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HomeCultureSquid Game subtitles 'change meaning' of Netflix show

Squid Game subtitles ‘change meaning’ of Netflix show

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Daily US Times: Some Korean-speaking fans say Squid Game “botched” subtitles have changed the show’s meaning for English-speaking viewers.

The Korean-language drama, one of Netflix’s all time hits, is about an alternative world where people in debt compete in deadly games.

But Youngmi Mayer, a fluent Korean speaker, claims the closed-caption subtitles in English are “so bad” that the original meaning is often lost.

Netflix has not yet responded to Newsbeat’s request for a comment.

The thriller has proved hugely popular since its release last month and is on track to beat Bridgerton to become Netflix’s biggest hit original series.

The Squid Game plot sees a group of debt infected people tempted into a survival game where they have the chance to walk away with 45.6 billion Korean won (£29m) if they win a series of six games.

If they lose, they die.

Youngmi said in a Twitter post: “The dialogue was so well written and zero of it was preserved [in the subtitles].”

Oungmi gave several examples of mistranslation in a TikTok video that’s had almost nine million views, Y

In one scene a character tries to convince other people to play the game with her, and the English subtitles read: “I’m not a genius, but I still got it worked out.”

But Youngmi explains what the character actually says, is: “I am very smart, I just never got a chance to study.”

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