The simple message and stunning, often brutal visuals of "Squid Game" are a formula for success. The violence finds a way to tap into our inner kid, DW's John Marshall writes.
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The henchmen in the show act like another cog in the machineImage: Netflix/Entertainment Pictures/ZUMAPRESS.com/picture alliance
The Korean reality-style TV show Squid Game, written and directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk, is shattering every record, and with good reason.
Rounding up 456 desperate, indebted souls and tempting them to play childish games in order to win $38 million (€33 million) or die if you lose makes for good TV. Add the relatable message of stark inequality, sympathetic characters and an uncomplicated approach, and it becomes the most watched show on Netflix, ever.
Don't get me wrong, Squid Game goes to an extreme. But where a series like Game of Thrones or Dark, which have plots within plots, dozens of different settings and scenarios jam packed into each show, Squid Game keeps a narrow focus on the lives of its characters and its settings to a minimum. That's what makes it so appealing.
Its main message comes across so well that you don't need to take the time to understand any innuendos. All this makes the series predictable, but no less fun to watch.
DW editor John MarshallImage: Philipp Böll/DW
Keep it simple, stupid
Simplicity is evident in the show's message: starkly evoking a poor and dissipating middle class with a top 1% who do what they want regardless of the price everyone else has to pay — a reflection of society in the real world. In its dark depiction of inequality and class, it has drawn comparisons to Bong Joon-ho's 2019 Oscar-winning film, Parasite. It is easy to grasp and for the majority to relate to.
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The simplicity goes beyond the message and into its execution. Take the rank structure of the henchmen that escort the players and enforce the rules of the game, often by the means of killing people. There are three simple shapes that they wear on face coverings that a two-year-old could recognize: a square, triangle and circle. Square is in charge of the triangle, and triangle is in charge of the circle.
It is these things that make the show a low effort to watch and cast a wide net.
Adding to the simple message is the playfulness of the setting. The characters all wear school-like track suits, they find themselves in a big gymnasium with murals of kids playing games (a reflection of the games played in the series) and, as if in summer camp, they sleep on stacks of bunk beds.
Whenever the players go from their gymnasium to the games they find themselves in a pastel M.C. Escher-like staircase that looks as if it belonged in a kindergarten. All of this makes for a visually appetizing experience, one of the show's best attributes, that almost deflects from the inherent violence.
Fun colors and playful settings make 'Squid Game' visually appealingImage: Netflix
Life or death?
Studios rejected Hwang's Squid Game pitch for 10 years, seeing it as too unrealistic and violent. It's hard to imagine what the juxtaposition of schoolyard playgrounds and bloody murder would look like.
Although there is a lot of blood and gore in the show — and there were certainly times where I had to look away — it is nothing new.
Tarantino wouldn't be Tarantino without his comical amounts of bloody
What is new is how the visuals play with your psyche. The violent scenes during children's games find a way to tap into our inner kid at the most basic level. I remember taking schoolyard games so seriously, it would mean life or death, metaphorically speaking.
Hwang went to every other visual extreme in the show — why stop at copious amounts of blood flying all over the screen? Again, I think the message is simple: Life is brutal. His simple approach to allegory is to show us how brutal life can be.
Though many will continue to dissect the show and either rave about or denounce its success, I see it as a riveting, straightforward show with a hypnotizing use of visual effects — simple enough for everyone to understand and entertaining enough to suggest to a friend.
'Squid Game' and other survival thrillers
Beyond claims that the South Korean Netflix series plagiarizes the Japanese movie "As the Gods Will," there's a long tradition of films with deadly challenges.
Image: Netflix
'Squid Game' (2021)
Within two weeks of its release, the South Korean series unexpectedly became Netflix's most watched program in at least 90 countries, including the US. A group of 456 people who are deeply in debt are invited to play a series of children's games in order to win a ton of money. But those who lose are killed. The violent, addictive survival drama is part of a film genre with a long tradition.
Image: Netflix
'As the Gods Will' (2014)
Some have accused "Squid Game" of plagiarizing the Japanese film "As the Gods Will," which tells a similar story, but with high school students participating in the survival game. Above, director Takashi Miike and actors Hirona Yamazaki and Sota Fukushi show heads of Daruma dolls at a film premiere. Just like in the Korean series, it is a doll who leads a deadly game of Red Light, Green Light.
Image: Claudio Onorati/dpa/picture alliance
'Battle Royale' (2000)
Kinji Fukasaku's dystopian Japanese thriller also follows a group of high-school students who are forced by a totalitarian government to fight for their survival in an annual "Battle Royale" until a victor emerges. Even though many critics praised the film for reflecting the distressful experience of adolescence, it was banned in several countries due to its extreme violence.
Image: Mary Evans Picture Library/picture-alliance
'The Hunger Games' (2012)
Set in a dystopian post-apocalyptic future in the fictional nation of Panem, "The Hunger Games" opposes representatives of the nation's 12 Districts, who have to fight each other to death. Critics pointed out that there were many similarities between the "Hunger Games" films, based on a book series, and the novel and film "Battle Royale," which then became a label for the entire genre.
Image: Murray Close/AP/picture alliance
'Rollerball' (1975)
Also set in a dystopian future, this sci-fi film has been called "The Hunger Games" of 1975. By the year 2018, the world is controlled by corporations. The population is kept distracted by a sport called Rollerball, which combines football, roller derby, motocross and gladiatorial fighting. But the game turns into a carnage to eliminate the star player (James Caan), seen as a threat to the system.
Image: Imago/EntertainmentPictures
'Death Race 2000' (1975)
Released just before "Rollerball," this film starring among others, Sylvester Stallone, is also set in a dystopian United States, in the year 2000. The country's totalitarian regime has created a national entertainment event called the Transcontinental Road Race, which has its drivers kill pedestrians for bonus points. The film was remade in 2008, followed by direct-to-video sequels.
Image: United Archives/IFTN/picture alliance
'The Running Man' (1987)
This film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger also depicts a dystopian United States. In 2017, a totalitarian regime is in place. Serving as entertainment for the masses is a TV show called "The Running Man," which has convicted criminals run to avoid being killed by professional executioners. A long court case determined it was plagiarized from a 1983 French movie, "Le prix du danger."
Image: United Archives/IFTNpicture alliance
'Das Millionenspiel' (1970)
That French film was not an original script, but rather based on a short story, "The Prize of Peril," written by US author Robert Sheckley. It had also previously been adapted into a German TV movie, "Das Millionenspiel" (The Game of Millions), praised for anticipating how television would turn to extreme reality shows for ratings. Here candidates hoped to survive to win a million German marks.
Image: Wikipedia
'The Belko Experiment' (2016)
In this US horror thriller, 80 Belko Corp employees in Bogotá, Colombia are one day trapped in the company building. There, they hear a voice over an intercom, instructing them to kill a specific number of their own co-workers within certain time limits. The deadly challenge leads the co-workers to create various alliances, until only the strongest person remains alive at the end.
Image: Everett Collection/picture alliance
'The Most Dangerous Game' (1932)
A big game hunter organizes to get a group of passengers from a luxury yacht stranded on a remote island in order to hunt them down. The early US horror movie is based on a highly influential short story by Richard Connell from 1924, which went on to inspire many other films of different genres, such as "A Game of Death" (1945), "Run for the Sun" (1956) or "The Pest" (1997).
