**NEW** Squid Game
Welcome back to Hallyu Reviews! We hope you enjoyed Sabrina’s review of “My Demon.” If you missed it, be sure to go back and have a read!
This week, we take a look at Season 1 of “Squid Game.”
SPOILERS AHEAD!!
Final Verdict: WATCH
Synopsis
What do you do when you are in debt and someone offers money to beat children’s games? You accept, of course. What is the worst that can happen? Well, Gi-Hun (Lee Jung-Gae) is about to find out how he can survive the easiest of children's games without losing both his mental state and his soul simultaneously in “Squid Game.”
Courtesy of Tudum by Netflix
How You are Recruited
Gi-Hun is a gambler, but he’s a good man. He is feeling defeated when he meets the Squid Game recruiter and plays a few rounds of ddakji. He wins 100,000 per round that he wins, but gets slapped in the face for each round he loses. The recruiter’s (Gong Yoo) job is to find candidates for the game. He has extensive knowledge about each player he recruits. The recruiter plays ddakji with unsuspecting victims and then offers them a card with the symbols Circle, Triangle, and Square on it, telling them they can make more money playing games like Ddakji to win money they just have to call the number on the card.
Courtesy of IGN
The Rules
A total of 456 people are enrolled in this round of the games, with a prize pool of 456 billion won, or 100 million won for each player eliminated. The guards tell the participants that they could win this prize money by “winning” six different games over six consecutive days. However, it’s important to note that while the term “win” is used, a more accurate term would be “survive.” What the game wardens fail to disclose is that losing means death. The only player left standing will be the one who survives.
Each participant is required to sign a consent form with 3 different clauses: a player is not allowed to stop playing; a player who refuses to play will be eliminated; and games may be terminated if the majority agrees. Players then play 6 different games - Round 1 - Red Light, Green Light; Round 2 – Dalgona; Fight - This is a “special” game that the players participate in without knowing; Round 3 - Tug of War; Round 4 – Marbles; Round 5 - Glass Bridge; and Round 6 - Squid Game.
The Frontman
During the games, the Frontman (Lee Byung-hun) watches the slaughter unfold while listening to classical music, creating a very unsettling atmosphere. Each participant is required to take a photograph, and as they are eliminated from the games, their pictures turn black. Eliminated players are placed in black caskets adorned with pink bows, which are then placed in an incinerator.
Courtesy of Dailymotion
Let the Games Begin
A total of 255 players are eliminated during the first game. After this game, Cho Sang-woo (Park Hae-soo) points out that the games can be canceled if the majority of players vote to do so, clause 3 of the contract. The players hold a vote and decide to cancel the games. Once he is freed, Seung Gi-hun goes to the police department to file a complaint. The officer attempts to contact the game organizers, but the system fails to work. However, Detective Hwang (Wi Ha Joon) notices the card that Gi-hun gave to the police officers and finds the same card in his missing brother's apartment.
After the players are released, we get a glimpse into each of their lives and backgrounds. This allows viewers to understand why they need the money from the games and highlights the desolate conditions of their current living situations. Several main players' stories are explored in detail, including Gi-Hun, Sang-Woo, Kang Sae-Byeok (a North Korean defector played by Jung Ho-Yeon), Jang Deok-Soo (a thug played by Heo Sung-Tae), and Ali Abdul (a foreigner played by Anupam Tripathi). While we do not receive background information on Oh Il-Nam (an elderly gentleman with a tumor, played by Oh Young-Soo) or Han Mi-nyeo (an eccentric character played by Kim Joo-Ryung), they are also important players in the game.
Courtesy of Tudum by Netflix
Let the Games Continue
Gi-Hun returns to the game and viewers gain further insight into the location and setup used to transport the players to the game site. The main players consist of the seven individuals previously mentioned, allowing the audience to explore their personalities and thought processes regarding the games throughout the series. Additionally, viewers learn more about the background of the games as Detective Hwang Jun-ho follows Gi-Hun and sneaks onto the ferry carrying the players. He disguises himself as a Squid Game guard, hoping to uncover what happened to his brother.
