It has high realism precisely because not everyone believes in a dog eat dog world. There are those that sacrifice themselves to save someone else. The immigrant that believes he is inferior simply because he came to the land and you have genuine human elements come to the surface even in the brutal world.
It doesn't lose a second on pointless discussions. It just starts strong and goes on and on until the very end. Substance all the way through. It's not just gore for the sake of gore or for shock value.
Have you seen the episode with the VIPs? They are terrible across the board. Their delivery sounds like NPC background dialogue from a third-rate low-budget video game.
Evan costumes were horrible MardiGras masks would have even been a step up.
The same way that the vast majority of shows and movies produced in America for American audiences contain absolutely atrocious foreign dialog...
Western media is full of level-headed, mild-mannered, sharp, witty, moral paragons of protagonists with motives that are practically announced from loudspeakers.
OT, but I have never heard of South Korea described as "North Asia". Is that a common thing? Just looking at a map it is clearly way to the south.
Sounds to me like you understand the appeal of Squid Game perfectly :)
Squid Game is very deep
I don't think many people are saying that Squid Game itself is very deep, rather that it seems to work as a catalyst for many to have deeper conversations about these topics that they haven't really been having before.
Anyway, I loved Squid Game but I wouldn't call it remotely deep. It's a formula. You just need to come up with a few decent characters and it practically writes itself.
IIRC, the maker of Squid Game was quoted as being unable to contemplate what a season 2 would involve. Are you kidding? Just put a new bunch of characters through a new bunch of games, sprinkle a bit of extra plot on it and keep up the production values. People will watch an infinite amount of this.
<DerekJacobi>He will bring them death, and they will love him for it.</DerekJacobi>
I guess that's because otherwise you are kind of taking on the role of the sadistic spectators. I'm not saying that's true but it might feel like that to some people.
I kind of enjoyed Squid Game but I totally agree with you, I do not think it had much to offer in terms of social commentary, it's pretty one dimensional.
Personally, I prefered 'The Platform' (also on Netflix), which is a bit of a different take on a similar theme, although it is not any more subtle about its metaphor.
(Spoilers galore)
In both participants sign up without initially knowing what they're signing up for and in both there are volunteers who join despite understanding the violence and death, thinking they can "win" (i.e. the returning participants in squid game and the bureaucrat in The Platform). But while in the latter the only reason anyone would subject themselves to the system is suggested to be extreme naivety, in the former we are shown the desperation and hopelessness the participants face outside the game that drives them to such an extreme decision simply for the promise of a chance at getting out of their situation.
Both systems are set up to disrupt solidarity and cooperation (where The Platform even goes so far as to claim the exact opposite). Both pieces of media demonstrate those systems succeeding but end with an act of self-sacrifice.
But Squid Game gives us a motivation for participating in such a suicidal system and the most horrifying aspect of it is that it is not some kind of sci-fi dystopia but what TV Tropes would call "20 seconds into the future": a setting that feels mildly detached from our present but you could easily imagine being set in the present day in a Western country not unlike your own. Yes, the squid game itself feels excessive and has sci-fi or at least fantastic undertones, but the world outside it feels unsettlingly familiar.
Funnily enough, the inclusion of so much of the outside world is actually one of my bigger personal gripes with the series. The game itself seems so detached from reality and just formulaic that I cannot suspend my disbelief enough to reconcile that with an outside that, as you say, is so close to our own.
I think for me, such a setting works better if it is mostly self-contained, like The Platform or Cube from 1997.
But I guess that's just a matter of taste. Thanks for sharing your perspective.
Even though you don't see it, I'm pretty sure the creator tried to tell a deeper story in this series. And from that perspective, it's quite obvious why a second season couldn't just be a repeat from season 1.
The acting, characters, sets and twists made it chilling in a way that makes Hunger Games et al look amateurish. At least until the English-speaking people opened their mouths...
Edit: to clarify, the “hints of communism” here refers to the game on the island, not south korea. These people willingly left capitalism to join this weird commie authoritarian style game to make money.
Seriously? It portrays current South Korea, which is one of the most capitalist societies in Asia. Did we watch the same show?
In fact, most of the circumstances that bring the players in the squid game are due to poverty and failed capitalism.
It is reminiscent of communist revolutions of the past where people choose to overthrow a system to establish a totalitarian system so that they can get some gain out of it.
