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Squid Game season 1

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Squid Game
Season 1
Korean promotional poster featuring a large piggy bank above several notable characters and extras
Promotional poster
ShowrunnerHwang Dong-hyuk
Starring
No. of episodes9
Release
Original networkNetflix
Original releaseSeptember 17, 2021 (2021-09-17)
Season chronology
Next →
Season 2
List of episodes

The first season of the South Korean dystopian survival thriller horror television series Squid Game was created for television by Korean writer and television producer Hwang Dong-hyuk. Produced by Netflix, it was released on September 17, 2021. The season stars Lee Jung-jae, Park Hae-soo, Wi Ha-joon, HoYeon Jung, O Yeong-su, Heo Sung-tae, Anupam Tripathi and Kim Joo-ryoung. It revolves around a secret contest where 456 players, all of whom are in deep financial hardship, risk their lives to play a series of deadly children's games for the chance to win a ₩45.6 billion prize.

The first season was released worldwide on September 17, 2021, to critical acclaim and international attention. It became Netflix's most-watched series and the most-watched program in 94 countries, attracting more than 142 million member households and 1.65 billion viewing hours in its first four weeks, surpassing Bridgerton as the service's most-watched show. It has received numerous accolades, including a Golden Globe Award for O, and Screen Actors Guild Awards for Lee and HoYeon, respectively; all three were also the first Korean actors to win in those categories. The first season received 14 Primetime Emmy Award nominations, including for Outstanding Drama Series, making it the first non-English-language work to be nominated in this category; Lee won for Outstanding Lead Actor, the first for an Asian actor in a non-English part.

