Squid Game

It feels like it’s been a long time since a show has taken over the world quite like Squid Game has. Released during the latter half of 2021 on Netflix, Squid Game wasn’t just a very successful show, its arguably one of the most successful that’s ever been released on the platform and is easily the most successful show to be released in 2021. Not even three months after release, it was Netflix’s most watched series and it’s popularity was so massive that it spawned its own pop-culture phenomenon; resulting in a ton of cos-playing, an increase in profits for Korean markets with people buying clothes and merchandising similar to the show, fan games made to parody the various challenges seen in the show,  it even led to an Youtuber-based (no-lethal thankfully) Squid Game led by American Youtuber MrBeast, it proved to the whole world that this show wasn’t just a very popular one, it was going to be one that would stay with people forever and had become a part of pop-culture. And to think this all came from a show basically doing a more disturbed version of Hunger Games. Set in South Korea, down on his luck Seong Gi-Hun (played by Lee Jung-jae) faces several life issues involving loan sharks hounding him, being unable to support his mother who has recently been hospitalized due to Diabetes, and his inability to look after his daughter now that she is moving away with his ex-wife and new partner. Desperate for cash, he is met upon by a mysterious suited stranger who invites him to play several different children’s games to earn money. Being taken to an unknown location with several other people (also deeply in debt), everyone soon finds out that the game is more serious than expected, as they must survive a life-or-death situation in order to progress and earn the money. Afraid but unable to return empty handed, Gi-hun forms a group which includes Sang-woo (played by Park Hae-soo) an old successful friend who fell on bad times, Sae-byeok (played by Hoyeon Jung),  a North-Korean defector trying to earn money for her little brother, Abdul Ali (played by Anupam Tripathi), a Pakistan migrant worker earning money to escape with his family, and an old man only known as 001 (played by O Yeong-su), who has a brain tumour and wishes to at least die here as opposed to alone on the outside. Working together, they have to survive this crazy game in order to escape with that much pined after cash-prize, all the while a police officer Hwang Jun-ho (played by Wi Ha-joon) sneaks into the facility and tries to uncover its secrets. Earning critical acclaim on an international level, Squid Game left its mark on the world for its visuals, concept, commentary, performances, and mixture of light and dark-hearted elements.

The story itself for this nine-part series was actually slightly personal to the creator and director of this show, Hwang Dong-hyuk, who struggled through a debt crisis with his family while South Korea was experience its own debt crisis. He clearly attached several of his own inspirations he got from reading mangas such as Battle Royale, Liar Game and Gambling Apocalypse: Kaiji to the project as it helped shape the story, which took over a decade and a few other projects to finally see the light of day. The show does a fantastic job setting itself up during its first act (basically the first three episode) as it lays out the story beats, main motivation and struggles for the characters, as well as the rules and consequences of the game, very effectively and in a creative, yet grounded, manner. The show feels like a mixture between Hunger Games and Parasite; with its premise, attitude towards the social classes and its marketable appeal towards younger audiences (uncomfortably) feeling like the popular young adult novel, yet the social commentary, tight and deep yet realistic writing, dramatic and simplistic yet beautiful visuals, and a tone that balances light and dark very effectively, feels like something right out of a slightly quirky but still realistic thriller. The main premise of playing in these children’s games for money while trying to avoid the threat of death is wonderfully engaging and unique. The contrast between the off-putting childlike environment and challenges makes the overly gruesome deaths and gut-twistingly intense pacing strangely entertaining; like you’re enticed into being horrified later because of how strangely infectious it is. Its call-backs to real-world issues, mainly those struggling through financial crisis’s in South Korea is touched upon very effective as well; it’s a show that lays out very nicely why people would do something so reckless and dumb for something like money. As the series progresses however, things start to get a little wonky; clever subtle commentary starts to become more obvious, characters start to fall into basic archetypes as opposed to complex individuals, the challenges become less visually creative and start feeling uncomfortable in not a fun way, and a lot of the shows good-will gets completely destroyed by its final episode. For all the fantastic build-up and mapping out of such great questions, it leads to a very unsatisfying and awkwardly handled finale. While going in a direction that feels believable, it leaves the audience feeling hollow in the wrong way and turns its message unbelievably hypocritical and pushes forth this commentary without having it make logical sense or even work on an emotional level. Its need to sequel-bait for a project that doesn’t need it also feels more along the lines of a young adult book as opposed to the dramatic project it was creating earlier. Hwang is still a fantastic director and on a technical level, the entire show is still delivered in a pretty great way, but the final act’s content feels way less interesting than what was being laid out on the way.

