YOU WILL BE ADDICTED TO SURVIVAL FILMS!

QUICK!! WOULD YOU RATHER COMPETE IN JIGSAW or ALICE IN BORDERLAND FOR $500 MILLION!?

OR BETTER, WOULD YOU SURVIVE BOTH NIGHTMARES FOR A BILLION DOLLARS!!?

COME ON, WHAT'S THE HOLDUP? THE ANSWER IS “YES” FOR COMPETING IN BOTH, MUHAHAHA!

THE EXCEPTION BEING you are an ordinary person that loves their boring day-to-day life ALL THE WHILE sticking to their amorous rom-com Netflix shows and nothing else. WASN’T THERE A TIME IN LIFE WHERE YOU JUST WANTED TO ESCAPE FROM IT ALL, BRING ABOUT THAT PERSON AGAIN AS YOU READ THIS!

BECAUSE IF YOU DO, YOUR IN FOR A THRILL.

Many of us like an excellent horror survival movie and series, SO TURN ON NETFLIX (AFTER) AND THROW OUT THE VANILLA ICECREAM AND REPLACE IT WITH STRAWBERRY ICE CREAM BECAUSE THIS SHOW RECOMMENDATION BEING JUST AS SWEET WITH THEIR DRAMA IS ALSO-

A HORROR THRILLER SURVIVAL SHOW!

If you like the movie JigSaw, along with the many deadly riddles and games,

Then you’ll LOVE this MANGA ADAPTION masterpiece “Alice In Borderland.”

Alice In Borderland (that thick summary)

Quick!! You’re in Japan, and suddenly everyone disappears, you’re in a parallel Japan, and now you must compete in a survival death game to get back to the real world.

Alice In Borderland (A.I.B.) like JigSaw, the only difference being A.I.B. is on steroids and in an open-world setting. The goal is to survive and collect cards so one can escape. Each game is designed and supervised by dealers (people who’ve got transported to Borderland that must kill players through games to keep living). A collect the cards game through playing death games, with the number representing the difficulty (the higher the number, the more complex the game) to suit the category.

Card of spades represents physical-based games, testing player strength and endurance. Card of diamonds is intelligence-based games focusing on mental calculation, rationality, and logic. Card of clubs is interpersonal, a balance between Spades and Diamonds, requiring cooperation between the players to succeed. Finally, are the card of hearts, the most terrifying of all. These are psychological games meant to trap the players into corners and manipulate them accordingly. Such games certainly are no easy feat, especially for main character Arisu (the Japanese pronunciation of Alice) and his friends Karube (tough guy bartender) and Chota (IT office worker).

Arisu is a young man who lives an unmotivated life who dreams to travel far away to avoid thinking about his future. He is a strategist at heart thanks to his remarkable skills at video games and knowledge from reading textbooks on math and mechanics. But most of his days are just being an aimless gamer playing one game at a time, locked in his room, and hanging out with his friends. But WAIT!!

The great thing about Alice in Borderland is that people can relate to the characters like Arisu because of his acute peter pan syndrome and family drama; he is called a disappointment by his father. Karube, the bartender, always seems to get in a rough patch with his boss. Chota, the IT office worker, gets taken advantage of by his coworkers because of his soft heart. All three long for a different world and to hit the reset button on their life, like who wouldn’t want that!? But be careful what you wish.

ONE DAY, Arisu permanently leaves the house because of his dad’s nagging to get a job; he then groups up with his friends with nothing else to do. While joking around and ACCIDENTALLY running out into the mall's road, they hear fireworks that catch everyone's attention and the COPS. As they run away, thinking the cops are chasing them, they hide in the bathroom stalls, and suddenly the lights go out, and everything outside goes quiet. As they walk outside, they find the city wholly abandoned, and their phones don’t even work!!

That night a building lights up with an arrow directing them to a building. As they enter the building, they pass through lasers trapping them inside, where they find phones with facial recognition but no signal. With a 2 min countdown going off for other players to join the game. A female university student walks in, and a foxy lady with a truth bomb saying once they enter a game, there is no backing out, as she throws a card through the lasers that immediately gets zapped.