Episodes

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No.TitleDirected byWritten byOriginal release date [1]
1"Red Light, Green Light"
Transliteration: "Mugunghwa Kkoch-i Pideon Nal" (Korean: 무궁화 꽃이 피던 날)[a]		Hwang Dong-hyukHwang Dong-hyukSeptember 17, 2021 (2021-09-17)
Seong Gi-hun is down on his luck, having accumulated enormous debts with loan sharks while becoming estranged from his daughter and ex-wife. In a subway, a well-dressed man invites him to play a game of ddakji for money and offers an opportunity to play more games with much higher stakes. Gi-hun accepts, is sedated, and awakens in a dormitory with 455 others, identified only by numbers on their green tracksuits. A group of masked guards in pink jumpsuits arrive and explain that the players are all in dire financial straits but will be given billions of won in prize money if they can win six games over six days. The games are overseen by the Front Man, who is masked and dressed in black. Gi-hun befriends Player 001, an elderly man suffering from a brain tumor. He also recognizes two other players: Cho Sang-woo, a childhood classmate who became an investment broker, and Player 067, a pickpocket who stole Gi-hun's money after he won a horse race wager. The first game is Red Light, Green Light, where anyone caught moving is shot dead on the spot, revealing the sadistic nature of the games. Half the contestants panic and attempt to flee upon realizing this, turning the game into a massacre. With help from Sang-woo and Player 199, Gi-hun finishes the game alive.
2"Hell"
Transliteration: "Jiok" (Korean: 지옥)		Hwang Dong-hyukHwang Dong-hyukSeptember 17, 2021 (2021-09-17)
With over half of the players killed in the first game, many survivors demand to be released. Using the game's third clause, they narrowly vote to cancel the game and send everyone home, but without any prize money. Back in Seoul, Gi-hun goes to the police, but no one believes him except Detective Hwang Jun-ho, whose brother received the same invitation card and has recently disappeared. The players are invited to re-enter the game, and many return out of desperation. This includes Gi-hun, whose mother needs surgery; Sang-woo, who is about to be arrested for financial fraud; Player 001, who does not wish to die in the outside world; Player 067, who wishes to rescue her parents from North Korea and get her little brother out of an orphanage; Player 199, a Pakistani migrant worker who attacked and gravely injured his boss for withholding his wages; and Player 101, named Jang Deok-su, a gangster on the run from gambling debts and his ex-bosses. Jun-ho secretly follows Gi-hun when the guards pick him up.
3"The Man with the Umbrella"
Transliteration: "Usan-eul Sseun Namja" (Korean: 우산을 쓴 남자)		Hwang Dong-hyukHwang Dong-hyukSeptember 17, 2021 (2021-09-17)
Jun-ho successfully infiltrates the games by disguising himself as a masked worker, and it is revealed that the location is a remote island. The players are now more prepared and start forming alliances. Gi-hun, Sang-woo, Player 001, and Player 199 team up. Player 067 explores an air vent and witnesses workers melting pots of sugar. The second game is revealed to be Ppopgi, where each player must perfectly extract a stamped shape from a dalgona (honeycomb candy) under a 10-minute time limit. Sang-woo learns of Player 067's discovery and recognizes the game beforehand, but does not warn his teammates and chooses the easiest shape for himself. Gi-hun ends up picking the most difficult shape, an umbrella. Still, he is able to complete the game by licking the back of the honeycomb to melt it. Player 212, a rowdy and manipulative woman, helps Deok-su complete the game with a smuggled lighter. A player about to be executed takes a guard hostage and forces him to unmask. Shocked that the staff member is a young man, the player shoots himself, and the Front Man kills the guard for revealing his identity.
4"Stick to the Team"
Transliteration: "Jjollyeodo Pyeonmeokgi" (Korean: 쫄려도 편먹기)		Hwang Dong-hyukHwang Dong-hyukSeptember 17, 2021 (2021-09-17)
Player 111, a disgraced doctor, secretly works with a handful of guards to harvest organs from dead players to sell on the black market in return for information on upcoming games. When Deok-su kills a player accusing him of taking extra food, the guards do nothing to stop him, and the prize money's value is increased. Realizing they can freely kill other players to raise the prize money, Deok-su and his gang start a massive riot after lights out, resulting in players attacking each other. Gi-hun's group survives and exchanges names to build trust: Player 199 is Ali Abdul, and Player 067 is Kang Sae-byeok. Player 001, because of his brain tumor, has trouble remembering his name. Player 212, named Han Mi-nyeo, has sex with Deok-su. In the third game, players are told to form groups of ten. For Gi-hun's team, Sae-byeok recruits Player 240, a girl close to her age. The game is revealed to be tug of war on two raised platforms, where a team wins by dragging the opposing team off the other platform to their deaths. Deok-su, having learned of the game from Player 111 beforehand, picks only strong men and rejects Mi-nyeo, who joins Gi-hun's team. After Deok-su's team wins their match handily, Gi-hun's team struggles against another all-male team.
5"A Fair World"
Transliteration: "Pyeongdeung-han Sesang" (Korean: 평등한 세상)		Hwang Dong-hyukHwang Dong-hyukSeptember 17, 2021 (2021-09-17)
Gi-hun's team wins their tug-of-war match with Player 001's strategy and Sang-woo's quick thinking. Anticipating another riot, they build a barricade and spend the night taking turns on guard, but Deok-su's team does not attack. Gi-hun reminisces on a similar situation from ten years ago when he and many other workers from an automobile factory protested a mass layoff, which caused the failed trajectory of Gi-hun's life. Player 240 attempts to befriend Sae-Byeok, but she does not reciprocate. Jun-ho witnesses the organ harvesting racket, as the guard whose identity he stole took part in it. Player 111 turns on the racketeers when the guards are unable to tell him what the next game is. Everyone involved in the racket, except Jun-ho, is eventually killed, including Player 111. The Front Man begins a facility-wide manhunt for Jun-ho, who breaks into the Front Man's office. Jun-ho learns that the game has been running for over 30 years and that his elder brother, Hwang In-ho, was the winner in 2015.
6"Gganbu"
Transliteration: "Kkanbu" (Korean: 깐부)		Hwang Dong-hyukHwang Dong-hyukSeptember 17, 2021 (2021-09-17)
The players see the bodies of Player 111 and his co-conspirators strung up for cheating and are assured that the games are designed to give every player a fair chance without discrimination. For the fourth game, players are told to pair up, but discover that instead of working as a team, they will have to play against their partner in a marble game of their choice. Whoever gets all their partner's marbles within 30 minutes will win and survive. Sae-byeok and Player 240, named Ji-yeong, share their life stories; Ji-yeong sees Sae-byeok has more to live for and sacrifices herself. Sang-woo tricks Ali into giving up his marbles and wins. Deok-su wins against his partner and henchman, Player 278. Gi-hun exploits Player 001's dementia to defeat him, only to discover that the old man was aware of the deception the entire time. Player 001, who remembers his name as Oh Il-nam, allows Gi-hun to win anyway, as he is his gganbu (trusted friend). Gi-hun and Sae-byeok are traumatized by the deaths of their friends.
7"VIPs"Hwang Dong-hyukHwang Dong-hyukSeptember 17, 2021 (2021-09-17)
The players return to find Mi-nyeo, who did not have a partner for the marbles game, still alive, having been given a free advantage to the next game. Foreign VIPs, who had been wagering on the games remotely, arrive to watch and wager on the following rounds live. Jun-ho, posing as one of the masked servants, is sexually propositioned by one of them. In a private room, he attacks the VIP, records his confession, and escapes the island. Meanwhile, the fifth game has players crossing a two-panel wide bridge, where the panels are each made of either tempered or regular glass, the latter of which cannot support their weight. The players at the front of the line fall to their deaths as they progressively test the panels. Deok-su refuses to move despite the clock ticking, daring others to pass him. Mi-nyeo grabs him and, as revenge for betraying her, pulls him down with her to their deaths. Player 017, a seasoned glass worker, is able to determine which panels are safe until the Front Man turns off the lights, removing his advantage. With time running out, Sang-woo pushes Player 017 to his death, revealing the last trick panel. Only Gi-hun, Sang-woo, and Sae-byeok complete the game; at its conclusion, explosions shatter the remaining panels and injure the three players.
8"Front Man"
Transliteration: "Peuronteumaen" (Korean: 프론트맨)		Hwang Dong-hyukHwang Dong-hyukSeptember 17, 2021 (2021-09-17)
As finalists, Gi-hun, Sang-woo, and Sae-byeok are given a change of outfit to formal clothes. Sae-byeok hides a severe stab wound she received from the glass bridge explosion. After eating dinner, each player is left with a steak knife. Gi-hun suggests to Sae-byeok that they should ally against Sang-woo, realizing he will do anything to win. Sae-byeok instead begs Gi-hun to promise that whoever wins the game will look after the other's loved ones. Gi-hun goes to kill Sang-woo when he falls asleep, but Sae-byeok stops him, telling him he is not a murderer. Sae-byeok's injury worsens, prompting Gi-hun to call for help. When Gi-hun is away, Sang-woo kills Sae-byeok, and the guards arrive only to collect her corpse. Furious and heartbroken, Gi-hun tries to attack Sang-woo but is prevented by the guards. Meanwhile, Jun-ho makes it to another island but is quickly tracked down by the Front Man and the guards. To Jun-ho's shock, the Front Man reveals himself to be his brother, In-ho, who tries to recruit him. When he refuses, In-ho shoots Jun-ho in the shoulder, causing him to fall back over a cliff edge and into the sea.
9"One Lucky Day"
Transliteration: "Unsu Joeun Nal" (Korean: 운수 좋은 날)[b]		Hwang Dong-hyukHwang Dong-hyukSeptember 17, 2021 (2021-09-17)
In the final eponymous Squid game, Gi-hun defeats Sang-woo after a brutal fight but refuses to kill him; he begs Sang-Woo to stop the game using the third clause. Sang-woo instead stabs himself in the neck and asks Gi-hun to take care of his mother before dying. Gi-hun is returned to Seoul with a bank card to access the prize money, but discovers his own mother has died. A year later, Gi-hun remains traumatized and has not touched his prize money out of guilt. He receives an invitation card from his gganbu and finds Oh Il-nam on his deathbed. Il-nam reveals he created the game to entertain bored wealthy people like himself. He chose games he played as a child and participated in Gi-hun's group out of nostalgia. As they talk, Il-nam wagers with Gi-hun on whether an unconscious man lying on a street corner will be helped before midnight. The man is saved just before the stroke of midnight, and Il-nam dies shortly after. Gi-hun retrieves Sae-byeok's brother and has him looked after by Sang-woo's mother, and gives them a share of the prize money. As Gi-hun travels to the airport to reconnect with his daughter in Los Angeles, he sees the same game recruiter playing ddakji with another desperate player but manages only to get that player's invitation card. He calls the card's number before boarding his plane, demanding to know who is running the games. The Front Man joins the call and curtly orders him to get on the plane, but Gi-hun ends the call and returns to the terminal.

