Integrity Score 2097
No Records Found
No Records Found
No Records Found
‘Squid Game’, a South Korean survival drama TV series, has hooked many viewers – it’s the most watched launch in the history of Netflix. Some critics have praised it. Yet its content remains controversial with its brutal, savage violence. Even the neighboring North Korea has taken note of it in its propaganda material. ‘Squid Game’ must be touching a nerve to make the closed-door authoritarian state declare that the series reflects inequality and oppression prevalent in South Korea. Is it a ‘parable of capitalist exploitation’ or just a naïve fantasy, entertainment?
>>Trailers and teasers:
https://www.netflix.com/in/title/81040344
It’s a story of a contest involving 456 players – each under heavy debt – playing for huge prize money but they face deadly penalties, including death, if they lose.
A North Korean state-run website says ‘Squid Game’ highlights the “beastly” nature of “South Korean capitalist society where mankind is annihilated by extreme competition,” and reflects an “unequal society where the strong exploit the weak”: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/10/13/north-south-korea-netflix-squid-game/
For once, North Korea seems to have got it right. Hwang Dong-hyuk, the series director, says he conceived the concept based on his own economic struggles and also the class disparity in the country. “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,” Hwang said: https://variety.com/2021/global/asia/squid-game-director-hwang-dong-hyuk-korean-series-global-success-1235073355/
A section of critics agree with this interpretation. “Sharp social commentary and a surprisingly tender core” is the consensus on Rotten Tomatoes. The Globe and Mail critic thought it is “a brave, dark, ambitious tale, at times moving and at times terrifying … 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”: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/television/article-global-sensation-squid-game-is-a-parable-of-capitalist-exploitation/ But others are not so eager to take it seriously: "Utterly traditional, and thoroughly predictable ... melodrama”: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/11/arts/television/squid-game-violence.html
Social commentary, it may be, but it is part of a capitalist enterprise. It also turns violence into profitable entertainment.
>>Tips for violence-averse viewers:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2021/10/14/tv-violence-squid-game-watch/