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Alice in Borderland
今際の国のアリス
2020 · TV series · 3 seasons
With his two friends, a video-game-obsessed young man finds himself in a strange version of Tokyo where they must compete in dangerous games to win.
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8 comments on Hacker News
I think I've only seen the first Cube movie and enjoyed it. Fermat's Room is a similar type of escape room film which might appeal though I don't think it's a great film (I did enjoy it though).
I first watched Alice In Borderland when the first two seasons came out, but then when I heard that they were releasing a third season, I rewatched the first two seasons again as it had been a couple of years. I probably enjoyed it more the second time of watching, though the third season was a bit meh. I since started reading the manga which features some different games (and vice versa).
I think what elevates Alice in Borderland over Squid Game is the character development. My favourite character has to be Chishiya as he calmly watches and evaluates each situation and just aura farms whilst others panic (sometimes known as the Unbothered King).
Watched a fantastic film about this on the plane a few years ago, "Liar Game - Reborn". There is some fairly sophisticated logic puzzling and scheming going on (see e.g. sample illustration https://imgur.com/a/0AOb67G from an interlude about 50min in where there are 3 groups of people who mutually distrust each other, each know a secret collection of 3-4 integers unique to their group, and want to deniably pass share integers with each other which are "not my team's". Another participant watches what happened and realizes in retrospect this is how the info was shared.)
A lot more upbeat than "Alice in Borderland".
I came here specifically to recommend Alice in Borderland. I believe season 3 is due out soon this year.
I just watched season 2 of Squid Games and whilst it was fun and I enjoyed it, it didn't really seem to add much to the series.
There’s literally hundreds of shows and movies.
What some people have missed is that this is its own sub-genre of horror.
You have shows like Alice in Borderland that doesn’t get nearly enough love (and is far better than Squid Games in my opinion).
Cube is a late 90s movie that’s on this theme too. You could argue the SAW movies are too, though I’m not personally a fan of those.
There are also plenty of comics on this theme too. The aforementioned Alice in Borderlands is based on a manga by the same title.
Ahh yes famously American media like Squid Games and Alice in Borderland are so filled with gory violence I can barely handle it. And American movies are famous for having so few steamy sex scenes in them that people are not constantly rolling their eyes at the “sex sells” mantra to explain their frequency.
They're keeping us a bit longer because the live action One Piece was a gateway drug into the anime, and they have a lot of it on there (just finished watching episode 316 today, a few more and we're done with the Water 7 arc).
But I was ready to cancel for the first time in years before that, as I realize I had barely touched it in almost a year, with the exception of Alice in Borderland and a handful of other things here and there.
Whenever we get through what they have of One Piece I'll probably cancel until season 2 of the live action comes out (or some other show we like comes back, like maybe Squid Game season 2).
I just want to echo the recommendation for Alice in Borderland. If you liked Squid Game, this is just as good in its own way (I think I actually liked it better and find it a bit more rewatchable, even though I think Squid Game has a bit more visual style to it).
Season 2 just dropped as well so it's a good time to get into it. The full manga was told in those 2 seasons as well, apparently (haven't read it yet, just based on reading discussions on the show), so unlike a lot of Netflix shows, it tells a full story if it doesn't get renewed for another season.
I haven't seen any of the others you recommended yet, although Train to Busan was on my radar already.
Um, there are a lot more (often gratuitous) sex scenes in US-made TV/ movies than Japanese ones, from what I've observed. And while there's generally far less glorified violence, you only need to watch something like Alice in Borderland to see some pretty explicitly violent stuff.