The release of the new South Korean film "The Squid Game" was awaited by many fans of the series. A spectacular and promising trailer with a bloody massacre surprised the audience. Additional interest was attracted by the game form of what is happening. People were intrigued by the cruel game and its rules.
On September 17, 2021, the film was released on the Netflix platform and in a few weeks gained popularity all over the world. In less than a month, 111 million people viewed the project. Director Hwang Dong-hyuk did not expect such a stir around the picture: "I wanted to create an entertaining story. I wanted the audience to start asking themselves questions. Who am I among these characters and what kind of world do I live in?"
The first season of the series consists of 9 episodes, with a total duration of 30-50 minutes. In one year, the film crew coped with large-scale scenery, installation, costumes, and management of actors. The name of the series "Squid Game" is associated with a children's game played by the main character Ki Hoon with friends.
The character is in a difficult life situation: lack of money, divorce from his wife, inability to provide for his daughter, unemployment, mother's illness, debts. The rest of the heroes: Se Bek, Dok Su, San Wu, Mi Ren, Ali Abdul, Oh Il Nam – the situation is no better, that's why all these people gathered in one place.
Anastasia Rudova
The plot is tied to different games from childhood. According to the conditions, the heroes are locked in a strange small room and dressed in green suits, which creates the feeling of an anthill, a colony. Heroes in numbered uniforms huddle in small common rooms like animals for slaughter. In addition, employees hide under masks marked with different figures and pink overalls. And everything is subordinate to the main caretaker, whose face we will see only in the last episodes.
Participants are invited to complete 6 levels. Only if earlier they could, for example, take all the pebbles for a loss, then in this adventure they take their lives. Addiction, excitement and, most importantly, money is the only thing that moves the participants of the game to murder, greed, cruelty. Each hero has huge debts and problems in real life, so agreeing to the game is the only way out for them. The participants are ready to fight to the death for a prize of 45.6 billion won (38.5 million US dollars).
"I was planning to create an allegory or a fable about modern capitalist society. But I wanted it to have characters that we all met in real life. The games depicted are extremely simple and clear. This allows viewers to focus on the characters, and not be distracted by attempts to interpret the rules," reveals the meaning of the conceived director and script writer of the series Hwang Dong-hyuk.
"I was planning to create an allegory or a fable about modern capitalist society. But I wanted it to have characters that we all met in real life. The games depicted are extremely simple and clear. This allows viewers to focus on the characters, and not be distracted by attempts to interpret the rules," reveals the meaning of the conceived director and script writer of the series Hwang Dong-hyuk.
The huge popularity of the series prompted the director to start work on season 2 without delay, and in 2024, season 3 is promised.
