This blog piece was written by one of our students, Tishitha. The opinions expressed herein do not reflect those of Civitas other than respect for the value of open dialogue.
Despite coming out less than a month ago, Squid Game seems to have taken the world by storm. Every social media site has been bombarded by endless content as the Kdrama enamours more and more American viewers. I finally gave into all the hype a few days ago and so a friend and I binged all of the show in one night. After around eight hours of reading subtitles, I have to say that Squid Game is quite possibly one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. I absolutely loved every small intricacy that was put into the show and the actors gave phenomenal performances. I’d heavily recommend the show.
Now, a quick summary before we get to the interesting parts of the show (spoiler warning). The show centers around a series of games which exist under one game show-esq title: Squid Game. The first episode details the first game, as well as some of Gi-Hung’s life. We learn about the rules of the game, and are introduced to all of our players, including Gi-hun (our main character), Sang-woo, Sae-byuk, Il-nam, Deok-su, Ali, Mi-nyeo, and Joon-ho. For a little bit of background on each character, Gi-hun is a father with a crippling gambling addiction, Sang-woo is one of Gi-hun’s childhood friends who became a businessman in debt for stealing from his clients, Sae-byuk is a North Korean defector who wants money to get the rest of her family across the border, Il-nam is an elderly man with a brain tumor, Deok-su is a gangster, Ali is a migrant worker who hasn’t been paid by his employer for months and needs to provide for his wife and young son, Mi-nyeo is a manipulative woman who we end up learning little about, and Joon-ho is a detective attempting to uncover what the Game is and what happened to his brother. The first episode details the first game (red light, green light), and so on for most of the episodes. Throughout the show, participants dwindle to just our main characters. The final three end up being Sae-byuk, Sang-woo, and Gi-hun. Sae-byuk, being injured from the previous game, is killed easily by Sang-woo. This leaves Gi-hun and Sang-woo to play the final game, which Gi-hun wins. The prize money amounted to 45,6 billion won. Gi-hun returned to his old life, and did not spend any of the money. This caused the game operators to get in touch with him again, which is when we find out that Il-nam (player 001) was actually the creator of the Game. The show ends on a cliff hanger with Gi-hun determined to find out who the administrators of the Game are and to end the Game. Now with the summary, I’d like to address just a couple of my favorite things about this show — elements that made it especially interesting.
First, the illusion of consent for the players. The first episode clearly shows the players choosing to participate in the game. The second episode shows players having a majority vote to end the games, a vote that ultimately does end the games. However, the majority of players returned within a couple of days. It seems that they chose to go back, but really how much of a choice did they have? We see in the second episode that the players quite literally have nothing left to live for. They would either die with nothing in the outside world or die for a chance at 45.6 billion won in the games. Looking at a couple of characters in particular, Gi-hun’s mother desperately needed surgery, Sae-byuk’s younger brother was getting desperate to see his parents again, Ali attacked his boss for withholding wages for months, Sang-woo was about to get arrested for fraud. The players returned to their lives only to find that their lives were not sustainable without money. Thus, it was never truly a choice to go back to the Game. The games offered the better of two deaths, who wouldn’t jump at that offer in these situations?
Secondly, the notoriously bad acting that came with the introduction of the VIPs. The VIPs were the rich people that betted on and sought entertainment from the games. They were introduced in episode seven, and they were almost cartoonishly American. The VIPs had poor dialogue and cartoonish lines; they were caricatures of rich Americans. In a show with such nuanced and important dialogue, it seemed out of place. However, I believe this was a very intentional choice. The bad acting of the VIPs mirrors similar bad acting of Asian characters in Hollywood, done simply due to ignorance. The cliche and cartoonish representation of Asian characters throughout the years shows how media is often directed at the western audience; making the American characters so cartoonish reflects this back towards that western audience.
Also, the use of children’s games and bright colors in the show was very interesting. Tug of war doesn’t really fit in with a show about the horrors of late-stage capitalism, crippling debt, and horrifying deaths. The children’s games, the bright and fun decor, and the gameshow-esq atmosphere, in my opinion, truly serves to heighten the horrors shown on screen. Blood splattered across images of a bright sky or along a slide in a playground emphasize the violence much more than a grim setting would.
Lastly, the entire premise of the games was very intriguing. The Game claims to be nothing but fair, which is true on the surface. Players were told they’d be eliminated, just never told that elimination meant death. Players always had straightforward rules and straightforward competitions. However, looking beyond the surface shows the little cracks in the Game’s premise. For example, the side plot where guards would sneak a player, who happened to be a former surgeon, out during the night to harvest the organs of those who were eliminated. The guards got to sell the organs, and the doctor got to be told the next game in advance. Or during the second to last game, Sae-byuk was injured by flying glass. Thus, she was severely weakened for the next game; she had to deal with actively bleeding out and trying to survive. The facade of fairness in the Game is one of the many critiques against poverty and capitalist rhetoric in South Korea.
Overall, Squid Game has an incredible amount of nuance, and the show could be picked apart for hours. I’ll definitely be rewatching it, and I urge anyone who hasn’t seen it yet to give it a watch. The commentary the show makes and the entertainment it provides is definitely worth it.
