How Squid Game Got Lost in Translation

The controversy surrounding Netflix’s hit series “Squid Game” is the latest example of how inaccurate translations of stories can adversely impact the viewer’s experience and appreciation of foreign titles. The old theatrical days are long over, where localization service providers had months if not years to generate local language audio and subtitles prior to international exhibition. It’s the streaming era now, where post-production schedules are compressed into days and weeks, and content is globally syndicated at launch.

For the industry to meet today’s market challenges and opportunities, the localization process must ensure that stories told to foreign audiences are consistent with the original production, accounting for any linguistic and cultural differences that may impact viewers’ understanding and appreciation of titles.

Localization is more than just the literal translation of a script into another language, subtitles, or audio dub. A script is a story, and stories have context, nuance, meaning, and feeling. Plus, they reflect the writer or director’s culture and points of view. Characters within a film may have relationships that may not be fully understood or appreciated in other cultures. The native language of the film may use words for which there are no foreign language, historical or cultural equivalents. Physical gestures along with visual and musical cues also contribute to storytelling. Traditional subs and dubs often overlook these critical story components because they’re not seen as necessary to the story and are difficult to translate.

Critics have identified issues in “Squid Game” that could have been avoided if cultural knowledge had been considered during the localization process.

An example from the first episode of the series highlights a Pakistani immigrant named “Ali” who refers to two other Korean players as “sajangnim.” This term was translated and used as “Sir.” Sajangnim is a word typically used to show respect for the top boss of a company or business. The complaint is that translating “sajangnim” to “sir” minimizes the self-declared inferiority of Ali’s position as an immigrant (a class of people often overlooked and exploited in Korean society), and it fails to convey the patriarchal responsibility that a “sajangnim” would owe his subordinates. Because the translation ignores significant cultural references, some have argued the word “boss” would have been a better choice.

Later in the episode, other characters ask Ali to call them “hyung,” which means “older brother,” instead of “sajangnim.” “Hyung” in Korean culture indicates a close, friendly, familial relationship. The subtitles indicate they want Ali to call them by their given names, which again, misses the cultural importance of their relationship and downplays the betrayal that occurs later on in the show.

Defenders of the process point out the platform has its own constraints limiting how much a story can be presented to viewers. There’s only so much space on the screen where subtitles appear and only so much time available to show a subtitle before other dialogue must appear. There are different sources for closed caption and language dub scripts because each uses a distinctly different process. There’s only so much context you can provide within these limitations with the added difference in the abilities of those who perform this work. Bottom line: compromises must be made to meet industry or platform standards; and unfortunately, story clarity is what gets sacrificed. As they say, therein lies the rub.

IMDb data reports that over the last decade, an average of 15,000 new films and 251,000 new TV episodes were released each year worldwide. Each of these titles seeks an audience on the hundreds of streaming platforms or the thousands of TV channels they host. Focusing on the script alone without paying close attention to the cultural aspects of the story is what creates the problem “Squid Game” highlights. Artificial intelligence (AI) may alleviate some of these concerns, but what must come first is the knowledge and understanding of culture.

Even if automated capabilities were available to tackle that much content, the literal translation of a script to 7,115 languages is insufficient to address a film’s cultural issues. There’s more to visual storytelling than just the script: location, costumes, customs, relationships, lighting, action, and music enhance the script to tell the story. As the criticism of “Squid Game” shows, small changes can make significant differences.

Foreign-language titles will continue to find new markets in the global content ecosystem, and viewers will want to watch them. “Squid Game” reiterates the risks and shortcomings of today’s localization process and shows why it must be reinvented. As an industry, it is important to reimagine the process of localization and apply culturalization to ensure that the stories people see are those that the writers and directors intended. Without more attention and resources, great stories will continue to be lost in translation.