A new show called “Squid’s Victory” was accused this week of plagiarising Netflix’s ‘Squid Game’ the streaming site’s most-watched series to date.
Youku, a popular Chinese streaming site, released promotional material for “Squid’s Victory” a new variety show, on Wednesday (Oct 20).
The premise of the show—wherein contestants participate in children’s games, as well as its poster, are similar to the South Korean show.
Netizens called out “Squid’s Victory” for “shamelessly” and “blatantly” ripping off the original show, which debuted last month and went on to become a worldwide success.
The show has also had many fans in China, even though Netflix is not available in the country. Some Chinese citizens have been able to watch “Squid Game” via illegal downloads or streaming.
After the widespread criticism, the name of the new show was announced as “Game’s Victory” while Youku apologised and said that the poster that has been released had only been a draft.
“Due to a work error, the first draft of the new Game’s Victory show – which was shot down before – was mistakenly used in promotional activities at a trade fair,” the company said in a Weibo post.
Youku also released a poster that was considerably dissimilar to the earlier “draft,” reported the BBC.
But one Weibo user commented, “it sounds like such a lame cover-up. Obviously, they had tried to rip off Squid Game because of how popular it is.”
Others called out what has perceived to be just the latest in a long line of copying Korean content.
A commenter called the incident “embarrassing,” and asked, “Why can’t our producers come up with our own ideas?”
Twitter users also called out Youku for alleged plagiarism.
China copied Korean show again.
The title is “Squid’s Victory”, it will be release in 2022.Chinese government banned Korean shows, K-pop in Chinese society.
But Chinese production companies copies so many Korean shows.
China stealing many Korean cultures
Fck them#SquidGame pic.twitter.com/Dnj9QBGdfz
— Parasite 🎬’s PEACH BICTH🍑 (@ShutDa_Ur_Mouth) October 20, 2021
/TISG
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