NO STRATEGY, NO GAME

NOW THE SWEET HOOK THAT GETS YOU INTO THE SHOW is Arisu’s knack for strategy, Kurobe’s leadership, and Chota’s helpful nature; I MEAN who doesn’t like the MAIN CHARACTER who’s smart and takes on the world with his best buds?! In the first game, they step out of an elevator into a square room with two doors, “DIE" and "LIVE."

With a timer to pick a door within 2 mins, the room goes in smoke with each second passing!!

Everyone loses hope as they try to think about which door to open. Chota takes a recording of their last moments, and with the time going down, the place fills more with smoke soon to be lit by fire.

Now, what would you do in a situation like this? Would you pick a door by chance with a 50/50 chance of death or have someone else pick, putting their life in danger? For a fatal mistake is your last.

Kurobe being a leader, knows Arisu’s knack for strategy and riles him up to come with a way for survival. In a quick act of desperation, they map out the building’s rooms and find out that they’re on the left side and there should be either 9 or 12 rooms based on the rooms being square. But ARISU BEING A CAR FANATIC USES KNOWLEDGE of the BMW mechanics outside the building. Knowing the exact length and model, he uses that to measure the room’s size with his feet and finds the game's complete layout. I don’t know about you, but a feat like this puts A.I.B. on a high pedestal from the other survival shows. But the question is, do they make it out alive?

JigSaw and Alice in Borderland similarities (death games and life lessons)

A horror movie or series isn’t complete if there is no life lesson or profound major event that separates the movie/series from any other content. The similarities between JigSaw and A.I.B. are that they bring horror to a DO-IT-OR-DIE life setting, death games played against one’s own will, and a brutal life lesson in the end learned. With events happening in the movie/series that seem like they could happen, it’s hard to disagree that the content's events can’t possibly happen in the real world.

Now, before we move on, keep in mind the question “which deadly #1 death game would you partake in?”

JigSaw’s life lesson and #1 most iconic death game: Horror movies don’t just make you scared and get you at the edge of your seat.

They teach you the life lesson to value your life and everyone else’s life and don’t take life for granted. Because at the end of the day, when one treats their life and people’s life as a game to stealing, gambling, murder, drugs, etc.! It’s only long until the person ends up in JigSaw’s most iconic death game,

THE REVERSE BEARTRAP:

You're soundly sleeping in bed, and the next thing you know, you're awake in a room strapped to a chair with a device strapped on your head and upper/lower jaw. WHAT DO YOU DO!?

Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith), a drug addict, plays a nightmare device involving a reverse bear trap around her jaws with a timer. Once the timer goes off, the reverse bear trap FORCES one’s jaw open, making them AN INSTANT GONER. Escaping is only by beating the time by finding the key to unlock the bear trap, and that is only through digging through the guts of a cellmate paralyzed by opioid overdose.

Alice in Borderland’s life lesson and #1 most iconic death game: Like JigSaw’s life lesson, the only twist is A.I.B. teaches one to find joy and healing in the dark world. With every game varying in complexity, the most iconic being,

SEVEN OF HEARTS:

The Seven of Hearts challenge is the one that shows just how cruel the Game Master is willing to be, symbolizing the harsh reality of life. When the game's rules get explained, it feels like an error. It's called a game of hide-and-seek, where the wolves seek out the lambs. Whoever the wolf finds first becomes the new wolf - but the wolf is the only one who will survive the game. Logically, if you're the wolf, you're going to want to run away from the lambs as fast as possible while they're the ones who seek you out.

Alice In Borderland is a great show to watch, with both films having even more gruesome games than their iconic. Because, these times of the pandemic, this show can help you to value your life and find the joy in everything, EVEN IF IT’S A DEATH GAME with a bit of rom-com. So then, which do you choose to compete in, BOTH?