Cast and characters

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Main article: List of Squid Game characters

Main cast

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Numbers in parentheses denote the character's assigned player number in the Squid Game universe.

Recurring cast

[edit]
  • Yoo Sung-joo as Byeong-gi (병기, 111),[11]
  • Lee Yoo-mi as Ji-yeong (지영, 240),[12]
  • Kim Si-hyun as Player 244
  • Lee Sang-hee as Do Jung-soo (도정수, 017),[13]
  • Kim Byeong-cheol as Square Guard Instructor
  • Kim Yun-tae as Player 069
  • Lee Ji-ha as Player 070[14]
  • Kwak Ja-hyoung as Player 278
  • Christian Lagahit as Player 276[15][16]
  • Kim Young-ok as Oh Mal-soon[17]
  • Cho Ah-in as Seong Ga-yeong
  • Kang Mal-geum as Kang Eun-ji[17]
  • Park Hye-jin as Sang-woo's mother
  • Park Si-wan as Kang Cheol

Guest cast

[edit]

Production

[edit]

Development

[edit]
Series creator and director Hwang Dong-hyuk

Around 2008, Hwang Dong-hyuk had tried unsuccessfully to get investment for a different movie script that he had written, and he, his mother, and his grandmother had to take out loans to stay afloat, but still struggled amid the debt crisis within the country.[23][24][d] He spent his free time in a Manhwabang (South Korean manga cafe) reading Japanese survival manga such as Battle Royale, Liar Game and Gambling Apocalypse: Kaiji.[26][27][28][29] Hwang compared the characters' situation in these works to his own current situation and considered the idea of being able to join such a survival game to win money to get him out of debt, leading him to write a film script on that concept throughout 2009.[29] Hwang stated, "I wanted to write a story that was an allegory or fable about modern capitalist society, something that depicts an extreme competition, somewhat like the extreme competition of life. But I wanted it to use the kind of characters we've all met in real life."[30] Hwang feared the storyline was "too difficult to understand and bizarre" at the time.[26] Hwang tried to sell his story to various Korean production groups and actors, but had been told it was too grotesque and unrealistic.[31] Hwang put this script aside without any takers, and over the next ten years successfully completed three other films, including the crime drama film Silenced (2011) and the historical drama film The Fortress (2017).[29]

In the 2010s, Netflix had seen a large growth in viewership outside of North America, and started investing in productions in other regions, including Korea.[32] In 2018, Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix, stated that they were looking for more successes from overseas productions: "The exciting thing for me would be if the next Stranger Things came from outside America. Right now, historically, nothing of that scale has ever come from anywhere but Hollywood."[33] Netflix had opened up a division in Asia in 2018, and while they were still operating out of temporary leased office space in Seoul, Hwang brought his script to their attention. Kim Minyoung, one of Netflix's content officers for the Asian regions, recognized Hwang's talent from The Fortress and his other films, and upon seeing his script for Squid Game, knew they needed it for the service. Kim said "[W]e were looking for shows that were different from what's traditionally 'made it,' and Squid Game was exactly it".[34] In September 2019 Netflix formally announced that they would produce Hwang's work as an original series.[31][35] Netflix's Bela Bajaria, head of global television operations, said of their interest in Hwang's work that "we knew it was going to be big in Korea because it had a well-regarded director with a bold vision", and that "K-Dramas also travel well across Asia".[32] Regarding his return to the project, Hwang commented, "It's a sad story. But the reason why I returned to the project is because the world 10 years from then has transformed to a place where these unbelievable survival stories are so fitting, and I found that this is the time when people will call these stories intriguing and realistic."[26] Hwang further believed that the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the economic disparity between classes in South Korea, and said that "All of these points made the story very realistic for people compared to a decade ago".[31]

With the Netflix order, the film concept was expanded out to a nine-episode series. Kim stated that there was "so much more than what was written in the 120-minute format. So we worked together to turn it into a series."[34] Hwang said he was able to expand the script so that it "could focus on the relationships between people [and] the stories that each of the people had".[36] Initially, Netflix had named the season Round Six, rather than Squid Game as Hwang had suggested; according to Netflix's vice president for content in Asia Kim Minyoung, while they knew that the name "squid game" would be familiar to Korean viewers from the children's game, it "wouldn't resonate because not many people would get it", and opted to use Round Six as it self-described the nature of the competition. It has been titled as such in Brazil. As production continued, Hwang pushed on the service to use Squid Game instead; its cryptic name and unique visuals helped to draw in curious viewers, according to Kim.[35][37] At the time that Hwang wrote the season, his goal was to have the season reach the most-watched show in Netflix in the United States for at least one day.[23] Hwang had initially written the season as eight episodes, which was comparable to other Netflix shows, but found that the material for the last episode was longer than he planned, so it was split into two.[38]

