The eerie episode that inspired Squid Game
After the Korean War, South Korea emerged as a success story. Once the poorest economies on the planet, S Korea showed rapid progress. It developed into a high-tech industry exporter and put itself on the world map as it became a fast-growing economy. The 1988 Seoul Olympics and 1986 Asian Games cinched the country's rise to glory and were a triumphant milestone in Korean history. Cultural export of music, TV and film further elevated the country's status over the decades. Kpop and k-dramas won hearts across the world and among various nationalities. The 2021 dystopian horror thriller Squid Game is the most watched series on Netflix to date.
But the First World country does not shy away from the dark underbelly of its past. Just as the Oscar-winning film Parasite depicted South Korea's deepening class divides, the global hit show Squid Game underscores the poverty rampant in Korea which coexists with the glitzy and wealthy image of its seductive entertainment industry.
When the new season of the show dropped on Netflix in January, the Internet threw up remnants of a macabre past which still haunts Korea. Social media dug up a horrific incident from 1980s Korea when a clean up operation threw vagrants into a shelter called The Brothers Home. The Brothers Home was effectively a concentration camp where an estimated 40,000 people were imprisoned under anti-vagrancy laws. The police aided the facility's staff to round up children and adults alike. Some were not even vagrants, but just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. In Squid Game, the Front Man or the mastermind preys upon the vulnerable and the Salesman or initiator rounds up the downtrodden from the streets.
Park In-geun, the evil operator of the Brothers Home, was accused of having meted out vicious beatings and murdering inmates. He embezzled state subsidies and coerced the inmates' physical labour to enrich himself. The Brothers Home was a place where human trafficking, forced drug treatment, forced labour, sexual and physical assault and death occurred.
Inmates risked abuse from their "platoon" leaders — inmates who for whatever reason had earned authority over others. On one hand, survival could depend on respecting the pecking order. On the other, it could require doing whatever it took to put oneself first.
In 2022, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Korea confirmed a total of 657 deaths at the Brothers Home between 1975 and 1986. The state continues to appeal the courts' compensation ruling.
More similarities were floated between the premise of SG and what took place in The Brothers Home. The inmates wore tracksuits just like the players of the game in the Netflix show and archival photos of the Brothers Homes inmates were circulated online.
The players in SG go through similar suffering. They cannot use the lavatories outside of the stipulated timing, nor eat or sleep when they please. In the latest season, there is also the emergence of leaders and cliques among the players. But the show creator has denied that the concentration camp was his inspiration for the show.
Hwang Dong-hyuk was influenced by years of reading manga and manhwa (Japanese and Korean comics) with similar themes, including the influential horror satire Battle Royale, which spurred the trend of ensemble casts competing against each other to the death in elaborate high-stakes gaming arenas. He superimposed these concerns on the Korean entertainment industry’s penchant to examine the socioeconomic plight of a rising number of downwardly mobile workers. Previously middle class, this demographic has found themselves forced into lower-paying jobs due to a changing economy and decreasing reliance on industry.
In an interview to Vox, Kyung Hyun Kim, a filmmaker and professor of visual and East Asian studies at the University of California Irvine unpacked the relationship between Korea's socioeconomic issues and the themes that emerged in TV and cinema: “Korea is a country that has been really prosperous if you look at some of the economic indicators. It’s a small country, yet actually it lifts above its weight class in terms of output for export numbers, GDP per capita. But it also has the highest suicide rate in the world by far. The numbers look more grim each and every year.
“What that tells me is that [South Korean socioeconomic anxiety is] not just about economic woes and polarisation of the classes. Yes, it’s that, but there is also an extreme kind of shame associated with being poor and being a failure to the family and to the community.”
Squid Game expresses that bleak dystopian sense of shame that comes from poverty. The mother and son in the second season especially are living in this sense of desperation and anxiety which comes from being under debt.
What's new in season two
The winner of SG season one, Seong Gi-hun is back in the game to try and stop it. He assumes the role of a just and empathetic leader to reluctant and foolish followers blinded by greed. Jun-ho now pursues his brother, the Frontman, to crackdown the sadistic contest.
The new squad of characters includes Thanos (South Korean rapper T.O.P) and Hyun-ju, a transgender (Park Sung-hoon), a mother and son duo, Gi-hun's loyal friend Park Jung-bae, an ex marine, and his junior squadron member.
Although the first episode casts back to season one, it builds up good pace and is pitched with high tension scenes. Taking centrestage is Gong Yoo reprising the role of the Salesman who initiates people to the games. He has delivered a performance more stellar than in season one. Both the actor and the director deserve credit for giving new depth to a well established characterisation from the previous season.
The plot twists and shocks start from the get go. Everything about the arena where the games take place is the same as shown in the debut season that viewers will recall easily. All the games are different except the hallmark Red Light, Green Light which kicks off the games. In one media interview the creator of the show expressed fatigue from the pressure of breathing life into Squid Game again. This is not evident when you binge the new season. Yes, there are parts that are not as gripping as the life-and-death moments of suspense while a game is being played. For example, in the duration of the entire season, Jun-ho and the cops’ pursuit of the Frontman is a ridiculous wild goose chase with little exciting development. At times, some of the new characters, like the malicious Thanos, fall short in giving main character energy too.
The addition of transgender Hyun-ju brings a nuanced vulnerability to the plot. There was much debate about why a cis man was cast to play the role and not a transgender. The show seems to have satisfied the sceptics with the backstory and characterisation of Hyun-ju. She is playing for money to complete her transition surgery. Although she is shy and tender, she is also brave and magnanimous. She has served in the military but was kicked out due to her transition. The show attributes dignity to the character, and doesn't whitewash the harsh reality of how people treat transgender persons in Korean society. Most of the participants are inconsiderate in how they approach Hyun-ju and say hurtful things which she is resigned to bear. Yet in the third-legged race sequence, her leadership qualities shine and she leads her team with heart and encouragement. The role introduces another kind of desperation present in the marginalised segment of Korean society.
On the other hand, one potentially banal plot twist kept unfolding successfully as a thrilling element. The mastermind of the games jumps into the fray as a player who supports and follows the unbeguiling Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae). The viewer remains in anticipation of a shocking betrayal Gi-hun will face at any climatic moment when the real identity of his loyal team member is revealed. The viewer, in this knowledge, is placed in the position of the game creator, who knows how cruelly the game will unfold.
Gi-hun's earnest struggle to always do the right thing is observed closely by the Front Man who sadistically plays on the weakness of the vulnerable participants. Two diametrically opposed views of capitalism are pitted against each other in the protagonist and antagonist roles. Watching each fulfil their ethical ideologies to the extreme is what whets the blade of suspense in the plot.
The intense emotionality of a typical K-drama coupled with socially conscious themes are perhaps what make Squid Game a viewer's favourite.