Aimee Walker
A Squid Game voice actor has responded to the backlash her character’s voice has received from fans after being labelled ‘annoying’.
The South Korean Netflix series follows cash-strapped individuals who take part in a deadly version of children’s games in order to win a cash prize.
The original production of the survival drama is Korean, however, voice actors have dubbed the show into English.
Actor Stephanie Komure voices the character Ni-Nyeo (played by Kim Joo-ryoung), who is a contestant in the games.
After watching the series, many people have taken to Twitter and said they found the voice actor’s impression of the character ‘annoying’.
Komure has now responded and given a reason why she portrayed the character in this way.
Watch Squid Game-inspired protests below…
She has taken to the social media platform and said that Ni-Nyeo was ‘really tough to dub’, as her expressions were ‘huge and up close’.
She tweeted: “I’d heard the subs were terrible, but this makes sense now! I’m the dub actress for Mi-Neyo, so I was in the studio when this changed.
“She was really tough to dub because her expressions/mouth movements are so huge and up close, and things had to change to fit flaps.
“It’s a balancing act.”
The backlash is believed to have started when comedian Youngmi Mayer shared a video of herself watching the show.
In the clip, she said: “Every little thing that she [Mi-Nyeo] says is f****ed up.
“I think it’s because she plays a low-class character and she’s a gangster so she cusses a lot. You’re missing a lot of this character and what she stands for.”
She went on to provide an example of a ‘huge miss’ when it comes to English-speaking fans.
The character says: “I’m not a genius, but I can work it out.”
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Mayer said that this statement missed out on some important information about South Korean culture.
The comedian explained: “What she actually said was ‘I am very smart, I just never got a chance to study’.
“That is a huge, like trope in Korean media. The poor person that’s smart and clever and just isn’t wealthy.”
She added: “That’s a huge part of her character.
“And almost everything she says is being botched translation-wise but you just missed… the writers, all they want you to know about her is that.”
ok i made this really fast so it’s not very good but these are the small examples i could find in ten mins pic.twitter.com/5kIsrlWDjq
— youngmi mayer (@ymmayer) September 30, 2021
However, Mayer went on to clarify that she isn’t blaming the translators for this issue.
She stated: “I want to point out that the reason this happens is because translation work is not respected and also the sheer volume of content.
“Translators are underpaid and overworked and it’s not their fault. It’s the fault of producers who don’t appreciate the art.”
Squid Game is now available to watch on Netflix.
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