Writing

[edit]

Hwang described the work as "a story about losers".[39] The names of the characters – Seong Gi-hun, Cho Sang-woo, and Il-nam – were all based on Hwang's childhood friends, as well as the character name Hwang Jun-ho, who was also a childhood friend in real life with an older brother named Hwang In-ho.[29] The two main characters Gi-hun and Sang-woo were based on Hwang's own personal experiences and represented "two sides" of himself; Gi-hun shared the same aspects of being raised by an economically disadvantaged single mother in the Ssangmun district of Seoul, while Sang-woo reflected on Hwang having attended Seoul National University with high expectations from his family and neighborhood.[29][39] Further, Gi-hun's background was inspired by the organizers of the SsangYong Motor labor strike of 2009 against mass layoffs.[40]

Shapes punched into dalgona, a Korean sugar candy treat, based on the shapes used in the second game of The season. Within The season, players had to extract the inner shapes intact.

Hwang based the narrative on Korean games of his childhood to show the irony of a childhood game where competition was not important becoming an extreme competition with people's lives at stake.[27] Additionally, as his initial script was intended for film, he opted to use children's games with simple rules that were easy to explain in contrast to other survival-type films using games with complex rules.[36] The central game he selected, the squid game, was a popular Korean children's game from the 1970s and 1980s.[35][41] Hwang recalled the squid game as "the most physically aggressive childhood game I played in neighborhood alleys as a kid, which is why I also loved it the most", and because of this "it's the most symbolic game that reflects today's competitive society, so I picked it out as The season's title".[42] The colors of the ddakjis in the initial game, which are blue and red, were inspired from the Korean and Japanese urban legend "blue paper, red paper".[43][e] The "Red light, Green light" game was selected because of its potential to make a lot of losers in one go. Regarding the selection, Hwang said, "The game was selected because the scene filled with so many people randomly moving and stopping could be viewed as a ridiculous but a sad group dance."[27] Hwang joked that the dalgona candy game they chose may influence sales of dalgona, similar to how sales of Korean gats (traditional hats) bloomed after the broadcast of Netflix's series Kingdom.[44] Licking the candy to free the shape was something that Hwang said that he had done as a child and brought it into the script.[42] Hwang had considered other Korean children's games such as Gonggi, Dong, Dong, Dongdaemun, and Why did you come to my house? (우리 집에 왜 왔니?, a Korean variant of the Hana Ichi Monme).[27]

Hwang wrote all of the season himself, taking nearly six months to write the first two episodes alone, after which he turned to friends to get input on moving forward.[30] Hwang also addressed the challenges of preparing for The season which was physically and mentally exhausting, saying that he had forgone dental health while making Season 1 and had to have six teeth pulled by his dentist after production was complete.[26][38] As such, Hwang was initially unsure about a sequel after completing these episodes,[30] though he wrote the ending to keep a potential hook for a sequel in mind.[23] Hwang had considered an alternate ending where Gi-hun would have boarded the plane after concluding his call with the game organizers to see his daughter, but Hwang said of that ending, "Is that the right way for us to really propose the question or the message that we wanted to convey through the season?"[45]

Casting

[edit]
Director Hwang requested that actors Gong Yoo (left) and Lee Byung-hun (right), with whom he had previously worked, appear as the recruiter and the Front Man, respectively, in Squid Game.

Hwang said he chose to cast Lee Jung-jae as Gi-hun as to "destroy his charismatic image portrayed in his previous roles".[46] HoYeon Jung was requested by her new management company to send a video to audition for the season while she was finishing a shoot in Mexico and preparing for New York Fashion Week. Although this was her first audition as an actor and her expectations were low, Hwang said, "The moment I saw her audition tape from New York, I immediately thought to myself, 'this is the girl we want.' My first impression of her was that she is wild and free like an untamed horse".[47][48][49] On casting Anupam Tripathi as Ali Abdul, Hwang said, "It was hard to find good foreign actors in Korea." He chose Anupam Tripathi because of his emotional acting capabilities and fluency in Korean.[50] Both Gong Yoo and Lee Byung Hun had worked with Hwang during his previous films, Silenced and The Fortress respectively, and Hwang had asked both to appear in small roles within Squid Game.[47][unreliable source?] The VIPs were selected from non-Korean actors living in Asia; in the case of Geoffrey Giuliano, who played the VIP that interacted with Jun-ho, his prior role from Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula led to his casting for Squid Game.[21]

Casting for the season was confirmed on June 17, 2020.[51]

Costume, set design, and filming

[edit]
External videos
video icon Squid Game – Behind the Scenes, from Netflix

Production and filming of the season ran from June to October 2020, including a mandatory month-long break due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[52] City scenes were filmed in Daejeon,[53] while the island set pieces were filmed on Seongapdo located in Ongjin.[54]

The shapes of Ojingo (Squid) played heavily in the graphic design of The season.

