cannot get over this comment on a chess tournament video
OH MY GOD
[video transcription: a tiktok video by Isaiah Paik (user @/paik4president) replying to a comment by user @/thomasrowland84. The comment reads “Welcome back! You look great. Interesting you mentioned capitalism. I’d love to hear your thoughts on Squid Game.”
Isaiah responds: “I’m glad you asked about my thoughts about Squid Game. I have a take that I’ve not seen anywhere on this platform so far. So, the take is that despite making Netflix an estimated eight hundred and ninety-one million dollars in “impact value” (he makes air quote gesture with right hand) Squid Game was produced for only about twenty-one million dollars (he points up with right hand as the background shows a google search result of squid game’s production cost).
Why is this the case? Well, because, just like with any manufacturing business it’s a lot cheaper to make stuff when it’s not in the United States. This is because Korea offers tax credits and rebates. And there’s no American Union regulations. So, people can work longer hours. In fact (he points up as a news article about squid game’s production appears behind him) a top entertainment executive told CNBC that Squid Game would’ve probably been five to ten times more expensive if it had been shot in the United States with a US cast and US Union production regulations.
(He points up as an article from the CNBC about squid game appears behind him)
This article for some reason is really positive about this and talks about how other production companies like Disney are going to start using Asian countries and other foreign countries to make their stuff too. So. Squid Game is a show about a bunch of wealthy western capitalists coming to South Korea to watch South Koreans compete with each other, fight to the death for their entertainment. And, that show was made by a wealthy western production company that went to South Korea to exploit south Korean labor, to make their entertainment commodity. Like, yes, the show IS a critique of capitalism, but the conditions under which it was made are the same dystopian capitalist conditions that it attempts to critique.” (video ends). /end transcription.]
Hell yeah. Its also why Japan's been outsourcing labor to South Korea when it comes to anime.
There’s so much to unpack here:
- Pack of Beakers
- Goth Beaker
- The Beaker snitching and pointing out the photographer
- The Beaker that’s about to unload on the photographer
- The terminator strut before the ass whooping and you know he’s moving at speed because of the blur
- The ominous feeling that you know this is 3 in the morning
Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while.
The Princess Bride (1987), dir. Rob Reiner