文/凱莉·勞勒 譯/孟潔冰

By now you’ve probably heard of Squid Game, a dark social satire in which desperately impoverished people are enticed to compete in children’s games with deadly stakes for the chance to win a life-changing cash prize.

2We may never have appointment television viewing like Game of Thrones again in the streaming era, but amid the proliferation of content, streaming or otherwise, a genuine word-of-mouth surprise can still surface.And that’s what’s happened with Squid Game,which received virtually no press or marketing in the U.S.before its debut.

3So what it is about Squid that has so many people suctioned to their screens?

你可能早就聽說過《魷魚游戲》，這是一部諷刺社會的黑暗劇集，講述了窮困潦倒的人受到誘惑，以生命為賭注參加童年時期玩過的游戲，來換取贏得逆轉(zhuǎn)人生的現(xiàn)金大獎的機會。

2在流媒體時代，我們可能再也不會像看《權(quán)力的游戲》那樣定時收看電視節(jié)目，但是在節(jié)目內(nèi)容激增的背景下，無論是通過流媒體還是其他平臺，真正的口碑爆款作品還是會脫穎而出?！遏滛~游戲》就是這樣走紅的，這部電視劇首播以前在美國幾乎沒有得到媒體報道，也沒有進行營銷宣傳。

3那么，《魷魚游戲》憑什么把這么多人吸引到屏幕前呢？

4這部共有九集的電視劇帶來了本能原始的體驗，讓人無法移開視線。劇中充斥著血腥鏡頭，但也描寫了深層次的內(nèi)心恐懼和不安。本劇的主人公是奇勛（李政宰飾演），這個離異的單身父親過著沉迷賭博的落魄生活，依靠年邁的母親勉強度日，他和母親住在一起，偶爾還會偷她的錢。

4There is a visceral1visceral發(fā)自內(nèi)心的；發(fā)自肺腑的。, primal, can’tlook-away feeling to the nine-episode series, which traffics in gore2gore（傷口流出的）血，凝固的血，血污。but also deep psychological horror and disturbances.The protagonist is Gi-hun(Lee Jung-jae), a divorced father who’s a bit of a degenerate3degenerate墮落的人，頹廢的人。and a gambler.He’s scraping by on the back of his elderly mother, whom he lives with while occasionally stealing her money.

5在經(jīng)歷了倒霉透頂?shù)囊惶旌螅鎰自诘罔F里遇到了一個衣著光鮮的年輕人，對方給了他一個玩游戲贏錢的機會。接受邀請后，奇勛被迅速帶到（不如說是被毒氣熏暈綁架到）一個荒島上，他在島上醒來后，發(fā)現(xiàn)宿舍里還有其他455名玩家，其中就有他兒時的好友尚佑（樸海秀飾演），從小天資聰穎的尚佑走出了社區(qū)，卻因為盜用和貪污公款，成了身負巨債的通緝犯。

5After a brutally bad day, Gi-hun is approached by a smartly dressed young man in the subway, who offers him a chance to win money by playing games.After accepting, Gi-hun is whisked (or rather, gassed and kidnapped) to a deserted island, where he awakes in a dormitory with 455 other players.Among them is his childhood friend Sang-woo (Park Hae-soo), the bright kid who got out of the neighborhood, only to steal and embezzle, leaving him wanted and in debt.

6這些玩家簽下了一份內(nèi)容模糊的同意書來參加游戲，從“一二三木頭人”開始玩起——但是如果他們在不該動的時候移動，就會被狙擊步槍打死。此時游戲的真正賭注才浮出水面：假如在任何一場游戲中遭到淘汰，或者拒絕進行游戲，你就會死去。這些玩家有離開的機會，但是想到456億韓元（相當(dāng)于近3900萬美元）的賞金和可怕的現(xiàn)實生活，許多人還是會玩下去。不久后，這些玩家不僅害怕死在游戲主辦方的手中，還擔(dān)心大家相互殘殺，因為人性中最惡劣的一面已經(jīng)暴露無遺。

6The players sign a vague contract to participate in the games and get started with Red Light Green Light4現(xiàn)實生活中的一種兒童游戲，一般5—10人參與?！猙ut if they move when they’re not supposed to, they are killed by sniper rifle.That’s when the stakes of the game become truly real: If you lose any of the games or refuse to play, you die.The players are given an opportunity to leave, but the 45.6 billion won prize(equivalent to nearly $39 million) and the horrors of their own lives bring many back.Soon the players fear not only dying at the hands of the game masters, but by each other, as the worst parts of human nature come out.

