The thread is open. @GB tells me that you’re going to start that rewatch an hour early because the final episode was 2 hours 14 minutes
6:30am 5:30am PST
9:30am 8:30am EST
2.30pm 1:30pm in London
3.30pm 2:30pm in Paris
4.30pm 3:30pm in Athens
9.30pm 8:30pm in Singapore/Malaysia/Hong Kong/Perth
The schedule of the upcoming rewatches:
Final Stage Movie (2 Hours, 14 Minutes) – July 15
Enjoy the rewatch!
Thanks @pkml3!! Yay for the finale (and a nice twisty one!) of a loud, garish, OTT, very-mangga-ish series that has a sweet message.
Test: Re-subscribing to this thread.
It’s today, it will be a marathon rewatch!!
Hi @WE… yes, today we’ll meet up here one hour earlier!! Marathon? I need to bring in supplies for the long haul LOL.
We may factor in a short break in between if needed. No need to kill ourselves for a movie. 🤣🤪
Hi @WE @FF, I’m around!
Hi GB !
Great! Good to see you @WE.
I hope FF can come.
Let’s begin!!!
ok
We’ll see a lot of apples now.
Yes, I hope @FF remembers that we’re starting early this week.
The colours are over-saturated. Lurid reds and yellows. Nao is as bright and open as the big sunflowers she walks amongst.
We get another very brief resume/summary of the previous LGs that she got sucked into.
A bit of resume for ppl watching the movie without watched the series.
I don’t like Tanimura. He always gains access to Nao’s home in her absence… so scary, like a stalker. Isn’t that strangely rude in Japanese culture to enter a home when the owner is away?
He tells her that one of the finalists dropped out (ie we saw Yokoya quit). He also always puts the burden of responsibility on her shoulders saying that she’s the only one who can help AS. “Without you he will lose for sure.”
Without realizing how right he is, he says he knows AS needs her “Because this time, the game can be won… through trust.”
Golden teeth will convince her now.
hahah so easy. I wonder if this guy will change in this movie.
@WE I actually find the resume very brief, but I guess it gives a rough gist of what Nao went through, and what to expect.
This idea of island was copied by squid game (and other parts from Kaiji).
Fukunaga is always so irritating… and the number 1 betrayer… over and over again.
I wonder what is behind the idea of the island… the concept of trapping the pawns to play the game. They cannot get off the island until the game ends. Always so ominous.
Beautiful set. With.. kind of squirel?
Of all the sets, this one looked the best but also rather cold in its spaciousness. The soft chairs are not visible.
The credits images are awesome. With much more character.
Isn’t the dealer lying that the apples are made of real gold and real silver? Actually they are all the same under the gild.
Hi @GB @WE,
Checking in.
Great! @FF. Ii was worried you’d forgotten the new start time.
I’m at timestamp 12:30 minutes now.
@FF, shall we pause a while and let you catch up?
Where are you in the movie now @WE?
Hi @GB @WE,
Are you all at about 14mins?
@FF, yes around 14 minutes… but we can wait for you to catch up.
Hi @GB,
I will ffd to 13mins.
OK, I’m pausing and rewatching the rules. A bit much. So many ways to lose money.
Where are you at @WE?
This drama likes to use name related to Christianity, Garden of Eden, book of Genesis.
I couldn’t comment, concentrating on rules.
I can say: this game is a kind of synthesis of the 2 seasons. All rely on confidence and everyone sending a red apple.
I can guess someone will send a red apple alone (Nao?) so will loose 10 millions. Banishment.
A mysterious player A with 12 millions.
The game give so much motivation to play selfish. 50 millions final gain.
If you want some time to rewatch the rules it’s ok.
Aahhha, I read your comments, same ideas. Rewatch rules.
Hi FF!! So it’s good, we can rewatch, you have time to compensate the time now.
@FF, Christian images/references but used in a manga way LOL. Yes, Nao is also styled a bit like an angel in the first season.
Rules go from 09:35 to 16:15.
@WE, I feel that the only loopholes that allow winning of some kind are that everyone has to be loyal and not betray or someone must be willing to cover the debt to allow a person losing more than 5 million to re-enter the game to win.
Something was put in place to allow the loophole…. but we may have missed it.
@GB, note I never really understood the spiritual/psychological aspect of “eating the apple” in the bible.
