《鱿鱼游戏》因何爆火

文/凯莉·劳勒 译/孟洁冰

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?

你可能早就听说过《鱿鱼游戏》，这是一部讽刺社会的黑暗剧集，讲述了穷困潦倒的人受到诱惑，以生命为赌注参加童年时期玩过的游戏，来换取赢得逆转人生的现金大奖的机会。

2在流媒体时代，我们可能再也不会像看《权力的游戏》那样定时收看电视节目，但是在节目内容激增的背景下，无论是通过流媒体还是其他平台，真正的口碑爆款作品还是会脱颖而出。《鱿鱼游戏》就是这样走红的，这部电视剧首播以前在美国几乎没有得到媒体报道，也没有进行营销宣传。

3那么，《鱿鱼游戏》凭什么把这么多人吸引到屏幕前呢？

4这部共有九集的电视剧带来了本能原始的体验，让人无法移开视线。剧中充斥着血腥镜头，但也描写了深层次的内心恐惧和不安。本剧的主人公是奇勋（李政宰饰演），这个离异的单身父亲过着沉迷赌博的落魄生活，依靠年迈的母亲勉强度日，他和母亲住在一起，偶尔还会偷她的钱。

4There is a visceral1visceral发自内心的；发自肺腑的。, primal, can’tlook-away feeling to the nine-episode series, which traffics in gore2gore（伤口流出的）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堕落的人，颓废的人。and a gambler.He’s scraping by on the back of his elderly mother, whom he lives with while occasionally stealing her money.

5在经历了倒霉透顶的一天后，奇勋在地铁里遇到了一个衣着光鲜的年轻人，对方给了他一个玩游戏赢钱的机会。接受邀请后，奇勋被迅速带到（不如说是被毒气熏晕绑架到）一个荒岛上，他在岛上醒来后，发现宿舍里还有其他455名玩家，其中就有他儿时的好友尚佑（朴海秀饰演），从小天资聪颖的尚佑走出了社区，却因为盗用和贪污公款，成了身负巨债的通缉犯。

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这些玩家签下了一份内容模糊的同意书来参加游戏，从“一二三木头人”开始玩起——但是如果他们在不该动的时候移动，就会被狙击步枪打死。此时游戏的真正赌注才浮出水面：假如在任何一场游戏中遭到淘汰，或者拒绝进行游戏，你就会死去。这些玩家有离开的机会，但是想到456亿韩元（相当于近3900万美元）的赏金和可怕的现实生活，许多人还是会玩下去。不久后，这些玩家不仅害怕死在游戏主办方的手中，还担心大家相互残杀，因为人性中最恶劣的一面已经暴露无遗。

6The players sign a vague contract to participate in the games and get started with Red Light Green Light4现实生活中的一种儿童游戏，一般5—10人参与。—but 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，主动控制感。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《鱿鱼游戏》会直接让人想到类似题材的电影、电视节目和图书，包括2000年上映的日本电影《大逃杀》（讲述极权政府强迫孩子们杀戮到死的故事）和《饥饿游戏》系列电影。《鱿鱼游戏》的不同之处在于，这些玩家受困于游戏，却有一种掌控自身命运的错觉：就像游戏主办方反复说的那样，他们都选择待在游戏里。但是，假如他们唯一的其他选择是回到更残酷的现实生活中，这还算是选择吗？

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《鱿鱼游戏》严厉地抨击了社会的经济不平等现象，尤其是在这个游戏幕后富有的操纵者和看客被揭穿身份的时候。这部电视剧把批评矛头对准了韩国——有一个主角是脱北者，她懊恼地说，自己逃离朝鲜是为了在韩国过上更好的生活，结果却发现同样走投无路——这种情况在2021年普遍存在，尤其是新冠疫情暴露出许多不公正的现象。

9精彩的演技表现提升了剧情张力，尤其是李政宰的表演，虽然他饰演的奇勋有很多缺点，却让人不由自主地喜欢这个人物。剧中所有的角色都遭受了巨大的创伤，人物发生了巨大的转变，演员们完成了这一挑战：在令人难以置信的环境中演绎出让人信服的情感。

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成功应对困难；临危不乱。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奥兹国，童话故事《绿野仙踪》的虚构国度。when they enter the game.

11What makes it so well-suited for binge-watching9binge-watching刷剧，追剧。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这部电视剧的火爆在很大程度上归功于其戏剧张力和夺人眼球的美学场景。导演黄东赫把这个致命游戏描绘成色彩缤纷的超现实主义世界，就像是电子游戏的背景，各种物体的外形和尺寸都很夸张，粗糙的边缘让人想起像素画面。对比剧中许多角色居住的首尔阴沉灰暗的大街小巷，玩家进入游戏的时候感觉就像是穿越到了奥兹国。

11《鱿鱼游戏》非常适合人们一口气看完，原因在于黄东赫巧妙地利用了节奏和悬念，让这部电视剧令人欲罢不能。相比奈飞的几乎所有原创剧集，每集的结尾都更能吸引你点开下一集。每集的时长都将近一个小时，但是不会像许多现在的流媒体电视剧那样，让人感到拖沓无聊。这部剧集确实有令观众感到不适的场景，不过论及暴力血腥程度，绝没有《行尸走肉》那样残忍，而是让内心的恐惧悄然出现，将你一点点缠紧。 □