itt: non-english-language netflix series you recommend (or not) and commentary thereon

Xp, season six starts on the 30th!

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Terrace House: Boys and Girls is the only answer to this.

― Yerac, Monday, December 18, 2017 12:28 PM (two days ago) Bookmark]

aloha state starts getting wild in the later parts

Yeah I watched Aloha State first because I was living in Oahu while they were filming it, but the Tokyo one is overall better. There were some serious duds on Aloha State.

Two episodes into La Mante and...it’s not good. Cheapo copycat serial killer drama though Carol Bouquet obviously elevates it.

Dark looks good after one episode. Shades of Donnie Darko and the unfortunate comparison's gonna be to stranger things but it looks suitably creepy. Had to switch off the dubbing after like 5 mins ugh it was bad.

Eight episodes into Dark and the plot still hasn't completely fallen apart yet so that's good I guess. Compared to the bright consumerist Germany of Deutschland 83, the 80s we see here is dull and rainy and still looks like the 60s or 70s. Pity the characters are such non-entities.

Not a series but we watched An Off-Day Game, a Malayalam art film that Netflix is carrying for some reason (with subtitles) and thought it was great. For a fairly low-budget film, the shots are gorgeous and the story is brutal but reveals itself gradually. Basically, it's about four middle-aged guys who get drunk on an election day [which are holidays in Kerala] and the way their dark sides are progressively revealed in the way they treat each other. It probably helps to have a basic understanding of Kerala politics and Indian caste and colour prejudices and discrimination. (Broadly, the two main political coalitions are a coalition led by the Communists who are probably the most anti-caste party and a Congress-led coalition who would be centre-left by mainstream Indian standards but function as the more right-wing side in the context of Kerala.)

There’s a dystopian Brazilian thing, name is something like SIX PERCENT, that I didn’t see mentioned yet which I watched a little of once, wasn’t compelled enough to keep watching.

no hype yet for THE SWEET TOOTH SALARYMAN?

http://i0.wp.com/i.imgur.com/qeWRJXU.jpg

Pity the characters are such non-entities.

Yeah the actors/acting doesnt sparkle much, but I'll give it a go.

no hype yet for THE SWEET TOOTH SALARYMAN?

― the ghost of tom, choad (thomp), Saturday, 30 December 2017 3:11 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I mentioned it on the other Netflix thread. It’s a fun show and inspired me ordering anmitsu in Tokyo the other week.

haha i don't know what the experience i had watching the first episode was but it certainly wasn't 'fun'

the obsessive pleasure kintarou finds in desserts seems ... hm. positive coverage normally says it's about the necessity of small pleasures among a dehumanising work culture, but it seems a bit of a moral void. the necessary complement to the dehumanising work culture ... kantarou's joy itself a capitalist product ...

tho mb if i wasn't prejudiced against hyper-sweet asian desserts already i wouldn't have had this reaction, to be fair: i found all the food porn shots about as appetising as had they focused instead on glistening, beautifully-framed, superlatively-lit lumps of human excrement

I watched 3 episodes of Salaryman but it's not really grabbing me. The visits to sweet shops are a little too tedious/tidy.

There’s a dystopian Brazilian thing, name is something like SIX PERCENT

restarted FILINTA: can't reeally remember who anyone is, still intrigued by its mix of slapstick silliness and genuine nastiness

Have you tried Turkish on Duolingo yet, mark?

it is on my list but some way down :)

EASY LIVING/HELPPO ELÄMÄ (finnish): just started, three series

WRT to kantaro this seems pretty representative of Japanese tv. I’m sitting in a hotel room in Yamagata watching a completely different show where the protagonist is getting erotic satisfaction from the architectural details in the restaurant he’s in. The comedy comes from this and the fact that he is very tall and keeps hitting his head on the the aforementioned architectural details. ( Also he is waiting for a parfait).

the japanese shows i try all seem to have anime-featured schoolkids as primary characters and (as a very old person) i find this quite unengaging -- are there any with more grizzled ppl?

lol my filinta-layoff means that i have stopped being able to distinguish between all the many beards w/fezzes and can no longer follow the plot

More grizzled - midnight diner on Netflix

La Mante cleverly worked out it could get even worse if it threw in gender politics ripped from a 70s giallo. Looking forward to catching up on Spiral though.

Destroy: LILYHAMMER, in which Little Steven’s Sopranos character (in everything but name) goes into the witness protection program in Norway and comedic culture clash ensues. If only.

another vote here for CALL MY AGENT aka DIX POUR CENT when you guys have finished brooding over blasted scando hellscapes

^^ OUI!

Just started that a couple of days ago, it's loads of fun.

dudes i have been baskjng in the drug-tossed med all year

SAME THING

🎶 la reina dul sur, traficante muy famosa 🎵

Eight episodes into Dark and the plot still hasn't completely fallen apart yet so that's good I guess. Compared to the bright consumerist Germany of Deutschland 83, the 80s we see here is dull and rainy and still looks like the 60s or 70s. Pity the characters are such non-entities.

― Choco Blavatsky (seandalai), Saturday, 30 December 2017 02:17 (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This completely fell apart in the last episode btw

New Spiral is chugging along nicely in the groove we know and love. Will probably never again feel as exciting as it did around Seasons 2/3.

EASY LIVING/HELPPO ELÄMÄ (finnish) is abt a debt-ridden middleclass family to turn to petty crime to make ends meet

(the dad appears to own a sonic screwdriver to override car alarms)

has quite a funny scene abt app-dating praxis and mores among teens (as explored actually during a coding class, naturally)

enjoying it, so i gave it its own thread: EASY LIVING/HELPPO ELÄMÄ: let's go do some (finnish) crimes

lol there is a series just starting -- THE FROZEN DEAD -- for which the blurb is: "a haunted detective. a shrewd psychopath. and a town overrun with dark secrets. this deadly game is just getting started."

THIS IS ALL OF THEM

*(not to be confused with WITNESSES: A FROZEN DEATH obv)

naturally i am about to start watching it

am i the only one who has gotten a bunch of recommendations for turkish comedies and heartbreakingly unfunny looking polish standup specials

i tried SPIRAL for a while and it was pretty good, but most of the mystery for me was trying to figure out how the french criminal justice system works

but tbt my netflix viewing is done mostly during housework so i couldn't keep up with with the subtitles

in french THE FROZEN DEAD is called GLACÉ -- translation shd have been ICED imo (it's set in the french pyrenees)

WITNESSES: A FROZEN DEATH was just called LES TEMOINS (s2)

i get a ton of turkish stuff, but then i've been on-off watching FILINTA for months

https://78.media.tumblr.com/840bf735199af7fb42095e77089cd932/tumblr_oe93kgNtmb1s71q1zo1_1280.png

Dominik Graf's "Im Angesicht des Verbrechens" is a breezy, offbeat magic realist crime show about Berlin cops vs the Russian mob. The polar opposite of Scandinavian bleakness & probably the best thing on German TV ever since Fassbinder. Idk if the series is available worldwide as the netflix.de version doesn't have English subs.

"merd-uh!!"
translation: "dammit"

:)

(from GLACÉ)

(which is by the way basically a pyrenean rewrite of silence of the lambs, with flayed horses

)

i think that's a pretty good translation tbf! "merde" not as strong as "shit", said around children with impunity

in this instance he *definitely* meant shit

they just translated something else as "blimey" -- sadly it was on a grainy and blurry bit of video the flics were watching so i couldn't make out what was being said

"oh la vache!!"

yes it might be!