All the characters from the initial standpoint are portrayed as desperate people who are willing to do anything in order to get rich, but the levels in which they can tolerate the deathly circumstances vary as it continues on. It presents a situation where neither side is wrong in their need to either leave or keep playing, but both could be seen as idiotic for either staying to potentially die or leaving to return to poverty. Every actor, whether in a large or small part, is very well performed, and the main cast is very well defined by their backstories and motivations, they have good chemistry with each other, and each get to balance between different morality spectrums; they aren’t always squeaky clean or fully dirty, they can be either or. The main character does suffer from ‘’main character syndrome’’ and has very little personality to work with, but Lee Jung-jae acts him very well as both the clueless every-man and then a depressed reclusive. Jung Hoyeon actually does really good as Sae-byeok and despite being new to acting, brings a lot of honest heart and raw quiet emotion to her character. The masked guards have a great design that makes them look oddly relaxed, yet the inability to see their faces and the almost pleasant tone of voice opposite their brutal unfeeling actions makes them wonderfully mysterious additions to the show. While it doesn’t have a great pay-off, the build-up and slow realization of who they are is very well handled. The man seemingly in charge of the games (until a very annoying reveal in the final episode proves it wrong) is appropriately threatening and has a great design also, however the lame and expected payoff is disappointing if nothing is explored with his character further. The only really bad actors in the show are the VIPS behind the curtain who are observing the games; the need to have them speak English makes them stand out as specific awful actors due to how terribly they say their lines and it makes it obvious why its much better to view it in its intended language (do NOT watch this with a dub, it will definitely ruin it for you).

The visuals and atmosphere are one of the most striking and distinct aspects of the show, especially considering how colorful and almost abstract it is in its M. C. Esher-like architecture and layout. It has the mixture of a prison yard, but also a kindergarten school, it mashes these aspects together to create a truly memorable style that has popping colors and a scale that can feel as expansive as it does claustrophobic. Production designer Chae Kyoung-sun and set decorator, Kim Jeong-gon do a fantastic job at creating something that ties heavily into Korean culture through several little aspects that attribute to the lifestyle, but through its distinct coloration and universal appearance, makes it work for anybody watching, it’s a truly outstanding effort. The score composed by Jung Jae-ill has appropriate amounts of intense beauty to it; it can be as atmospheric as it can be brutally intense, and it knows when to be quiet and let a moment sink in as well as knowing when to completely turns your nerves up to 10,000. The usage of classic music also adds a nice, sophisticated level of irony to the show. The writing has moments of brilliant foreshadowing and layering out its environment building in such a natural and flowing manner, it’s so cleverly establishes the game in such a way that is very clear what it is, why it should keep going, and what needs to be done to do it, Also its commentary in the beginning is well done and it feels completely genuine because it simply shows the struggle and alludes to it as oppose to constantly talk about it. The ending does nothing but over-talk about it in such a backwards manner that it doesn’t come across nearly as effective. Its final conclusion is so unsympathetic and almost against what it was building up to that it feels like the show is trying to write the end in such a manner to make this conclusion seem logical, but it can’t escape how unrealistic it feels.

Squid Game is definitely something special as, despite these flaws that have been listed, they honestly don’t even pale in comparison to what it sets out to achieve and it did that exceedingly well. To see not only how successful it was for the Korean market, but also on a global scale, it proved that other pieces of work like it can succeed despite its odd presentation and will hopefully lead to more like it in the future. The struggles of capitalism and economic struggles was something that was clearly a point meant to represent Korea, but it can be tied back to other places in the world, and that’s what makes it so strong, it stands for one thing, but it can stand for so many other people as well. Its true that the ending is a pretty heavy letdown and wastes a lot of its fantastic set-up, but before that, it still has expertly crafted story and environment building, it has memorable character with great actors, a fantastic visually pleasing yet striking production design, games that are appropriately creepy in the best way possible, and its themes while not always portrayed perfectly, are important for the world to know about and recognize in other countries as well as their own. Flawed, but still very much worth checking out, it will have to be seen if a second season could remedy the flaws this one left and see if Squid Game could continue being a game worth coming back to.