《魷魚(yú)游戲》因何爆火

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(tīng)說(shuō)過(guò)《魷魚(yú)游戲》，這是一部諷刺社會(huì)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(shí)期玩過(guò)的游戲，來(lái)?yè)Q取贏得逆轉(zhuǎn)人生的現(xiàn)金大獎(jiǎng)的機(jī)會(huì)。

2在流媒體時(shí)代，我們可能再也不會(huì)像看《權(quán)力的游戲》那樣定時(shí)收看電視節(jié)目，但是在節(jié)目?jī)?nèi)容激增的背景下，無(wú)論是通過(guò)流媒體還是其他平臺(tái)，真正的口碑爆款作品還是會(huì)脫穎而出。《魷魚(yú)游戲》就是這樣走紅的，這部電視劇首播以前在美國(guó)幾乎沒(méi)有得到媒體報(bào)道，也沒(méi)有進(jìn)行營(yíng)銷(xiāo)宣傳。

3那么，《魷魚(yú)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(lái)了本能原始的體驗(yàn)，讓人無(wú)法移開(kāi)視線。劇中充斥著血腥鏡頭，但也描寫(xiě)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(gè)離異的單身父親過(guò)著沉迷賭博的落魄生活，依靠年邁的母親勉強(qiáng)度日，他和母親住在一起，偶爾還會(huì)偷她的錢(qián)。

4There is a visceral1visceral發(fā)自?xún)?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(gè)衣著光鮮的年輕人，對(duì)方給了他一個(gè)玩游戲贏錢(qián)的機(jī)會(huì)。接受邀請(qǐng)后，奇勛被迅速帶到（不如說(shuō)是被毒氣熏暈綁架到）一個(gè)荒島上，他在島上醒來(lái)后，發(fā)現(xiàn)宿舍里還有其他455名玩家，其中就有他兒時(shí)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?yàn)楸I用和貪污公款，成了身負(fù)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(shū)來(lái)參加游戲，從“一二三木頭人”開(kāi)始玩起——但是如果他們?cè)诓辉搫?dòng)的時(shí)候移動(dòng)，就會(huì)被狙擊步槍打死。此時(shí)游戲的真正賭注才浮出水面：假如在任何一場(chǎng)游戲中遭到淘汰，或者拒絕進(jìn)行游戲，你就會(huì)死去。這些玩家有離開(kāi)的機(jī)會(huì)，但是想到456億韓元（相當(dāng)于近3900萬(wàn)美元）的賞金和可怕的現(xiàn)實(shí)生活，許多人還是會(huì)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?yàn)槿诵灾凶類(lèi)毫拥囊幻嬉呀?jīng)暴露無(wú)遺。

6The players sign a vague contract to participate in the games and get started with Red Light Green Light4現(xiàn)實(shí)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(dòng)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(yú)游戲》會(huì)直接讓人想到類(lèi)似題材的電影、電視節(jié)目和圖書(shū)，包括2000年上映的日本電影《大逃殺》（講述極權(quán)政府強(qiáng)迫孩子們殺戮到死的故事）和《饑餓游戲》系列電影?！遏滛~(yú)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(yùn)的錯(cuò)覺(jué)：就像游戲主辦方反復(fù)說(shuō)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(shí)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(yú)游戲》嚴(yán)厲地抨擊了社會(huì)的經(jīng)濟(jì)不平等現(xiàn)象，尤其是在這個(gè)游戲幕后富有的操縱者和看客被揭穿身份的時(shí)候。這部電視劇把批評(píng)矛頭對(duì)準(zhǔn)了韓國(guó)——有一個(gè)主角是脫北者，她懊惱地說(shuō)，自己逃離朝鮮是為了在韓國(guó)過(guò)上更好的生活，結(jié)果卻發(fā)現(xiàn)同樣走投無(wú)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(diǎn)，卻讓人不由自主地喜歡這個(gè)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(duì)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(guó)，童話(huà)故事《綠野仙蹤》的虛構(gòu)國(guó)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(chǎng)景。導(dǎo)演黃東赫把這個(gè)致命游戲描繪成色彩繽紛的超現(xiàn)實(shí)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(huà)面。對(duì)比劇中許多角色居住的首爾陰沉灰暗的大街小巷，玩家進(jìn)入游戲的時(shí)候感覺(jué)就像是穿越到了奧茲國(guó)。

11《魷魚(yú)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(diǎn)開(kāi)下一集。每集的時(shí)長(zhǎng)都將近一個(gè)小時(shí)，但是不會(huì)像許多現(xiàn)在的流媒體電視劇那樣，讓人感到拖沓無(wú)聊。這部劇集確實(shí)有令觀眾感到不適的場(chǎng)景，不過(guò)論及暴力血腥程度，絕沒(méi)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(diǎn)點(diǎn)纏緊。 □