After being released, 187 players return, 93% of the players who left, return to play again. Sang-Woo and Gi-hun are old friends from the same neighborhood who used to play together and watch out for each other when they were younger. Alliances and teams are formed as soon as the players return to the playing arena. Gi-hun and his team try to think of the types of games that they may have to play and list Ddakji, Dabanggu, Biseokchigi, Donggi, and Don Katsu. (This is interesting to me because some of those games appear in Season 2).
Courtesy of M
Masks
The guards all wear masks, there is the square mask, the triangle mask, and the circle mask, which are used to indicate the ranks of the guards. The square guard is the Manager, he has the most sides, and therefore, the most power. The triangle mask is the Soldier mask, he is told what to do by the Manager, they carry guns and eliminate players. The circle guard, which does not have sides, is the worker guard, they tend to the dead players and place their bodies in the caskets. Detective Hwang is a circle guard.
Courtesy of slashfilm
Sang-woo figures out the second game is Dalgona and keeps that important information from Gi-hun, this showcases his desire to win the game at all costs, as well as his ability to betray people he cares about. I had hoped that he would tell Gi-hun but at the last minute, he decides not to, knowing that Gi-hun’s choice of the umbrella could cause him to be killed. Dalgona is where the players have to cut the shape out of melted sugar using only a needle within the five-minute time frame. It is when one player fights back and the guard takes off his mask that viewers learn most of the guards are young adults and that as soon as a player or guard sees your face without the mask, guards can also die. 79 players are eliminated in Dalgona, which leaves a total of 108 players left, and 34.8 billion won collected for the winning players.
Courtesy of The New York Times
Fight
A “special” game in the Squid Game series is the "Fight." The game's managers restrict food intake for the players, leading to a violent confrontation when Jang Deok-Soo and Han Mi-Nyeo steal food from other participants. When the players discover that additional money has been deposited into the bank instead of receiving a punishment, a fight breaks out as they try to eliminate any perceived "weak" players. This chaos is encouraged by the guards, who want to remove more participants from the game.
As the guards turn off the lights, all the players begin attacking one another, with Deok-Soo and his group being the main aggressors. Throughout the fighting, the Frontman watches and intermittently flickers the lights to heighten the drama and fear among the players. Oh Il-Nam eventually cries out for everyone to stop fighting, warning that they will all die in the arena. When the lights come back on, the guards enter to clear away the dead bodies. In total, 28 people died in the fight, including one player that Deok-Soo killed before the fighting began, bringing the total prize money to 376 billion won.
Courtesy of Squid Game Wiki
Tug of War
Later, Oh Il-Nam offers advice on how to help his team win the Tug of War game using a good strategy. He suggests stacking players on opposite sides of the rope and pulling back for the first 10 seconds. This would prevent the opposing team from pulling them forward, leading to frustration. They designate Gi-Hun as the leader to observe the trends of the other team. Sang-Woo devises the plan for the team to run forward before pulling back. They manage to survive the game, but unfortunately, 40 people are killed during the round, which represents half of the remaining players. The winning pot accumulates to 41.6 billion won.
Courtesy of Squid Game Wiki
Harvesting
Some of the guards are involved in harvesting the dead players' organs. They will purposefully only injure a player to harvest his/her organs. However, the player who was helping to harvest the organs for game information, and the guards who get caught, all get killed by the Frontman as a message that games are supposed to be strictly revealed at their time of play. All players are supposed to be given a fair chance to win or lose the games on their own, with no additional assistance. The guard that Jun-ho “replaced” is involved in part of this organ smuggling. He uses this opportunity to find out some information from a different guard and then he kills him and begins to search the building for more clues. Jun-ho discovers that his missing brother, Hwang In-Ho won the 28th round of the Squid Game, in 2015, as player 132. After an intense chase through the building and the woods surrounding the compound, Hwang In Ho is revealed as the Frontman as he shoots his brother off of a cliff.