As Netflix was targeting the work for a global audience, the visuals were emphasized and some of the rules of the children's games were simplified to avoid potential issues with the language barrier.[31] The colorful sets and costumes were designed to look like a fantasy world. The players and soldiers each wear a distinctive color, to reduce the sense of individuality and emphasize the difference between the two groups.[27] The green tracksuits worn by the players were inspired by 1970s athletic wear, known as trainingbok (Korean: 트레이닝복).[55] The maze-like corridors and stairs drew inspiration from the 4-dimensional stair drawings of M. C. Escher including Relativity. Production designer Chae Kyoung-sun said these seemingly infinite stairways represented "a form of bondage for the contestants".[56] The complex network of tunnels between the arena, the dorm, and the administrative office was inspired by ant colonies.[27]

Chae was also inspired by the Saemaul Undong political initiative of the 1970s aimed to modernize rural Korean villages.[57] The mint green and pink color theme throughout The season were a common theme from Korean schools in the 1970s and 1980s. Green-suited characters develop associations of fear with pink through its use in guard outfits and the stairway room.[58][56]

The players' dormitory was envisioned with the concept of "people who are abandoned on the road" according to Chae; this was also used in the tug-of-war game.[58] The room was designed using white tiles and the curved opening like a vehicular tunnel. The bed and stairs initially were laid out to look like warehouse shelves, but as the episodes progressed and these furnishing used as makeshift defenses, they took the appearance of broken ladders and stairs, implying the way these players were trapped with no way out, according to Chae.[58] The dinner scene that took place in the eighth episode was inspired by the art installation The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago.[56] Walls of many of the areas where the games took place were painted in skies inspired by The Empire of Light series by René Magritte.[56]

The crew spent the most time crafting the set for the Marbles game, creating a mix of realism and fakeness as to mirror the life and death nature of the games themselves.[59] Chae stated that this set was designed as a combination of small theatrical stages, each stage representing parts of Player 001's memories.[58] The VIP room was one of the last pieces to be designed, and Chae said that they decided on an animal-based theme for both the costumes and room for this; "The VIPs are the kind of people who take other people's lives for entertainment and treat them like game pieces on a chessboard, so I wanted to create a powerful and instinctive look for the room."[58]

Most sets were a combination of practical sets and chroma key backgrounds. For example, in the Glass Stepping Stones scenes, the set, designed as if in a circus tent for the players performing for the VIPs, was only 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) off the ground, using chroma key screens to simulate the height in post-production. In filming, this was far enough from the ground to make the actors nervous, which contributed to the scene.[59][58] The tug-of-war set was actually set more than 10 metres (33 ft) off the ground, which further created anxiety for some of the actors with fears of heights.[58]

The robot doll in the first episode, "Red Light, Green Light", was inspired by Younghee, a character who appeared on the covers of Korean textbooks Chul-soo and Young-hee in the 1970s and 1980s,[56] and her hairstyle was inspired by Hwang's daughter's.[55][58] The doll singsongs, in Korean, "Mugunghwa flower has blossomed", referring to the hibiscus syriacus, the national flower of South Korea.[42] The use of this familiar character was meant to juxtapose memories of childhood and unsettling fear in the players, according to Chae.[58] Similarly, the set for the dalgona game, using giant pieces of playground equipment, were to evoke players' memories of their childhood, and was a common place where Korean children would have played dalgona with friends.[58] The dalgona used in "The Man with the Umbrella" were made by a street vendor from Daehangno.[60]

The Korean and English language title logos incorporated the circle, triangle and square shapes into their design.

Throughout the season, the trio of circle, triangle, and square shapes appear frequently on the cards given to recruit players, on the guards' masks, and inside The season's title. These are shapes associated with the playing field for the children's game of Squid (Ojing-eo). They are also used to represent the hierarchy of the guards within the complex. Following from the comparison with an ant colony, the guards with circles are considered the workers, triangles as the soldiers, and squares as the managers (see also: Korean honorifics). Further, in the Korean alphabet, Hangul, the circle represents the romanized letter "O", the triangle represents part of the letter "J", and the square represents the letter "M"; together, "OJM" are the romanized initials of Ojing-eo Geim, the Korean translation of Squid Game.[61]

Music

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See also: Squid Game (soundtrack)
Jung Jae-il composed the score for the season.

Jung Jae-il, who previously composed the soundtrack for Parasite, composed and directed Squid Game's score.[62] To prevent it from becoming boring, he asked the help of composers Park Min-ju, and Kim Sung-soo, a music director for musicals who uses the stage name "23" as a composer.[63]

Two classical music pieces are also used throughout The season as part of the players' routine: the third movement of Joseph Haydn's "Trumpet Concerto" is used to wake the players, and Johann Strauss II's "The Blue Danube" is used to indicate the start of a new game.[62] Ludwig van Beethoven's "Fifth Symphony" is also heard in the VIP lounge.[62] A cover of "Fly Me to the Moon",[f] arranged by Jung and sung by Korean artist Joo Won Shin, was used over the "Red Light, Green Light" game of the first episode; according to Joo, Hwang wanted a contrast between the brutal killing of the players and the "romantic and beautiful lyrics and melody" of the song, such that the scene "embodies the increasingly polarized capitalist society that we live in today in a very compressed and cynical way".[64]

For the song "Way Back Then" that accompanies children playing Squid Game, Jung wanted to use instruments that he practiced in elementary school, such as recorders and castanets.[63] The rhythm of the song is based on a 3-3-7 clapping rhythm that is commonly used in South Korea to cheer someone on.[63] The recorder, played by Jung himself, had a slight "beep", which was unintentional.[65] The song "Round VI" was played by the Budapest Scoring Orchestra.[66]

The soundtrack was released on September 17, 2021.[67]

Marketing

[edit]
A promotional event for Squid Game in Shibuya, Tokyo

In the Philippines, a replica of the doll used in the episode one of the season was exhibited on Ortigas Avenue in Quezon City in September 2021.[68]

A Squid Game doll was installed in Olympic Park, Seoul on October 25, 2021.[69] A replica of Squid Game's set was exhibited at the Itaewon station in Seoul since September 5, 2021.[70][71] However, the exhibit was prematurely closed due to COVID-19 concerns.[72]

A Squid Game pop-up store opened in Paris on October 2 and 3, 2021,[73] and a person could win a free one-month Netflix subscription if they managed to get the right shape from the dalgona in one minute and 30 seconds.[74][75]

