly in English, and apparently all the actors were dubbed over. “I think whoever is contracted to do the dubbing, does ALL of the dubbing," Bucco wrote. "The Korean version shouldn’t have English dubs. If there are some in the Korean version, it would have to be due to specific lines having to be re-recorded for clarity.”
Why were the actors dubbed over by other performers? That's not clear, although Bucco admits that it may not have made a huge difference. “The lines along are weird so it's not going to sound great either way," he wrote. He's not kidding; remember when the one VIP takes off his mask after killing a wounded player and then says, "Mamma Mia"? Generally, I thought Squid Game writer-director Hwang Dong-hyuk did a great job mounting this season, but everything seemed to fall apart when it came to the VIPs.
The VIPs remind the creator of Squid Game of Elon Musk
And that's a shame, because the VIPs are important to the show's central metaphor. Squid Game is all about how to survive in a world where the richest people on the planet are taking an increasingly large share of the pie and making everyone else fight for scraps. Speaking to TIME, Hwang Dong-hyuk admitted to some real-world comparisons.
“Elon Musk is everywhere these days, right? Everybody talks about him,” Hwang said. “Not only is he the head of a huge tech company that controls the world almost, but he’s also this showman. After writing [Season 3], of course I thought, ‘Oh, some of the VIPs do kind of resemble Elon Musk.’”
Hwang also explained why, this season, the VIPs were more actively involved in the games. “In the past, those that really controlled the system and maintained power, they were hidden behind the curtain, almost like this big unseen conspiracy,” he said. “However, it’s no longer the case, especially in America. We talk a lot about oligarchy these days, but these so-called big tech owners, they step up, telling everyone who they’re backing with their money. The people who really control the power and the system, they no longer hide behind a curtain. They willingly take their masks off, almost as if to declare, ‘We’re the ones running everything. We’re the ones in control.’”
Squid Game star finishes Gi-hun's final words
Getting into the good parts of Squid Game season 3, star Lee Jung-jae (Gi-hun) talked to The Hollywood Reporter about what he felt was the message of the show. "What I hoped the audience would feel through watching Gi-hun — a character driven truly to rock bottom and the most intense darkness — is how he still struggles to find hope and to live a meaningful life," he said. "What I hope people take away is that we all get hurt and betrayed by others, which can lead to hatred, but we still have to carry on and live together in society. We have to try to understand each other, to keep our dignity and work towards harmony. If we can do that — work together with others, no matter what we’ve been through — we may see a future with less division and conflict. That’s where hope lies.
The third and final season of Squid Game was indeed pretty bleak, but not utterly hopeless. Gi-hun dies, but he gives up his life so that a baby born in the arena, entered into the games by those jackass VIPs, can live. That act of self-sacrifice inspires other characters, even ones as cynical as the Front Man (Lee Byung-hun), who ends the show by giving the remainder of Gi-hun's winnings from the last Squid Games to his daughter.
Or at least that's why I think he did it. As Lee Jung-jae admits, he's "enigmatic" and it's hard to know why he does anything. "You really don’t know what’s going on in his mind. But when I saw that scene, all I can say is: As Gi-hun, I was not happy about it. How dare you go see my daughter!" he laughed.
The final episode of the show is entitled "Humans Are..." Those are Gi-hun's final words before he sacrifices himself. He doesn't complete the sentence, but Lee Jung-jae thinks he knows how it ends. For me, my character’s heart was truly genuine in only wanting to protect and save that baby. So for me, that line was interpreted as: 'Humans are worthy of respect.'”
SPOILER-filled Squid Game reviews:
- Season 3, Episode 1: "Keys and Knives"
- Season 3, Episode 2: "The Starry Night"
- Season 3, Episode 3: "It's Not Your Fault"
- Season 3, Episode 4: "222"
- Season 3, Episode 5: " ▢△◯"
- Season 3, Episode 6, "Humans Are..."
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h/t Gizmodo