'Squid Game': more than a traditional survival thriller
Christine Lehnen
October 6, 2021
The South Korean Netflix hit series is a new take on the "Hunger Games" and "Battle Royale" genre, but it also comments on the vicious nature of capitalism.
Netflix's 'Squid Game' is now the number one most watched show in more than 90 countriesImage: Netflix
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Following the international success of the Oscar-winning film Parasite (2019) by director Bong Joon-ho, another South Korean production is grabbing the world's attention: the Netflix series Squid Game (original title: Ojing-eo Geim) by director Hwang Dong-hyuk.
No wonder, because the series is as exciting as it is clever — and does things very differently from its predecessors.
The premise of the show is gruesome: In order to become multimillionaires, 456 people fight for survival in a game show where they must survive six deadly children's games.
Playing can be dangerous
The opening scene of the first episode shows children playing the so-called squid game in a park. Two teams compete against each other. The goal is to get the attackers to tap the small area called the "squid head" with their foot. However, if they are sidelined by a defender, they are "dead."
Following the black-and-white introductory scene, the rest of the episode is set in present-day Seoul, and focuses on Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), whose wife has left him with their daughter. The man lives with his ageing mother, stealing money from her to gamble it away. He owes a large sum to criminals who are ready to collect it by force.
Bloody, yet addictive: 'Squid Game'Image: Netflix
The potentially depressing story is nonetheless narrated with humor. It also emphasizes folly and human weaknesses, big and small, while Seong Gi-hun's enthusiasm make this part of the episode downright enjoyable.
Nevertheless, there is no denying that Seong Gi-hun is in a desperate situation. His ex-wife plans to move to the US with her new husband and their daughter. In order to win back custody, Seong urgently needs money.
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Deadly games begin
Halfway through the first episode, Squid Game changes dramatically: Seong Gi-hun is approached at a subway stop by a man in a suit. The indebted gambler allows the man to slap him in order to receive 100,000 South Korean won (about €72, or $83). The man then invites him to participate in a "game" that could earn him a lot of money.
Seong Gi-hun agrees and is then kidnapped. When he regains consciousness, he finds himself on the grounds of the squid game, among 456 people competing in six games to win 45.6 billion won in prize money (around €33 million, $38 million) at the end.
But they are deadly versions of South Korean children's games — if you lose, you are shot on the spot.
A new take on a literary and film tradition
In this way, Squid Game not only recalls literary and film successes such as Lord of the Flies (1954) by British Nobel Prize winner William Golding, Battle Royale (1999) by Japanese writer Koshun Takami, and The Hunger Games (2008) by US author Suzanne Collins.
'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).
Image: Everett Collection/picture alliance
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It also takes its cues from reality TV series from the 1990s, most notably the Japanese game show Takeshi's Castle (1986-1990). Around the world, audiences watched as real people attempted both ridiculous and daunting obstacle courses to take home prizes.
In the second half of the first episode, Squid Game begins to fully play to some of the strengths of the South Korean films that international audiences may be familiar with, including stylized elements of the absurd and the fantastic, the resemblance to video games and the courage to look into human abysses.
There is no shying away from depictions of violence or the extremity of its characters, and there's certainly no shying away from the element of suspense, making it a highly addictive series.
An anti-capitalist parable
The game in the series includes an interesting rule that distinguishes it from its predecessors, such as The Hunger Games. Namely, if the majority of the players decide to cancel the game, it is immediately terminated. However, if that happens, no one wins the prize.
The participants in the squid game are not stranded on a desert island or victims of a dictatorship — they could actually end the deadly game at any time.
As a result, the characters are confronted with the question of how far they are willing to go for money, and the extent to which a capitalist society subjects people to constraints that drive them to violence.
