Netflix's Squid Game - Life is a Squid Game

In the past, I use to watch many survival-horror genre in anime, Japanese TV shows/movies and now I'm not interested in seeing anymore gruesome death games. But many people are praising this show and it has many good reviews. And, I'm like: alright, I'll take a look at this and see what's all the hype is about. 

 

Story

Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), a divorced dad, lives with his mother and is not able to financially support himself and his daughter. On top of that, he is a gambling addict and has problems managing his own money. Gi-hun, thinks that there is no hope for him, until he meets a stranger, offers him to join the Game to win lots of money. Gi-hun agrees to participate, hoping that this will help him turn his life around. He joins the other 400+ players who also have financial troubles and deep debts.

 

The players must win 6 simple children's games in order to win the grand prize money. But the penalty of losing is death. Gi-hun and his allies must go through a grueling physical and psychological challenges of the game. But when the Games pushes everyone to their limits and backs them into a corner, it slowly reveals the darker sides of humanity.  

 

Thoughts

I've read that the director/writer of the show, Hwang Dong-hyuk, took inspiration from Battle Royale and Liar Game. It is also a metaphor for the Asian culture of being highly competitive, social pressures from the community and modern capitalism. I can kind of see that... But for me I took it as a dark side of conformity and communism. The players volunteer themselves to play the Games, but they are being stripped of their humanity and treated like prisoners. Everyone wears the same track suit, eats very little food, sleeps in the same room, and need to ask permission to go to the bathroom. Same thing goes for the Game guards of Squid Game. They must follow a routine schedule and if they fall out of line and break the rules, they are made an example out of them (mostly killed). The Front Man, the Game host, repeatedly says the game must be played fairly and equally. Is it really? Some players are better than others in skills, wit and others found a way to cheat the game. There can only be one winner, and everyone else is dead. All of the above sounds like they are living under a communist-faction.

 

Whether the director has intentionally or unintentionally inserted a hidden message about anti-communism, it's still very clever. Everyone can agree on communism is evil. I love stories that are about people who fight for their freedoms, whether it's in a fictional world or the real world, I'm all for it.

Another obvious metaphor in Squid Game is the elites vs. working class. It's similar to The Hunger Games where the rich elites are using the lower-class for their own pleasure and entertainment. People are fighting to the death in the name of money and power, while being treated like meat to be thrown to the lions. The rich think that they are above the law and the middle/lower class are being screwed by the system. In a way, our real society reflects this and that's the real horror!

 

 

Anyway, I thought it was interesting and I'm looking forward to next season. This show deserves all the hype. In the West, there is a boom for South Korean entertainment, thanks to rise of Kpop music. I noticed that Netflix has a huge library of Kdramas, a lot more than Japanese dramas, which I'm kind of jealous. I guess Squid Game got very lucky, as it came out at the right time and place. 

Overall, I would recommend it to anyone who likes a mix of the Hunger Games and Liar Game (also a J-drama adaptation). However, I think this show is so popular because everyone loves to see a story about people rising up against authoritarianism or evil. No matter what language you speak, it's universal theme that anyone can relate too.
Trailer

 Streamed  Sept.17.2021
 Episodes  9
 Director  Hwang Dong-hyuk
 Cast  Park Hae-soo, Jung Ho-yeon, Anupam Tripathi, O Yeong-su, Lee Byung-hun  

 Where  Netflix