Courtesy of Looper
Marbles
Marbles is the game that further reveals Sang-Woo’s character, each team is supposed to partner up and then they play marbles. Each person is given a bag with 10 marbles, the person who attains all 20 of the marbles at the end of 5 minutes is safe, while the other person is eliminated. Sang-Woo and Ali partner up and although Sang-Woo loses all of his marbles he tricks Ali into thinking that both players will survive, so he takes Ali’s marbles and makes a sling to carry them around his neck, but he actuality swaps out Ali’s marbles for rocks. Ali ends up being killed by the guards, after being told that the remaining player who doesn’t have a partner will be killed, Gi-Hun partners up with Il-Nam. Il Nam cannot remember how many marbles he guesses each time Gi-Hun thinks he has all of Il Nam’s marbles, but the old man tricks him by pulling one out of his pocket. I don’t think he is as senile as he wants people to believe. He leads Gi-Hun to a house that is just like his from when he was younger and Gi-Hun begs him to finish the game. Suddenly Il Nam gives him the last marble and claims that gganbu (friends) share everything. Gi-Hun cries as he leaves the arena. This episode (6) is quite emotional, so I recommend having tissues.
Courtesy of Gold Derby
VIPs
The Frontman greets the VIP players when they arrive and they ask about the “host”. Who is the host and why is he not greeting the VIP players? The VIP players arrive at the compound and give an additional level of sadism to the game. They vote on players they think will win while “wining and dining” as the players face extreme circumstances and fight for their lives. The VIPs are not revealed until the players face the Glass Bridge, game 5, in episode 7. With only 16 players left, they must find their way across a glass bridge. Some of the platforms are tempered glass and some are breakable glass. After the Glass Bridge, only 3 players remain, Gi-Hun, Sang-Woo, and Sae-Byeok. Sae-Byeok is severely injured when the glass explosion causes her side to be impaled by a shard of glass.
Courtesy of The Guardian
The Final Game
At the end of the series, Sang-Woo, Gi-Hun, and Sae-Byeok enjoy a lavish meal featuring steak, complete with a steak knife. Later that night, while the players are supposed to be sleeping, Sang-Woo uses his steak knife to kill Sae-Byeok. Gi-Hun nearly attacks Sang-Woo while he is asleep, but Sae-Byeok stops him, saying it's not like him to act that way. Gi-Hun struggles to cope with her death. Before the incident, Sae-Byeok had asked Gi-Hun to promise he would take care of her younger brother, a promise he intends to keep. Once all the beds are removed and viewers can get a clear view of the walls, the drawings on the wall depict the various games that the players have played.
Courtesy of Tudum by Netflix
The final game in "Squid Game" takes place between Gi-Hun and Sang-Woo, who are childhood friends. At the start of the series, they participate in a game on the field where the objective is to navigate around a squid drawing and reach the head, then push the attacker out to win. For the game to conclude, one player must eliminate the other, meaning that the last person standing must kill their opponent.
At this point in the series, Gi-Hun has not killed anyone during the games, while Sang-Woo has killed at least three players. Gi-Hun decides to play offensively, leaving Sang-Woo as the defender. Gi-Hun is deeply affected by Sae-Byeok's death and plays with intense emotion. This is the first time in the series that we see Gi-Hun attack, yet he struggles to kill his old friend. At the end of the game, with a knife in hand and standing over Sang-Woo, he stabs the knife into the ground instead of using it on his friend. He then walks to the end of the game, at the squid's head, and declares that he wants to end the game. Gi-Hun is willing to forfeit the prize money to save his friend's life. Sang-Woo instead calls him Hyung and stabs himself with the knife. This is the first moment of sincerity from Sang-Woo, as he asks Gi-Hun to help protect and save his mother. We see the light in Sang-Woo fade as the Frontman takes a blindfolded Gi-Hun home. Gi-Hun has won 45.6 billion won, which is approximately 38.5 million USD. When he gets home, he encounters Sang-Woo’s mother, who gives him fish to take to his own mother and inquires about Sang-Woo. Upon returning home, Gi-Hun discovers that his mother has passed away.
