I was enticed into watching Squid Game after seeing the numerous memes and references to it littered throughout twitter and the many subreddits I frequent; in what I can only presume is a well crafted digital marketing campaign and something we can expect to see more of from media executives in the future.
So, after scrolling past a pile of posts I didn’t understand, I decided to dive into the show and came to really enjoy Hwang Dong-hyuk’s tale of class disparity, desperation, addiction, poverty and capitalism.
Squid Game is set in modern North Korea and follows the stories of multiple contestants as they play their way through a series of children’s games with the grand prize of 45.6 billion Korean won, which in British pounds is 29 million, waiting for them if they succeed; the caveat being that if they lose any of the games they also lose their lives and for each life lost 100 million won is added to the final pot of money.
Our main character, the one we spend the most time with, is gambling addict Seong Gi-hun, played by Lee Jung-jae, who I thought did a real great job as the deadbeat father and struggling gambling addict, who underneath all his shortcoming has a great heart and a strong sense of morality. I do think the casting and voice dub casting was spot on for this character and both delivered great performances.
I initially wasn’t fond of the dub and can understand why it may be off putting for those not familiar with international film, but being brought up on old Bruce Lee movies I soon adapted and was quite fond of the dub in the end, apart from certain performances: the old man’s voice had a cadence I just personally disliked.
The other characters were all performed well; shout out to Heo Sung-tae who played the over the top villainous gangster, which is always a role I’m partial to; Park Hae-soo as Gi-hun’s stoic, pragmatic, childhood friend turned betrayer and enemy toward the end of the games and jung Ho-yeon playing Kang Sae-byeok, a North Korean defector looking to provide a better life for her brother and family. These characters stood out for me and I personally would have preferred to have seen more scenes of their past and backgrounds in favour of some of the other plot threads we got.
I was not a fan of the body harvesting subplot, or the police officer infiltrating the island subplot, as I felt they both didn’t really amount to anything and as stated we could have spent more time getting to know some of the other characters who were central to the main plot and this is one of the main criticisms I have of the show; I believe that if you’re telling a story that is essentially about the rich overlords treating the poor peasants as less than human then you need to spend as much time humanising the peasants and focus less on dead end plot threads about long lost brothers and body harvesting; although I will say I can understand the brother subplot could be a major component of the story if they are to continue the series into a second season, but I can’t make the same case for the organ harvesting and felt like it didn’t belong whatsoever.
I also disliked the old man twist; to me it does feel like the producers shoehorned in another big twist at the end just for the sake of it and kind of ruins the impact of his death scene a few episodes prior. I also felt like the scenes of him and Gi hun at the end in the building could have been replaced with the other masked men trying to recruit him, hell you could have even kept it in the same building, with them watching and betting over the same homeless guy; but I also believed it was out of character for Gi hun not to call for help for the homeless guy.
Despite these setbacks I did really enjoy watching Squid Game. The idea of the poor being desperate enough to compete in a life and death tournament to escape poverty, as billionaires watch on in sadistic pleasure, is a story that can sadly seem quite relatable in a world where companies are discouraging their employees from taking bathroom breaks, while they work for a man who goes into space in his spare time.
The characters are compelling enough to make the tension of watching them about to risk their lives is palpable enough to make me hold my breath for a moment or two as the brutal action unfolds onscreen. The action itself is all well shot, well produced and believable enough to draw you into the violence.
Do I believe they could have trimmed some of the fat? Sure. The second episode felt like a bit of a slog to get through and yes there are some things I would have done differently. Would I like to see a second season however? Definitely! I believe that they shot their load too soon with the police officer subplot in the first season and that it would have better fitted into a second season, but there’s no reason a decent writing team couldn’t pull off something better.
So to conclude, Squid Game is a violent depiction of the stranglehold money and those who have it, has over those who don’t. If you can get used to the English dub, are fine with watching gory violence and are in the space to handle some of the more depressing aspects of the plot, then this is definitely worth a watch and comes with the added bonus of being able to understand the annoying memes circulating.
I give Squid Game four stars!
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Rhyviews 