My wonder is it’s greed, envy, the human succombing to addiction instead of spiritual purity. But not sure. I saw some meaning it was about getting consciousness also. Sorry, I’m not good at religions. Even I think God exists, but not the one of a specific religion. However, I’m interested about the meaning of sacred texts about what it say about human mind.
The rules are a bit twisted. They want to prevent Nao usual trick: “Oh but no worry, after the game I will share the money” and “We can put that on a contract”.
The stake are higher as nothing like that is allowed.
I continued a bit , I’m at 16:50. But I stop.
Say me when you restart, so we can synchronize.
@WE, there is definitely a ‘study’ of psychology in the account of Creation and the Fall of Man in Eden. It puts in imagery and metaphor what the relationship between God and Man was meant to be and how Man rejected or twisted the terms that were offered.
Creation and the Garden of Eden were gifts for Mankind, and as much as they were ready and able to receive were theirs for the taking. Despite having everything they needed, they wanted to take more than they should. There was greed and pride and disobedience.
Fukunaga the King of betrayal vs Nao the Queen of Naive.
After so many games, Nao and AS still have ‘$0’ winnings. I think they are Players G and H.
@FF, have you reached 16 minutes yet?
I am at 16:50.
OK @FF @WE… let’s continue from 16:50!!!
Ok, let’s continue.
Ok let’s go.
Fukunaga is Nao disciple now. LOL!
It all began so positively. All were happy and relaxed… but AS is always so dour.
He does something really strange. LOL.
This couple have had no skinship in all the Seasons until now.
AK is last, and I think it’s important.
Guess what: He saw a red apple burning before and how it the smoke. SO when he enters he’ll see a red apple was burned, so of course, he won’t vote red apple.
Fuku is only partially Nao’s disciple. He still looks out for himself first.
Did I hear the heartbeat sound when AK wipes Nao’s lips?
@WE, What do you mean he saw a red apple burned and so won’t vote red?
Betrayal at once!!!
Fukunaga annoying moment.
As we love it. 🙂
@GB, during the game rules, there is an insisting shot showing AK watching the red apple burn. 😉
@FF, I didn’t really notice, but possibly yes. lol. She was stunned.
Important moment: AK think they will never get all the red vote. So, when it will happen, gosh, you can put in a biblical music. T T
@WE, yes, and later we will see that the apples were not really silver or gold. AS found another loophole.
@WE, Yes, I was about to say that the mission of this game became getting ALL red for Nao.
@GB, the goal of the story is quite clear. We just wonder how it could happens. And can expect a huge emotional moment when it happens. Aahaha. See how the writer manipulate us to feel something huge later when knowing it. ^^
Do you understand Fuku’s strategy of how to get ALL reds?
As usual, some people don’t trust Nao. ^^
Fukunaga betrayal (licking the ice, ahaha)
But now, I guess it will be again a plan in the plan.
That’s true @WE… but writers are supposed to manipulate our emotions… that’s why we watch the show. 🥲☺️😇
@GB, no. I replayed twice but still not making sense to me…. getting the reds.
Fuku doing duck screams, lol
Actually now it’s important who goes in to vote first and who’s after whom. But how to keep track!!!
Eto is the only one feeling bad for tricking Nao. I can’t stand that they make such a noise… so uncouth!
Silver 11, everyone lose .. just as Fukunaga mentioned.
I burst out laughing at 11 voting Silver heheheh! Good for them. All lost.
The villain now it this women with hair in the air, but as I remember a bit… there will be a scariest vilain next. 😉
Quite fun, AK plays it as Yokoya, with some kind of superpower, saying he can see all votes. ^^
LOL they didn’t see Nao sitting right there in their space.
AK can see their votes?…so funny, its a bluff isn’t it?
@WE, this part is so funny. All their simultaneous reactions.
@FF… Huuuuh… I don’t know. LOL.
I think he looks at what is in the room. The fireplace, apples on rack, but not sure it’s enough.
Sensitive music as Nao try to convice people. Looking like they are convinced but well… we know it won’t work now. They need a more desesperate situation for that.
@FF, he used something to help him know which apples were moving and being voted.
AK says he vote RED. But I’m sure he knows he will loose. He does that for another reason. Try to find the traitor, or I don’t know what.
@WE, the answer to how AS knows the vote comes a bit later.
The players are curious too, how AK sees their votes.
