- Just a dimwit who lives off his mother,
but you're with me in this place.
Isn't that interesting?
- [Narrator] This is the voice that many people heard
when watching Netflix's most popular series ever,
the South Korean drama, "Squid Game."
- A man just died!
- [Narrator] And English wasn't
the only dubbed language available.
(Gi-hun speaks Thai)
(Gi-hun's friend speaks French)
(machine beeps)
There were 12 others.
(machine speaks Portuguese) (they both shout)
- Dubbing is one of the hardest forms
of voice work that there is.
- [Narrator] This voice work has been key
to making the South Korean show a global phenomenon.
The series was also subtitled in 31 languages
but Netflix says more people watch "Squid Game" dubbed
and overall, dubbing consumption on the platform
has more than doubled from last year,
with help from some big hits.
- In the past, people would say,
"Oh, you can't really dub into English.
The American audience or the English audience,
they don't like to hear dubbing."
Well, look at us now.
"Squid Game" is an amazing example.
- [Narrator] But the dubbed version of "Squid Game"
has also drawn criticism online,
so we got access to this studio in Los Angeles
to understand why getting dubbing right
has become crucial to Netflix's global expansion.
- [Greg] Okay.
- [Narrator] Greg Chun is the English voice of Seong Gi-hun,
a chauffeur with a gambling problem
who, along with other indebted adults,
is invited to play a series of children's games
for a chance to win a large cash prize.
(Greg grunts)
Chun has lent his voice to characters in video games
like "Judgment" and "Call of Duty".
- [Soldier] Stitch, the rats are here.
- [Narrator] But he says dubbing for "Squid Game"
was particularly challenging.
- Because it's live action.
There's no hiding behind
the original actor's performance on camera.
Every little twitch of the eye,
every little stammer, every little tick that they have,
you have to try and pay attention to that
and make it believable and sell the English language.
- [Director] Okay, can you play that back?
- [Gi-hun] Crazy incompetent.
- [Narrator] People in the film industry say
compared with the past,
many viewers today expect higher quality dubbing
or they'll find it hard to engage with the content.
- Your goal is to try and match the lip movements
as closely as possible
while still conveying the emotions of the character.
- [Greg] A man just died.
Come on, this isn't right.
- [Narrator] Chun, who's Korean American,
gave us a demo as he worked with the director
and an audio engineer.
He said it took him about 45 hours
to dub his lines for the nine episodes
in what was a very detailed process.
- We go on just for the "C'mon this isn't right."
It's the big open vowel sound at the end
- Yeah. - 'cause of the Korean,
so we have to almost lose the enunciation on right
- Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. - to go with it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [Gi-hun] A man just died.
- Come on, this isn't right!
- [Director] Yes. Yes.
- There we go, jeez, thank you.
- [Director] Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.
(Greg groans)
- [Catherine] Dubbing's not a pure translation.
- [Narrator] Catherine Retat oversees
Netflix's international dubbing operations from Paris.
(Gi-hun's friend speaks Korean)
- [Catherine] We have to find the right way of saying
so it sound very native.
(machine beeps) (Gi-hun's friend speaks Thai)
We have to match those nuances
and then adapt them to the language we are dubbing into.
- Any good son knows that. - Hey, don't say that!
I do know.
- Before the incident.
- [Narrator] For Netflix, it's become a business priority.
Beyond "Squid Game",
dubbing also fueled the global success
of foreign language content,
like the French show "Lupin"
and the Spanish series "Money Heist".
- This is our last dance, fatty.
Make it a good one.
- Netflix with dubbing,
it's really in parallel with
how Netflix has been expanding globally.
The team has been ramping up
as the expansion was going on the dubbing.
- [Announcer] Welcome to IQ Robotics.
- [Narrator] One of Netflix's early forays into dubbing
was with children's content,
since young kids can't read subtitles.
- If you've ever tried to make this.
- [Narrator] Then the company stepped up efforts
to offer other dubbed versions
of English language reality TV shows.
- But one of the thing that really
I think Netflix has been really super innovative
is that now we also offer English dubbing
and it's extremely successful.
- [Narrator] Today it works with
more than 170 dubbing studios around the world
to dub content in 34 languages.
- Someone do something.
- [Narrator] But as dubbed content becomes more ubiquitous,
so does the risk of criticism.
Social media users have complained
that the English version of "Squid Game"
didn't sound realistic.
- Negative attitudes usually come from viewers
who are not used to dubbing,
especially English viewers.
- [Narrator] Sofía Mompeán teaches translation in Spain
and for the past decade has been researching
how to improve dubbed content.
She says English speaking viewers
are more likely to complain
since they can be easily distracted by the lip sync.
- Hey, do you hear that?
- [Narrator] And that can make them less engaged
with the show.
- There will be sometimes losses as well
because of course there are some cultural references
that cannot be explained in the dubbed version.
- [Narrator] Chun said he understands why
some viewers have been critical about the show,
but said dubbing is never going to be perfect.
- There's a suspension of disbelief
that you have to adopt at the very beginning
that okay, these voices that I'm hearing,
they're not matching what I'm seeing,
I somehow have to bridge that and be okay with it.
- [Narrator] Netflix acknowledges
there's room for improvement
since dubbing is an evolving art form.
- Dubbing is like cooking.
It's technique and it's a craft
and every country has a bit of its own way to do things.
We constantly try to work with our partners
to stay true to the original version.
- [Narrator] And Netflix isn't alone
in providing more dubbed content.
Other streaming platforms,
from Amazon Prime to HBO Max and Disney+,
have also joined the race
and the global film dubbing market is expected
to hit $3.6 billion by 2027.
- You will learn how to react in the case of an unhappy--
- [Narrator] To improve quality and speed,
some startups are even developing ways
to use artificial intelligence.
(AI Woman speaks Portuguese)
- That's right. That's how I got caught in all this.
- [Narrator] Though Retat says using real voice actors
will offer an experience closer to the original content.
- [Catherine] I really believe that our strategy is
to work locally with the talent and the voices
to bring authenticity to the dubbing.
- [Narrator] In a market that's hungry for content,
entertainment industry watchers see dubbing
as one of the best ways to bring more shows
to many more viewers around the world.
- I look at my job as being
trying to do the best job possible
to try and represent the story
and the performance of the original actor
as authentically and as accurately as I can
and as believably as I can for the target language.
Can someone do something?
So that somebody who otherwise might not be able
to enjoy this amazing piece of storytelling can do so.
Hey, do you hear that?
(soft tense music)