They all live in a strongly capitalist society, which works in the same way as the squid game does, just less gory but still brutal. It is still a competitive race to the top where the losers are left behind. That's exactly capitalism and meritocracy for you, if you didn't get it yet.
What the squid game organizers offer to them is, at least for once a fair-ish opportunity. The players all take it, even if they know they will very probably die. It is still fairer to them than a life in the capitalist hellhole that is South Korea in the show.
Perhaps I “completely missed” the meaning of it. I hardly saw much discussion about the flaws of Korean society (and thus dont presume anything about it with my own biases — I didnt get the visual it was a “hellhole”). What I saw was a horrible father/son in gambling debt (his choice to gamble), a pretentious trader who overlevered and lost peoples money (his choice to be greedy), a bunch of thieves, and a crazy old rich man (clearly a sadist). I didnt see abject poverty that arose due to capitalism. I am trying hard to see how the free market got these people to be like that. Feel free to explain if you would like.
Then I saw these people constantly choose to be inside a messed up totalitarian system so that they could get cash. They were societys degenerates who were driven by so much greed that they joined this quasi commie / authoritarian system to get even more cash.
Maybe you are saying that for degenerates, a normal free market is a “hell hole” and thus they need this game. Ok, fair enough. But that doesnt tell us much about capitalism.
A couple questions that should help clarify the meaning of the show:
> Why did Hwang create a horrifyingly brutal contest that holds human life so cheap? “Because the show is motivated by a simple idea,” he says. “We are fighting for our lives in very unequal circumstances.”
> Are you making a profound point about capitalism? “It’s not profound! It’s very simple! I do believe that the overall global economic order is unequal and that around 90% of the people believe that it’s unfair. During the pandemic, poorer countries can’t get their people vaccinated. They’re contracting viruses on the streets and even dying. So I did try to convey a message about modern capitalism. As I said, it’s not profound.”
- [0]: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/oct/26/squid-g...
You didn't watch the same show.
The social critique of Squid Game isn't the squid game. It's the world outside the game. It's why so many of the participants not only volunteer but also volunteer to come back after having already experienced it. The world outside the game show is portrayed as so bleak that hundreds of people would rather compete in a life-or-death "game" that promises fairness and a life-changing cash reward.
And the critical message of the show is that this world outside the game is not significantly different from ours. The game is a grotesque exaggeration of a get rich quick scheme but there are plenty of examples for people hoping to beat the odds or being willing to scam others for promises of great fortunes (look no further than the way the GameStock pump and dump was framed as a proletarian revolution until it was revealed most of the stock movement was the result of established investors jumping in to cash out on the gullible masses still tweeting "diamond hands" memes as the tide was starting to turn).
The cheap gore horror sells the show, but the implications of the story it tells, what people are willing to do to themselves and others for the promise of a carefree life, and how characters from all walks of life can end up in the gutter and devoid of hope, is why people dig their claws into it for more than just a few viral marketing memes. It speaks to the zeitgeist, especially during a pandemic that has repeatedly demonstrated failures of government and society, and economical interests being placed above the individual's well-being.
Before 2020 many people likely believed that their country would come together in a crisis like this, that people with power would forego their own interests for once an help out or that the wealthy wouldn't do less than even the bare minimum to contribute to the society that made them rich. In 2021 I don't think there are many people left having any such illusions about the systems they exist within.
So yeah, detached rich people betting on the dying and desperate like horses in a race strikes a chord with people right now. A show casually presenting a social reality in which poor people are willing to participate in such a "game" even more so. Note that this show's success on Netflix followed both The Platform and Snowpiercer (or the serialization thereof) as well as Parasite and Knives Out. There's a common thread between the themes of these films and Squid Game managed to strike the nerve.
Also to reflect other comments the acting and the whole imagery was excellent.
Did you happen to watch Parasite - it’s sorta cut from the same cloth. Curious if it didn’t interest as well.
All those people prefer to go back to the game where it's almost certain they will die but that at least gives them one chance, rather than living a normal life in a ruthless capitalist society that treats them as garbage.
The protagonist was going to be gutted by his loaners. He had signed a waiver on his body rights.
There are some participants who didn't come back. I assume that we were supposed to assume that they didn't come back because they had died in society.
To me honestly it feels like a boilerplate manga/anime plot, but to a more untainted audience it can be more.