The traitor revelead himself, thanks to AK psychological manipulation. ahah
AK arrogant explanation “hey, you need a brain” toc-toc on his head. 😀
I guess X is also “player A” with 12 millions. ^^
Important point… everybody ready to trust Nao…
… except X !
Yokoya come to watch the game now.
Probably no one voted RED.
I wait for that but I guess the first girl didn’t voted RED.
Yeah yeah, I can feel it.
It’s the moment when Nao will be the only one to vote RED.
-10 millions, banished from the game.
Nao has no choice, for people being able to trust her, she has to vote red.
Oh SHIT, it’s a blast.
Nao, only red apple. !!!!
Trust is so easily broken.
Fukin plot twist.. AK – 5 millions.
He saved Nao and is banished?????
But… The drama is ruined now??
How can it be?!!!!!
The long hair lady lied, Nao is the only one who voted red. What AK is banished from the game?
It’s what I call “pushing the limit”. lol.
When you reach a point you think the story is ruined. Well, I told you often about that, some plot-twists in Empress Ki, and of course SOng Jae jung drama “push the limit”!
@FF: because AK really voted RED, but X changed the vote or Nao because she got her fingerprint before and replaced her vote.
“of”, not “or”, sorry, i wrote too quck.
So… HOW they will bring back AK in the game??
because I’m sure he comes back.
There’s no romance between AK & Nao , why is AK sacrificing himself to protect Bao? Now Nao is alone in the game. AK is supposed to find the mastermind, he will not know the mastermind if he leaves the game.
At which time did they leave their brands in the voting room?
@GB I think at round 7 or 8.
Tanimura is kept in the dark. Eri messages someone, while Tanimura says it’s lucky that Yokoya dropped out of the game.
The coincidence of these 2 actions mentioned one after another generally means they are related.
Now we see that AS has been kicked out of the game and someone has to cover his debt. It all comes together.
@FF, was it shown that they left their brands? I keep missing that part.
Yokoya’s offer is like the loan shark, lend AK money to stay in the game.
ETO, again here to suffer.
This guy cry too well.
But what strange… it’s not him???
What is the trick?!!
An hidden apple certainly as Eto believe sincerely he voted red.
So confusing, why is the long haired girl suddenly in the main role. Why is poor Eto always thrown to the ground.
@GB, in one of AK’s explanations he wrote on the apples for the players to leave their brands under the cupboard. The players were not shown to physically place their brands below the cupboard.
Thanks @FF. At this stage, I wonder how AS knows that long-haired girl is lying.
Ouch. SLAP§!!!!
LOL Fire! And missing apples.
Of course, X is the man with glasses. lol.
So hard to get all RED.
I’m sure AK demonstration of who is X is 10O% accurate, but I don’t have the brain to understand it right now. lol.
AS destroyed all the gold so that the game could be simplified.
I thought all gold apples were burnt? Why are there 10 gold apples voted?
@WE, this is the one game that I don’t understand.
But Nao was a good actress, lying so well with AS.
Good humilation to say to the enemy: “you loose because of Nao”, ahha.
@GB, oh yeah, difficult to catch. I can just say, as I rewatched the whole many times. I could understand all in the past. But I forgot since that time. So, now, I’m just the beta watcher like you. lollllll.
@FF, the explanation for the gold apples comes up soon.
@WE, yes, precisely. It really hits the pride when the ‘smart’ guy loses to the naive girl.
The writer of this drama is very diligent, coming up with game rules and explanations for the solutions and plot twists.
Here the payoff of the shot when AK watch a apple burning. ^^
@FF, yeah, it’s why I proposed it for rewatch. It’s unprecedenced awesome mind-blowing ultra smart content. No one in the world could write that except this manga writer. ^^
@FF The writer’s mind boggles my mind!!!
Again AS used the psychology of getting a person emotionally upset and making a mistake just like in the first game in S1.
The final moment of truth.
X is supposed to vote silver.
But why I have the feeling he will vote red?
The 13th and final vote was for Nao. So interesting that by the end of the game of betrayal, it became a game of trust in 1 person.
The awesome RED scene. T T
Imagine they could have all gotten 13 million if they’d done this all along. But they wanted the 50 million and wasted so many hours.
Tanimura always looks unhappy at Nao’s success.
@GB, agree if the players trusted one another from the start.