7Squid is immediately evocative of similar films, shows and books including the 2000 Japanese film Battle Royale—about kids forced to fight to the death by a totalitarian government—and The Hunger Games series.What separates Squid is that the players in the game have a false sense of agency5sense of agency自主感，主動控制感。in their plight6plight困境，窘境。: As the game masters repeatedly say, they all chose to be there.But when their only other option is returning to a life of suffering that’s worse, how is that really a choice?

7《魷魚游戲》會直接讓人想到類似題材的電影、電視節(jié)目和圖書，包括2000年上映的日本電影《大逃殺》（講述極權(quán)政府強迫孩子們殺戮到死的故事）和《饑餓游戲》系列電影。《魷魚游戲》的不同之處在于，這些玩家受困于游戲，卻有一種掌控自身命運的錯覺：就像游戲主辦方反復(fù)說的那樣，他們都選擇待在游戲里。但是，假如他們唯一的其他選擇是回到更殘酷的現(xiàn)實生活中，這還算是選擇嗎？

8Squid harshly critiques society’s economic inequalities, especially as the rich controllers and spectators behind the game are revealed.It takes specific aim at South Korea—a North Korean defector is a main character, who ruefully says she escaped the North for a better life in the South, only to find similar desperation—but it’s universal in 2021, especially as the coronavirus pandemic has laid bare so many injustices.

8《魷魚游戲》嚴(yán)厲地抨擊了社會的經(jīng)濟不平等現(xiàn)象，尤其是在這個游戲幕后富有的操縱者和看客被揭穿身份的時候。這部電視劇把批評矛頭對準(zhǔn)了韓國——有一個主角是脫北者，她懊惱地說，自己逃離朝鮮是為了在韓國過上更好的生活，結(jié)果卻發(fā)現(xiàn)同樣走投無路——這種情況在2021年普遍存在，尤其是新冠疫情暴露出許多不公正的現(xiàn)象。

9精彩的演技表現(xiàn)提升了劇情張力，尤其是李政宰的表演，雖然他飾演的奇勛有很多缺點，卻讓人不由自主地喜歡這個人物。劇中所有的角色都遭受了巨大的創(chuàng)傷，人物發(fā)生了巨大的轉(zhuǎn)變，演員們完成了這一挑戰(zhàn)：在令人難以置信的環(huán)境中演繹出讓人信服的情感。

9Superb acting performances heighten the drama, particularly from Lee, who makes Gi-hun irresistibly likable despite his many flaws.All of the characters undergo enormous trauma and transformation, and the actors rise to the challenge7rise to the challenge成功應(yīng)對困難；臨危不亂。of portraying believable emotions in an unbelievable setting.

10A big part of the series’ success lies in its dramatic and eye-catching aesthetic.Director Hwang Dong-hyuk paints the surreal, colorful world of the deadly games like the backdrop of a video game, all exaggerated shapes and sizes and harsh edges that evoke pixels.Juxtaposed against the gray,gloomy streets of Seoul, where many of the characters reside, there’s a feeling that the players have crossed over into Oz8Oz奧茲國，童話故事《綠野仙蹤》的虛構(gòu)國度。when they enter the game.

11What makes it so well-suited for binge-watching9binge-watching刷劇，追劇。is how well Hwang uses pacing and cliffhangers to make the series absurdly addictive.More than almost any original Netflix series, the endings of each episode seduce you into clicking next episode.Each is nearly a full hour, but they never feel bloated or boring, like many streaming series do these days.The series is certainly disturbing, although its violence and gore never reaches the bloody levels of The Walking Dead, instead relying on an insidious psychological horror that wraps its tentacles around you.■

10這部電視劇的火爆在很大程度上歸功于其戲劇張力和奪人眼球的美學(xué)場景。導(dǎo)演黃東赫把這個致命游戲描繪成色彩繽紛的超現(xiàn)實主義世界，就像是電子游戲的背景，各種物體的外形和尺寸都很夸張，粗糙的邊緣讓人想起像素畫面。對比劇中許多角色居住的首爾陰沉灰暗的大街小巷，玩家進入游戲的時候感覺就像是穿越到了奧茲國。

11《魷魚游戲》非常適合人們一口氣看完，原因在于黃東赫巧妙地利用了節(jié)奏和懸念，讓這部電視劇令人欲罷不能。相比奈飛的幾乎所有原創(chuàng)劇集，每集的結(jié)尾都更能吸引你點開下一集。每集的時長都將近一個小時，但是不會像許多現(xiàn)在的流媒體電視劇那樣，讓人感到拖沓無聊。這部劇集確實有令觀眾感到不適的場景，不過論及暴力血腥程度，絕沒有《行尸走肉》那樣殘忍，而是讓內(nèi)心的恐懼悄然出現(xiàn)，將你一點點纏緊。 □