In the Netherlands, Netflix hosted its own Squid Game where people were able to play the game Red Light, Green Light in both Maastricht and Rotterdam. A replica of the doll was exhibited and staff were dressed as guards. Winners were awarded with Squid Game memorabilia. The event attracted hundreds of people.[76][77][78] Similar events featuring replicas of the doll occurred across the world, including Sydney[79] and the United Kingdom.[80]

In October 2021, the Hollywood Reporter interviewed Netflix Asia's executive Kim Minyoung, who said that the company was looking into a possible video game adaptation of the season.[37]

Netflix has licensed Squid Game for merchandising. A Young-hee vinyl figure was released in January 2022.[81] Funko released a set of Squid Game themed Funko Pop! figurines in May 2022.[82]

Reception

[edit]

Critical reception

[edit]

The season received critical acclaim.[83] On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the season has an approval rating of 95% based on 76 reviews, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Squid Game's unflinching brutality is not for the faint of heart, but sharp social commentary and a surprisingly tender core will keep viewers glued to the screen – even if it's while watching between their fingers."[84] On Metacritic, the season has a weighted average score of 69 out of 100 based on 13 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[85]

Joel Keller of Decider opined that the concept of The season was creative. When writing about the narrative, he described it as "a tight narrative and a story that has the potential to be tense and exciting". Keller concluded, "STREAM IT. Squid Game takes a fresh idea and spins it into a thrilling drama; we hope it continues to build the tension we saw in the last 20 minutes throughout the season."[86] Pierce Conran of the South China Morning Post rated the season with 4.5 out of 5 stars and wrote, "Overall, this is still a savagely entertaining slam dunk from Netflix Korea, which is likely to be embraced around the world as its predecessors were."[87] Hidzir Junaini of NME rated the season with 4 out of 5 stars and opined, "Thematic intelligence aside, Squid Game is also a white-knuckle watch, thanks to its visceral competition element."[88] John Doyle of The Globe and Mail described the season as "a brave, dark, ambitious tale, at times moving and at times terrifying" and added, "Its power is in its understanding that money is survival. This is not some dystopian fantasy like Hunger Games. This is present-day life in all its complex awfulness."[89]

Karl Quinn of The Age described the season as "enormously derivative", but wrote: "there are two tensions that elevate Squid Game. One is within the narrative, where the primacy of the individual is in direct combat with the notion of community, and where the illusion of "choice" justifies all manner of exploitation."[90] S. Poorvaja of The Hindu wrote that "the nine episodes manage to leave its viewers horrified, yet invested in The season, thanks to the razor-sharp writing and compelling performances by its ensemble cast".[91] Abha Shah of the Evening Standard wrote that the season was "tightly written, each episode packed with enough pace to make it truly binge worthy", and praised its themes as being "universally engaging".[92] Hugo Rifkind of The Times described parts of the season as being "glacially slow", but stated that it was "definitely interesting", and wrote: "Behind it all, there's an almost Lovecraftian sense of horror, to do with normal lives being unliveable, and huge, unknowable powers in the background that will smirk while you die."[93]

Writing for The New York Times, TV critic Mike Hale found Squid Game to be an "utterly traditional, and thoroughly predictable ... melodrama" with "eye-catching" but "not especially interesting ... production design and costuming". He also thought the season' "pretense of contemporary social relevance" failed to justify its "more than mildly sickening" violence, and thought its characters were "shallow assemblages of family and typical battlefield".[94] Daniel D'Addario of Variety wrote: "Like Joker, there's a having-it-both-ways insistence that a culture that could create violence is inherently sick and deranged, while playing out a wildly overstated version of sick derangement in a manner designed to be maximally tense and amusing."[95]

Due to the popularity of Squid Game, Singapore's national newspaper The Straits Times named The season's director Hwang as The Straits Times Asian of the Year in December 2021.[96]

Viewership

[edit]

The season became the first Korean drama to top Netflix's top ten weekly most-watched TV show charts globally. It reached number one in 94 countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom.[97] Netflix estimated that Squid Game had drawn over 111 million member households worldwide after 17 days of availability,[98][g] and over 142 million member households after 28 days,[99] surpassing the 82 million that Bridgerton had received in its first 28 days in December 2020, and becoming the service's most-watched series at its launch.[100] After Netflix revamped its published metrics of viewership in November 2021 based on total hours watched of the season, Squid Game remained the most-watched show on the service, with over 1.65 billion hours within its first 28 days compared to Bridgerton's 625 million hours.[101] Although Netflix is not available in mainland China, pirated versions of Squid Game have been widely circulated on the Chinese Internet, making The season a popular topic on Chinese social networking sites.[102] As of July 2022, Squid Game remained the most-watched show on Netflix based on the first 28 days of viewing, ahead of Stranger Things 4.[103][104]

Outside of Asian regions, The season's popularity was driven primarily through word of mouth and viral spread on social media. Vulture also claimed that The season's widespread localization, with subtitles in 37 languages and dubbed versions in 34 languages, helped to capture an international audience.[33] Hwang believed that The season's popularity was due to "the irony that hopeless grownups risk their lives to win a kids' game", as well as the familiarity and simplicity of the games that allowed The season to focus on characterization.[105] The diversity of the characters that play the Squid Game, drawing from different walks of lower- and middle-class life, also helps draw audiences to watch as many could find sympathy in one or more of the characters.[105]

