Squid Games: The K-Drama That Has Been Making A Buzz
You may have heard about the newest K-drama, Squid Games. Here’s why it has been making a buzz!
The story follows two teenagers who are both gifted with supernatural powers and use them to play games against each other to see which one of them is stronger. They must decide whether they want to protect their own lives or each others’ before all 12 episodes have aired.
Why the K-drama Squid Games Has Been Making A Buzz?
Two weeks ago a show called Squid Game came out on Netflix. It did not have much fanfare or buzz. But today it is going to be the most-watched show on Netflix of all time. This game is not like most games. You do not fall in love or steal something, but it is about deadly contests. 456 people volunteer to play these games. They are like playground games, but there are bullets and bodies. If you make it to the end, you will win a lot of money. If someone dies, they are not alive anymore.
The game Squid Game is very similar to The Hunger Games and Battle Royale. They all have people fight each other, but the difference with Squid Game is that you know who will play. In this game, poor people have to do this for entertainment. In the movie Squid Game, it is easy to see that capitalism sucks. A lot of people think that. There is a Korean guy who made a movie about this. He won an Oscar for it too!
Squid Game starts by following SeongGi-hun (Lee Jung-Jae), a man who is in debt. He leans on his mom for help and he also gambles. One day a handsome man in a suit (LIKELY played by Train to Busan’s Gong Yoo) approaches Gi-hun on the subway and asks him to play a simple game called dakji with him. If Gi-hun wins, he will get money. Yoo’s character wants Gi-hun to give him money by playing a game. The game is that they slap each other when they lose. When Gi-hun wins, he wants the money back, but Yoo says he will only give him the money if he plays another round.
What is good about this introduction to the “game” is that we learn Gi-hun is as obsessed with competition as he needs money. Everyone in the game has other things besides just money. But most people want to have money. That is why they return to the game after first escaping.
What are fans finding good about the Squid game?
The second part of Squid Game’s genius is the way it gives the main characters an out after the first terrible massacre. Once Gi-hun arrives at the mysterious island base, he finds himself and 455 other people dressed in matching green sweatsuits. Everyone has a number, not a name, and an “equal” shot at winning the first game, “Red Light, Green Light.” The losers of the game are gunned down while the winners are allowed to vote if they want to stay in the deadly competition or not. Everyone has a number, not a name. The people who lose are shot. The people who win the vote. For many, the thrill of the games is better than living. Gi-hun can’t deal with losing his daughter and because of that, he can’t afford medical care for his mother.
And so Gi-hun and the other people return to the island. They play scary games. A police officer is looking for his brother. We learn about the people who make the games turn on. Themes about the value of human life, the power of teamwork, and the corrosive nature of mistrust are in this story.
Squid Game is the creation of a Korean writer and director. He wanted to write a story about modern capitalist society and how it is like life. It tells the story of extreme competition like in life. The person wanted the game to be based on people in real life. He also liked games in the battle royale genre. But he found them too difficult to play. So his game, Squid Game, is more simple and easy for people to understand.
What are the other details related to it?
The game Squid Game is fun to play. You can play it outside and not inside. It helps you understand the story in the book better because you’re not trying to figure out what’s happening.
Hwang succeeded in his goal. Squid Game is simple and easy to understand, but also complex. It hooks you with its concept and keeps you watching with the character portraits and the way it builds the world. In Squid Game, you will have strong feelings about the characters. You will find out if they are good or bad people and if they have secret connections. You might feel angry because there is a lot of symbolism in the game. I am angry about how inequality shapes our world. Hwang’s approach to metaphor is very simple and he barely used it. Squid Game is great TV because it was well plotted and there are many scenes with death.
Squid Game is a success because it is executed well. It does not shy away from the subtext of the survival game genre. Squid Game faces the gross inequity caused by capitalism head-on. This game doesn’t have a secret meaning. It is about how children play games that are competitive with other children.
