Squid Game
Demented bloodsport from South Korea is wildly exciting and terrifying at the same time.
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under Reviews, Top Stories
It’s tipped to become Netflix’s biggest ever series, and Squid Game is as out there as they come….
The wild survival drama from South Korea takes its name from a children’s game not dissimilar to British Bulldogs and other variations. One game Red Light, Green Light is often known as “Statues” in western culture -don’t get caught moving when the “It” person turns around and is no longer shielding their eyes.
The lead character of this drama by Hwang Dong-hyuk is estranged dad Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), whose daughter (Cho Ah-in) looks set to be travelling with his ex-wife (Kang Mal-geum) and her new husband to the USA. Gi-hun already has mounting debts and is subjected to threats from gangsters and his ailing mother (Kim Young-ok) has growing medical expenses.
One day at the local transit, a stranger hands him a business card which later leads him to a bizarre underground boot camp overseen by masked men in red jumpsuits. Awakening from a deep sleep he meets an acquaintance Cho Sang-woo (Park Hae-soo) and 400 other prospective players in a game worth millions in money. A ‘big brother’ voice shouts instructions offering big rewards if they succeed -but there are also high stakes.
It’s here that Squid Game reaches a zenith in wild scenes that are as outlandish in concept as they are in execution. Like something from Black Mirror meets the Hunger Games, this is where the series is generating all its buzz.
Yet writer / director Hwang Dong-hyuk has also taken the time to ensure we care for Gi-hun, in his quest to become the perfect father and inject success into his life.
As the games of this demented bloodsport unfold more characters will rise to the fore, including North Korean defector Kang Sae-byeok (Jung Ho-yeon) whose wile and nerve is remarkable, faithful Pakistani Abdul Ali (Anupam Tripathi) and young detective Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon) who is searching for his missing brother.
But who is running these games, and why? How did they train their young army, finance a giant piggy bank with billions, construct mind-boggling Escher-like stairways to nowhere and evade the local authorities? Just what does it all mean?
It’s so perplexing and terrifying that Squid Game gives you the taste for blood and draws you back for more. Pray you don’t get summoned to play.
Squid Game is now screening on Netflix.
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- Tagged with Black Mirror, Squid Game
8 Responses
Overhyped and overrated.
What I really like about this show is that characters I’ve disliked start being relatable. The bored coldness of the faceless ‘soldiers’ running the bureaucracy is amusing too. I just hope it has a solid ending.
it was okay i can see the borrowed alot form money heist but if you want the real think there is no equal to money heist on nextflix its the best show on nefilx
I planning to watch it tomorrow night. Interesting bit of trivia (courtesy of the South China Morning Post which has several articles about Squid Game), Jung Ho-yeon was runner up in Season 4 of Korea’s Next Top Model in 2013, and this is her debut as an actress.
Anyone who has watched numerous Korean shows (which I have) will know they can be very frenetic and loud, have a lot of shouting, plenty of tears and lots of eating and drinking, personal relationships are usually chaste, these shows also tend to be more interesting at the start than towards the end with numbers of mid season episodes just filling in time, when it’s over you wonder why you had become so addicted in the first place, for this reason I will be curious to see why Netflix sees Squid Game as their next big thing.
We finished this last night and could see how an opening was left for a second series. The twist at the end and was in line with the way the story unfolded.
I like how it gives you a glimpse into Korean culture which I found fascinating.
I’m a bit stunned to find something so well-made and watchable on Netflix.
The show is excellent. How they manage to make this ludicrously escalating situation grounded and perplexingly thrilling is beyond me. I just watched episode 4 and I genuinely was on the edge of my seat. It is so well executed in every way. The acting, writing, cinematography, direction are top notch, just to name a few aspects. But it’s other things like the use of colours, the music (which is subtley essential and wonderful), the intrigue is beautifully unbearable, and the violence is overt but necessary to the mounting tension… but for me it’s the human side of things that makes it so compelling when juxtaposed with the children’s games designed to be either life or death. This series really had no right to be as amazing as it is. Remarkable.