Commentary: How the bleak world of Netflix’s Squid Game hooked fans worldwide
SYDNEY: Squid Game, an original Netflix drama produced in Southward Korea, is a streaming phenomenon. Released on Sep 17, within two weeks the series has get the well-nigh watched Netflix title in 76 countries, including the Usa, Commonwealth of australia and S Korea.
Beyond nine episodes, desperate people enmeshed in debt voluntarily participate in a sequence of half dozen sadistic and lethal survival games. The prize for the winner is 46.5 billion won (The states$40 meg).
At the outset, the 456 participants are unaware there is a twist. In that location tin only exist one winner – and the rest of the contestants volition die along the way.
This outcome is foreshadowed for viewers in a segment that precedes episode 1, in which two groups of children are seen playing the eponymous Squid Game (substantially a fierce game played past Korean schoolboys).
The groups struggle for possession of a squid-shaped area drawn on the ground. Both attackers and defenders must resist being pushed out of the play expanse, for, according to the commentary, if you are pushed out you "die".
Such games are commonly metaphors for life experiences. Games structured equally a struggle for possession, or with the goal of overcoming a player in a position of command, are often stories about social aspiration and limited social mobility.
In the survival game played in episode one, Cherry-red Light, Green Lite (as well known every bit Hibiscus Flowers Have Bloomed in South korea and Statues elsewhere around the globe), players tin win if they tin creep forward when the controlling figure'due south back is turned.
If seen to move, they are "eliminated" (and in this example, dice).
The brutal adaptation of children's games at the center of Squid Game accept clearly captured the imagination of the show's viewers, and likewise provide a startlingly evocative metaphor for socio-economic inequality and commercialism.
AN Diff AND VIOLENT Lodge
Television drama frequently portrays Southward Korea every bit a profoundly diff and trigger-happy society. Its traumatic history throughout nigh of the twentieth century – Japanese colonisation, the Korean State of war, almost 40 years of armed services dictatorship and financial crises – has left deep psychological scars on the national psyche.
Dark political narratives in TV and film continue to express the social touch of that history, such as the recent Netflix zombie series, Kingdom (2019 to 2021), along with DP (2021), Signal (2016) and Stranger (2015).
The economic gap within Southward Korean order is always widening, and has become a recurrent motif in TV drama. This unequal club is a staple of Cinderella stories in which protagonists are displaced into poverty and abused past those with wealth and power until they regain their identify.
Information technology is also reflected in dramas virtually the super-rich such as Sky Castle (2018) and The Penthouse (2020 to 2021), which show how ultra-wealthy South Koreans maintain their control over the country'southward wealth.
Bong Joon-Ho'south Oscar-winning Parasite (2019) drew dramatic attention to the economic gap, as accept several other films: Burning (2018), Veteran (2015) and Insiders (2015).
Socio-economic inequality in Squid Game is explored through the often heartbeaking narratives of the contestant's economical stress. These are shown to be often compounded by Republic of korea's lack of a social safety net and unregulated financial structures.
Employment in underclasses is precarious: Principal protagonist Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) has been retrenched, has clustered gambling debts, cannot afford lifesaving surgery for his female parent, and has tried to solve his financial problems by borrowing from loan sharks.
Television set dramas widely depict this latter do as a blight upon society: Interest rates are extortionate and borrowers easily slip into a form of modern slavery through ever increasing debt.
Effective slavery is also depicted in Squid Game in the exploitation of Northward Korean refugees and South Asian migrant workers, often by other underclass members.
Squid Game participants who question their commitment to the tearing game are warned by those in control that because of their poverty or level of debt they will be much worse off in the earth outside.
Episode two, Hell, is a realistic account of the precarious life of marginalised people, and the motivations that drive them into the perilous game.
IN THE INTERNATIONAL LIMELIGHT
The global popularity of Squid Game can be attributed to various factors.
Start, it draws on a worldwide cultural obsession with game shows, from quiz shows where winners hope to make a fortune to reality telly programs such as Survivor.
Every bit the participants wake on their first morning in their huge dormitory, the soundtrack rather comically consists of Haydn'south triumphalist Trumpet Concerto, which was previously used as signal music in a popular South Korean quiz game titled Janghak Quiz (1973 to 1996).
Squid Game also includes a level of violence characteristic of Western cinema merely rare in Korean TV drama. It forms a strong metaphor for a deep social malaise.
The series also contains a lot of black comedy and fifty-fifty schadenfreude. There is a humorous contradiction betwixt events on the screen, and the romantic music of the soundtrack.
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For example, the ominous grooming for the starting time game, including passage forth an Escher-inspired staircase, is accompanied past Johann Strauss's Blueish Danube waltz.
Having forgotten his daughter's birthday, Gi-hun gets her a mystery present which turns out to be a cigarette lighter in the shape of a gun. The moment when she opens her present is both very funny and heart-wrenching.
Finally, the serial is a high-quality production. Its visuals are strong and it builds suspense very effectively. Such elements temper what otherwise might seem heavy-handed social critique.
The success offset of Parasite and at present of Squid Game is bringing Korean film and media into the international limelight in an unprecedented way.
Hwang Dong-hyuk, director of Squid Game, had to wait 12 years to discover a capitalist for his script. He has been a highly successful moving picture maker, known for Dogani (2011) and Miss Granny (2014), and currently seems to have his sights gear up on a return to the large screen. Possibly he tin can be persuaded otherwise?
Sung-ae Lee is Lecturer in Asian Studies at Macquarie University. This commentary first appeared on The Conversation.
Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/netflix-squid-game-korea-drama-stream-watch-online-popular-hwang-282746
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