Netflix 'happy horror comedy Dead Talents Society bears many of his influences outdoors. The author director John HSU spoke to igamesnews at the beginning of this month, such as YouTube streamer, 90s Taiwanese pop music, Satoshi Kon's Perfectly blue And Tokyo Godfathersand real Asian urban legends like “The little girl in red” helped inspire his manic film about the capitalist grind of the hereafter. In Dead Talents SocietyGhosts pursue infinitely viral fame as an urgent superstars, while a new spirit, the rookie (Gingle Wang), deals with the humiliation of an incompetent scorer.
During this interview, HSU also mentioned that he is an enthusiastic player who has strongly influenced his career World of Warcraft Machinima videos and publish them The AFK PL@yers youtube channelAnd he led the film adaptation of the Horror Game 2018 2019 2019 arrest.
“Since I am such a big player – they realized that it could be a good idea to have someone who is familiar with the gaming culture,” he said to Polygon. “It's not that I am particularly interested in horror or history, but it is because of the fact that I am a player that I got this job.”
With so many different references on the screen in Dead Talents SocietyPolygon thought it was wondering if it was inspired in the film whether there were game inspirations. The answers were … Really unexpectedly.
This interview was processed for precision and clarity.
Polygon: Did certain games influence your planning? Dead Talents Society? Or are there games that you believe that people who love this film should play?
John HSU: There are so many of them. For example, Katamari Damsy.
I would not have suspected that the bloody, horror -driven humor of this film.
It is not a direct influence, but I really enjoy the craziness of the game. Every time I approach myself at the end of the game, I get really emotional because it is – I can roll up something really big, and everything is just a purpose. It's like Tokyo Godfathers or Little Miss Sunshine – [movie characters’] Goals can be super stupid, but they still do it.
Me, Katamari Damsy It's like, you always roll a bit and get it bigger. It may have no meaning, but they keep doing it. You make the ball bigger and bigger, but what is it for? And then you send it to the sky to become a star. It is somehow meaningless and so sensible at the same time.
You have Compare the horror elements of this film To Sisyphus will roll up a hill up to the eternal roll of a rock. That sounds similar.
Yes. We did a lot of research in terms of Albert Camus' work. Everything is meaningless, so you should simply enjoy the process. This is the conclusion that we have in the film.
A lot of inspiration with regard to other games that we had Dead Talents Society came from indie games. For example, The beginner leader. It is an indie game from the author of The Stanley Parabel. And it's about this game developer who has done The Stanley Parabel Suffering from the impostor syndrome. He found a kind of puzzle – another game developer who has been anonymous for some time. He would upload random games where it is not even fun to play, but it is as if he is trying to say something, but it is so anonymous that nobody knows who it is. So the protagonist who is the game developer of Stanley parabolaTry to find this guy.
And if the protagonist comes closer to this mysterious game developer, he has warned not to get closer. Strange things happen, but at the end of the day it is about Why do we do things? Why do we create things? What do we try to do? Are we trying to connect with other people? Are we trying to be understood? Are we trying to be seen?
There is a scene in the game when your game becomes super famous – there are many people with cameras who take photos of them and are blocked their heads and say “press”. It is a scene to describe unwanted attention. Because if you create something, you have to be at least creative at the beginning because you thought it is fun. But at a certain point in time when it becomes your job when you have an audience, if you have to satisfy other people, it is getting more and more complicated.
And the creative process can sometimes be poisonous because we have to satisfy many people, which is also impossible. And that influences your self -esteem and identity in a certain way. And that is the core of what we want to talk about Dead Talents Society. So the game also had a lot of influence. I and my co-author Tsai Kun-Lin both played it.
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There is another game called In front of your eyes. It is also an indie game in which the time when flashing is adopted. So the camera is your eyes and how you continue the story. You see the whole life of this protagonist. And sometimes you really don't want to miss the stuff that you see, but you do it because you have to blink. This is the point of this game – time is fleeting. And what was the essence of her life after her death?
The protagonist is so similar to our protagonist. He had a musician who always pushed him to become another musician. And he was as sick as a child, so he thought he would not meet his mother's expectations. So it is just like the rookie in Dead Talents Society. When I played the game during the writing process, I was as surprised as it was.
Dead Talents Society For me, in relation to the rookie story sheet, is very personal. I was forced to play the piano when I was 10 or something. One of the songs that I really had problems with is a song in which the figure In front of your eyes plays. It is therefore a coincidence to recognize for me that there are actually many people who are in the same situation in the same situation about their self-esteem or about their identity if they take too many opinions from other people into account. It leads to the impostor syndrome.
It fascinates me that none of the horror games of them are more influenced by the philosophical elements of different games. Are there any horror games that were important to you?
Oh yes. Silent Hill 2. Definitely. I am a big fan of this series. I think the silent Hill story is at its best 2. When we did arrestWe also had many influences and references from Silent Hill because the game arrest Also had a lot of influence from Silent Hill. I also enjoy it very well Dok Horse Header Literature Club. I thought it was so clever – it's so meta. And the use of meta elements to scare people is the best.
Dead Talents Society Streaming now on Netflix.