Squid Game had not broken into the Nielsen ratings for streaming media on its first week of availability, but for the week of September 20 through 26, 2021, it was the most-viewed show on streaming services in the United States, with over 1.9 billion minutes watched.[106] It remained the top-viewed program on streaming media from September 27 to October 3, 2021, reaching over 3.26 billion minutes watched in the U.S. These ratings made it the most-viewed streaming program to date in 2021, and the sixth such program to reach over 3 billion minutes watched in a single week since the introduction of Nielsen's streaming media ratings.[107][h] This is the only record achieved in a single season without COVID-19 lockdowns.[108] Squid Game remained the most-watched show according to Nielsen for the weeks starting October 4 and 11, 2021,[109][110] but was ousted by You in the following week.[111] For four consecutive weeks, Squid Game remained as the most watched series on TV tracking service TV Time, where it also became the most followed Korean series to date.[112] On YouTube, Squid Game related content generated 17 billion views within eight weeks, the highest for a television show, surpassing the viewership generated by Game of Thrones related content in ten years.[113] Nielsen reported that Squid Game was the second-most watched original series in the United States on streaming services for all of 2021 behind Lucifer.[114]

According to Bloomberg News, by October 2021, Netflix estimated that Squid Game had generated nearly US$900 million in value based on extended viewer data;[115] it cost $21.4 million to produce.[116] Due to Squid Game's surprising success for Netflix, operators of other streaming services with original content, such as Disney+, Paramount+ and Apple TV+, have begun looking to follow Netflix's model of discovering regional content beyond Hollywood and finding similarly successful works for their platforms, with one executive calling this an area of "unlimited potential".[117] Besides bringing new ideas and veering from common themes of typical Hollywood productions, such foreign productions are typically less expensive to make, with tax breaks or incentives by the host country for filming and production.[118] Several producers of non-US TV series, who had little luck in pitching their shows to US-based streaming services in the past, were hopeful that these services would now seriously consider their works as a result of Squid Game's success.[117]

Accolades

[edit]
Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Squid Game

O Yeong-su's Golden Globe win made him the first Korean-born actor to win the award. The season's four SAG Award nominations also made history in it becoming the first non-English series and first Korean series to be nominated for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. Individually, Lee Jung-jae became the first male actor from Asia and Korea to receive an individual SAG Award nomination and HoYeon Jung became the second actress of Asian as well as Korean descent to do the same.[119] With both performers winning, The season made history in becoming the first non-English language television series to win at the SAG Awards. The season also received 14 nominations for the Primetime Emmy Awards, including for Best Drama, making it the first non-English show to be nominated in this category.[120]

Public response and impact

[edit]
People cosplaying as guards from the season

Squid Game is considered one of the latest examples of the Korean wave, the growing trend of popular South Korean media to gain international attention since the early 2010s, similar to popular Korean pop acts like BTS and Korean dramas and films like Parasite. Such works had drawn more attention due to streaming services like Netflix and YouTube making South Korean content, traditionally controlled by the country's national broadcasters, available across the globe. Further, according to Choe Sang-Hun of The New York Times, South Korean creators have a way of taking ideas from foreign works and applying their own cultural spin on it that draws in more audiences.[121]

While all of the actors saw increases in followers on their social media accounts in the weeks after Squid Game premiered, HoYeon Jung saw one of the largest increases, going from about 400,000 to over 13 million followers in three weeks after Squid Game premiered,[122] and reaching over 23.5 million by November 2021.[123] In October 2021, the fashion brand Louis Vuitton announced Jung as their new global ambassador for fashion, watches, and jewelry; creative director Nicolas Ghesquière said he "immediately fell in love with Jung's great talent and fantastic personality" from her performance on Squid Game.[124] O Yeong-su, who had a modest career in Korean theater and film prior to Squid Game, was surprised by his newfound fame following The season, making him feel like he was "floating on air". Lacking a casting agent, he had to turn to help from his daughter to handle the volume of calls asking him to appear in various roles.[125] Several major talent agencies sought to sign Hwang and the lead actors of Squid Game in the months after its debut, with Jung being the first to sign on with Creative Artists Agency by mid-November 2021.[123]

Cosplay of Squid Game players for Halloween in Tokyo, 2021

In South Korea, the popularity of Squid Game led to a surge of network traffic which caused SK Broadband to file a lawsuit against Netflix, seeking monetary damages to pay for increased broadband usage and maintenance costs associated with the program.[126] By September 2023, both SK Broadband and Netflix agreed to drop the lawsuit and instead opted to become partners, with SK Broadband packaging Netflix as part of its services.[127] One of the phone numbers used in The season belonged to a private resident who reported receiving up to 4,000 calls each day from people, several of whom desired to play a real-life version of the game;[128] Netflix stated they would edit The season to remove the number.[129]

Vendors of dalgona, the honeycomb candy featured in the second game, both within Korea and internationally found a significant increase in sales after The season's release.[130][131] Everyday clothing items matching those worn in The season saw large growths in sales in the weeks after The season's initial broadcast, such as Vans slip-on shoes which spiked by 7,800%. Variety attributed this sales increase in part to preparation for Halloween costumes inspired by The season.[132][133][134] Vendors of other costume props that mirrored those in The season, such as the guards' masks, also saw sales spikes in advance of Halloween following The season's premiere.[135] The garment industry in South Korea saw a brief resurgence as demand for green tracksuits based on The season grew.[136]

Netflix claimed that Squid Game had "pierced the cultural zeitgeist" and became a popular Internet meme, with over 42 billion views of videos related to Squid Game in the first month after broadcast.[99] Analytics firm Vobile stated that by November 2021, Squid Game-related videos on YouTube totaled over 17 billion views, surpassing Game of Thrones in the same metric.[137] On October 16, 2021, an episode of the American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show Saturday Night Live, featuring guest host Rami Malek and cast member Pete Davidson, parodied Squid Game by singing a country song about the season. As of November 5, 2021, the song has over 9.6 million views on Saturday Night Live's YouTube channel.[138][139] In November 2021, American YouTuber Jimmy Donaldson aka MrBeast recreated Squid Game in real life with 456 people competing in similar but non-lethal games as The season for a $456,000 cash prize.[140] The video drew more than 303.5 million views as of November 15, 2022, making it one of the most-watched YouTube videos of 2021.[141] Series creator Hwang has reacted positively to the recreations and parodies.[142] Google reported that Squid Game was the most-searched television show on search engine in 2021,[143] while Twitter said that Squid Game was the most-tweeted about television show of 2021.[144]