Yes, at the end, it’s this biblical meaning.
“finaly, you beat human greed”.
So, it’s like to return to the garden of eden and undo Eve sin. So why the final game was called “garden of eden”. Shooo, it’s heavy on thematic.
The no master mind and a group of gamblers reminds me of the squid game plot.
Surprisingly Yokoya has been so moved by Nao’s sincerity since the first contraband game that he is willing to give up his money to help the players so that no one leaves in debt to the LG. He didn’t just save Player X but gave up all the winnings.
In the end no one won while others lost ie they didn’t win by taking advantage of anyone else. So they were so free and joyful.
This is really the best part. Nao has managed to change everyone who had close contact with her, except Tanimura LOL who was despicably lying to her from the start in pretending to be her helpful neighbourhood police officer.
But even he is finally pleased to see that her trust in others worked.
I love this final scene.
The drama was never about a romance.
But the dialogue here suggest a future of them together.
@WE, I guess it’s because the Garden was where the prince of liars was first mentioned. He lied to Eve (and Adam), they gave in to his temptation, and that’s how The Fall took place.
@FF The poor players were lured in to be like race horses in a betting game. So inhuman.
@GB, Tanimura change too, but it’s discret. It’s when he see Yokoya checkbanck 54 millions. Here he smiles. But I’m agree about the fact he was the most difficult being to turn on Nao view.
@WE, yes, the non-existent romance still managed to show up only at the very end.
Eri was always on their side. She brought in Yokoya and in an earlier game, she brought in AS to save Nao.
LOL AS says Nao has graduated to become a liar. Good joke. Then he calls her stupid again but decides to still hangout with her. Most unromantic romance.
@GB, yeah yeah very unromantic, but why do I have this so deep love feeling when watching that?? 😀
@GB, yes exactly the most unromantic romance, Eri was always on their side. A nice ending.
What is the black envelope supposed to mean?
My Feelings at the end of Final Stage: Satisfaction with the ending. I do wish it did not have to keep so much of the stylized manhwa look-and-feel, the rigid, over-the-top style of acting, but still, it was a worthy end to the Series.
It continued the series’ focus on being a psychological study on whether self-interest would trump communal interests, and what might tilt the winning towards communal interests, even in the face of personal loss.
The thing is that no one had the millions to begin with, and letting the money go once won, was difficult, but not impossible. In effect, unless one lost thoroughly and was abandoned by the rest, there would be no financial losers. Nao was deliberately hand-picked, manipulated and ‘trapped’ in the game to increase the probability that the communal spirit would win out.
The punters who bet against Nao, were in the end betting against themselves and lost. That’s good to know that they would not be able to continue the LG. Fortunately, unlike Squid Game, the losers were not killed outright, but many might have committed suicide because of the debt.
@FF Will you be interested in doing more rewatches? Any shows you want to suggest?
Black envelope – ill-omen… LGT envelopes mostly.
But this time Nao gets back the money that the old man borrowed in the beginning of the show. So it was a good black envelope.
@WE, what was the other show that we said we’d consider rewatching?
I can’t find my notes where I saved the names of shows to rewatch and rewatched shows.
@GB, I don’t have any dramas in mind for re-watches. Maybe you can propose some dramas that you and mor BODers are interested in. I will join re-watches if the dramas interest me.
@FF, OK… then look out for news on ReWatches on the What We are Watching Threads. I feel that we can take a break for a few weeks first and maybe continue in August or September. It’s the summer holidays in the North so some people may take their vacations.
I will be busier for a while too.
You can look for me and @WE on MyDramaList. Add us as your friend and we can chat there as well. Or get updates on what we are rewatching.
@GB, mmh, I think it was “Queen In Yun’s man” ??
Yeah FF, in dramalist, my profile is here:
https://mydramalist.com/profile/7647047
I have to go now. But I’ll come back soon to discuss about next rewatch. 😉
Ok, I will create an account in MDL.
@WE @FF Yes, that’s right. Queen In-Hyun’s Man.
OK talk to you both later. Thanks for the fun parties all these Saturdays!! 😄
My MDL profile links to https://mydramalist.com/profile/GBgrowingbeautifully
@GB, @WE, your profile pages look interesting. Will get in touch once I get my account.
Bye for now, see you in other threads. Have a wonderful Sunday.
Same to you @FF!