Courtesy of Looper
The True Host
A year later, Gi-hun has hardly spent any money. He is sitting by the river when he buys a rose from a flower vendor. Inside the rose is a black and pink card with a date and time, along with the Squid Game symbols, signed “from your gganbu.”
Meanwhile, Oh Il-nam is in a building connected to medical equipment, observing people walking up and down the street. He was the host that the VIPs had been waiting for, not the Frontman. When Gi-hun asks him why he organized the games, Il-nam shares a story about a drunken beggar who is likely to freeze to death if no one offers help. He describes it as a game to see if anyone will help the beggar before midnight.
Courtesy of Squid Game Fandom Wiki
Oh Il Nam claims that he makes money for a living, and it's not easy to do. He wanted to participate in the game because he has a large tumor that is getting bigger. Il Nam asks Gi-Hun why he hasn’t spent any of the money he won, reminding him that it is now his money and life is short. He mentions that having too much money can get boring, which is why he created the games—to give the wealthy something “fun” to do. Il Nam states that all of this was voluntary and that the players chose to stay in the game. He compares them to horses in a sport. He then asks Gi-Hun if he still trusts in humanity.
Il Nam admits he played the game because he used to play as a child and wanted to experience the thrill again. He thanks Gi-Hun for playing with him and allowing him to feel the same excitement he felt as a kid. At midnight, the police arrive to assist a drunken beggar, and Il Nam passes away. Gi-Hun closes his eyes and tells him that he lost.
Promises Kept
We see a flashback where Oh Il Nam, wearing a VIP mask, tells the Frontman to greet the VIP guests because he plans to have more fun participating in the games this year instead of just observing. Gi-Hun keeps all his promises: he finds Seo-byeok’s brother and takes him to Sang-Woo’s mother so she can care for him. He gives Sang-Woo’s mother a suitcase full of money to help with expenses, explaining that it is the money he owes Sang-Woo.
Gi-Hun plans to take a trip to the U.S., where his daughter currently lives. However, as he leaves the subway, he hears ddakji being played by the recruiter and another participant. The recruiter smiles at him and then disappears on the subway. While waiting to board his plane, Gi-Hun calls the number on the card and tells them that he is not a horse, but a person—and that he is coming for them. In Ho, the Frontman, tells him to get on the plane. Gi-Hun then turns around and heads back towards Korea.
Message
“Squid Game” is a series about how desperate people are to have money, and the lengths that people will go to make money. The world is ruled by the “haves” and fought after by the “have-nots.” Everyone who participated in the games volunteered to play because of the need or the desire to win money. “Squid Game” explores the dangers of capitalism, inequality within the social classes, and poverty. All of the players had crippling debt and were struggling to survive. By offering the games, people were given a chance to change their fate through “quick” money at the risk of their own lives. “Squid Game” showcases the desire of people to be wealthy and how most people will change their morals to get ahead. That is the one aspect I love about Gi-Hun winning, he was a good person who kept his morals stable the whole game. He did what he had to do to survive, but he played as an honest man with a good heart.
Courtesy of Vulture
Final verdict: WATCH
“Squid Game” delves into some serious themes in a gore-filled story. There is blood, fighting, and sex, as well as compassion and heartfelt storylines. For me, “Squid Game” is a WATCH if you can handle the blood and gore and people fighting/betraying each other. It is a story about the lack of humanity that some people show towards others just to try and get ahead in the world, and how money really does rule the world.
Courtesy of The Escape Effect
So there it is, our review of “Squid Game.” What did you think?! Thank you for joining us on this journey.
Have a favorite K-drama you think we should review? Comment down below!! We look forward to seeing you back again soon!
Up next, “The King’s Affection”