Shortly after The season's release, users of social media adapted some of the games featured in Squid Game as Internet challenges, including the first "Red Light, Green Light" game and the second honeycomb cookie game.[145] Users of video games supporting user-created content, such as Roblox, Fortnite Creative, and Grand Theft Auto Online, created numerous games within these systems that were based on one or more of the Squid Game challenges.[146][147][148] A video game named Crab Game was also created in response to Squid Game's popularity.[149] Some groups also worked to organize safe, mock Squid Game events for fans of The season.[150][151] Concerns have been raised about children's exposure to Squid Game from either watching it or through its viral popularity, as it is considered to have a high level of violence for that age group.[152] A number of schools around the United Kingdom observed that despite The season being aimed at mature audiences, young children were emulating some of the games from Squid Game during school recess, and warned parents about these activities.[153] Parents and school boards in Quebec, Canada and in the Fayetteville-Manlius Central School District of New York have also observed young children emulating games from Squid Game and taken steps such as warning parents and banning such activities from school grounds.[154][155]

Chinese online video platform Youku announced plans in October 2021 to launch The season Squid Victory (鱿鱼的胜利, Yóuyú de Shènglì) in 2022. The upcoming show, initially named Victory of Squid, was heavily criticized by Chinese netizens after it was discovered that it had plagiarized the plot and themes of Squid Game. After facing criticism, the company apologized and stated that The season's poster and the title were abandoned. Youku later shared a new poster and announced that The season's name has been changed to Game's Victory.[156][unreliable source?][157][158]

Squid Game has been accused of plagiarizing the 2014 Japanese movie As the Gods Will, as both involve children's games where the penalty for losing is death. However, writer-director Hwang Dong-hyuk claimed he wrote Squid Game's script in 2009 (5 years before As the Gods Will was released), saying "the similarities that were pointed out are purely coincidental and there is no copying from either party".[159]

The season was used as the basis for an unaffiliated short-lived cryptocurrency scam named SQUID, which had started trading in late October 2021. The currency was poised to be used eventually to back a site for online games where player would buy tokens to play in games inspired by Squid Game, with those buying the currency helping to support the investment of the site, with the currency's value to increase as more players used the site. The currency had drawn enough buyers to increase in value by over 2,300% within a day of trading, but news organizations like the BBC identified that the scheme appears to be a "rug pull" scam due to several red flags in the proposition.[160] By November 1, 2021, the backers of the currency completely pulled out, crashing the currency and effectively making off with $2.1 million.[161]

YouTuber and member of the Yogscast network Lydia Ellery, who had used the handles "Squid Game" and "SquidGaming" for 11 years, was refused work because of her handle's perceived association with the show. She has also been subject to harassment by fans of Squid Game who "thought [she] took the account from the show", with some fans attempting to hack into her accounts.[162]

Release

[edit]

The first season of Squid Game was released on September 17, 2021.[163]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ lit. The day hibiscus bloomed. The English title references the game Red Light, Green Light. The Korean title references the Korean version of the game.
  2. ^ The title is a reference to the 1924 Korean novel with the same name that tells the story of a rickshaw man initially being happy earning a lot of money from having a lot of customers on a rainy day, and thrilled to buy his wife some soup, only to find his wife dead in her house.[2]
  3. ^ Hwang Dong-Hyuk said the number was actually a pun using the fact that "two-eighteen" in Korean is i-sibpal (이십팔), similar to the Korean swear word ssibal (씨발, "fucker").[4]
  4. ^ Following the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in September 2008 and as part of the financial crisis of 2007–2008, banks in South Korea had tried to help provide external investments to stabilize foreign currency rates. As the crisis worsened into 2009, these stabilization attempts had failed, causing a reversing of money from the country, and forcing banks to drastically increase interest rates and seek high-risk short-term loans made to citizens to try to recover.[25]
  5. ^ Blue paper, red paper [ko]", also known by its Japanese name "Akai-Kami-Aoi-Kami", is an urban legend that started from Japan that was later spread to South Korea. The legend is about a ghost that haunts the toilets and is known to ask the question, "Do you want blue toilet paper or red toilet paper?". Either option will result in the death of the person. Unlike the Korean versions, the ghost of the Japanese story has a name called "Aka Manto".
  6. ^ Hwang revealed that the music figures used for the project were the ones in the gas station where he wrote the script, and that they were playing "Fly Me to the Moon", and this is why he used the music for the show.[4]
  7. ^ One "viewer" is defined by Netflix as a subscriber having viewed any portion of a work longer than two minutes.[98]
  8. ^ The other five programs that had reached 3 billion minutes viewed in a week are You, Tiger King, Ozark, The Umbrella Academy and The Crown, all Netflix series.[107]

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  162. ^ McCallum, Shiona (November 3, 2021). "Twitch streamer loses work because of her Squid Game name". BBC News. Archived from the original on November 4, 2021. Retrieved November 5, 2021.
  163. ^ Lee, Seung-mi (August 11, 2021). [공식]이정재X박해수 넷플릭스 오리지널 '오징어 게임', 9월 17일 공개 확정 [[Official]Lee Jung-jae X Park Hae-soo's Netflix original 'Squid Game' confirmed to be released on September 17] (in Korean). Sports Chosun. Retrieved July 31, 2024 – via Naver.

Television series set in the 2020s

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