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In Hindu scripture, it is said we live in KaliYuga, an age/era where people are motivated only by fulfilling material desires while using deceit, treachery, and any immoral means to achieve said desires are commonplace and justified.
The Squid Game Series on Netflix aims to show the perpetration of such evil by men and women who are driven by sheer desperation, egged on by people who entertain themselves by witnessing acts of violence and heinous, inhuman cruelty.
We have seen this theme before in various movies and series that mostly involve dystopian societies in the past or the future. But this is based on the here and now, just like Alice in Borderland on Netflix which is a pretty good series about an interdimensional Hunger Games in the current day.
Plot of Squid Game Series
Unless you have been living under a rock, you probably know what Squid Game is all about.
A shady organization with plenty of money recruits desperate people with no hope in life and any chance of redemption to engage in childhood games that involve a lot of violence and soul-crushing hardship. What are they playing for? A crazy amount of money that most of them will probably not live to see. ( Basically the life of an IT employee in my city - Bangalore. )
Most of the people who sign up for this are debt-ridden and prefer to die a violent death instead of pushing through the drudgery of another day. The hopeless contestants are then transported to an undisclosed, mysterious location while knocked out under the influence of a drug.
This is based in South Korea so obviously the games are all Korean in origin such as the Ddakji game. In Ddakji the players need to throw paper cards on top of other paper cards to flip them. The challenge lies in the amount of force required to flip the card.
A mysterious, well-groomed gentleman uses this game to recruit people into the Squid Game and is so good at it that the people always lose to him and end up accepting the invitation to the Games instead of winning a bunch of cash.
Other games include Red Light and Green Light where people race to a finish line when someone says Green Light and they stop and freeze in position when they say Red Light. People need to cross the finish line within ten minutes to win. Another common one everyone would have heard of is The Tug of War, except that the losers are pulled to their deaths from an unsurvivable height.
Elements of Squid Game
The Players: People who play the squid game who are expendable and recruited for each year through their recruiting agents.
Pink Gaurds/Masked Men: The people with guns who enforce the rules of the game by killing the losers and clearing the bodies from the game space and disposing of them.
The Masked Leader: The mysterious person who organizes all the games, brings in the rich folk, and commands the Masked Men.
The VIPs: Ultra High Net Worth Individuals who are so bored in their everyday life that they wager bets on the Players of Squid Game to make their life more exciting.
The Mysterious Island: The location where the Squid Game takes place is based somewhere on the west coast of South Korea. It is filmed in Seongapdo, a volcanic island off the west coast of South Korea.
Season 1 Summary
The beauty of this series is in discovering the plot slowly with the rest of the audience so that you will have time to digest what you are seeing, reflect on it, and proceed to watch more. Hence I will be extremely brief with the details of what happens in the series.
Season 1 sees Seong Gi-hun enter the Squid Game along with other contestants looking to turn around their lives by competing in sadistic games spectated by the ultra-rich to win a large sum of money.
On the way he learns tough lessons the hardest way possible, and emerges a stronger man but with a lot of trauma.
Season 2 Summary
Seong Gi-hun emerges from the Squid Game a victor, but with a huge score to settle with the people who run the Squid Game. He intends to use the very money he has earned to hunt down the evil minds behind this brutal game.
Season 2 of Squid Game is really bada$$ with character arcs coming full circle and the showrunners doubling down on the action and mystery. However, I was disappointed by how abruptly the second season ended, and it made me wanna ask Netflix for a discount on my subscription for the next month! I feel the second season's ending was needlessly incomplete to the extent that it feels that the episode ends halfway without any level of closure for the audience.
Squid Game's Commentary on the Rich-Poor Divide
Several series and movies deal with themes similar to those explored by Squid Game ( almost limitless at this point ). But I will stick to the ones that I have watched recently. Alice in Borderland is a game where people in Tokyo are transported either to another dimension where Tokyo exists or only selected people remain in Tokyo while others are transported elsewhere.
Similar to Squid Game, people are forced to participate in games to the death, killing one another to survive. I found it thrilling until the sheer violence got to me and realized this is one series you don't binge, but watch an episode, recover, and then watch the next episode.
The Hunger Games movies have an identical theme with most of the population being subjected to inhuman conditions, starvation, and tyranny while a small minority lives in The Capitol reaping the benefits of their hard work.
Money Heist would not be a good comparison, but its core plot revolves around a bunch of people getting together to turn on the system/establishment that failed them. Its themes of rebellion and freedom are inspiring to people across the world.
The Jackpot movie on Prime Video has a plot where a dystopian version of LA exists where people kill each other to claim a massive lottery prize. This has more of a comedic twist and makes for great entertainment.
Another bleak look at dystopia is Fallout, the wildly popular series adaptation of the game that I really enjoyed. In Fallout, the world has ended due to a nuclear apocalypse started by a corporation to eliminate any competition.
Cast of Squid Game Series
The cast of Squid Game does an unbelievable job of playing their parts to perfection sharing flawless chemistry with each other. You as the audience will never feel at any time that anyone is lacking in their performance. I of course have watched this with English audio like most of the world.
Gong Yoo as The Salesman who recruits desperate people for the Squid Game plays a deliciously deranged character who displays a mix of psychopathy and sociopathy. His character is one I quite respect considering that he sticks to his convictions, despite the consequences. However I do not endorse his illegal activities, empathize with his psychopathy and condemn his sociopathy.
Lee Jung-Jae as Seong Gi-hun is basically the heart and soul of this series who ends up being really important by transforming into a leader for the masses in the games. Seong enters the Squid Game as a hopeful soul and leaves a changed man with battle scars on his heart and a heavy burden to carry in his mind.
Lee Byung-hun as Front Man in the series is revealed to the Masked Leader and makes for a great Big Bad. You would have seen Lee play the bad-ass Storm Shadow in GI-Joe 1 and 2. Even him entering the series barely did anything to overshadow the plot or cast of the series.
Stunning Visuals
What sets Squid Game apart from the other Rich vs. Poor series/movies are the elaborate visuals that stick with you long after you have watched the series in its entirety.
The bright color schemes and housing arrangments for the Pink Soldiers reflect the intention of the game organizers and probably serve a few purposes according to me.
Firstly, the exaggerated colors represent a game setting, trying to offset seriousness and indicating their lives are also expendable to the Masked Leader and VIPs.
Secondly, the color schemes also serve to confuse any players who will attempt to charge the living quarters of the soldiers.
The entire series deals with things on a massive scale, not just to accommodate the numerous players, but also to make them feel insignificant compared to the setting in which they are placed. This I feel mirrors the massive corporations that now wield unlimited influence over the happenings of the world.
The sleeping quarters of the players are needlessly restrictive and built to incite conflict among each other. They also offer a minimal level of comfort and facilities including restrooms which are also under strict control by the guards.
Raw Action
If you watch the series in its entirety, you will realize while it may feel that the violence and brutality displayed may come across as gratuitous in parts it is actually a part of the core plot.
The sheer cruelty, chaos, and violence are a crystallization of what is happening in the world currently - neighbors wishing harm on each other, siblings poisoning each other for money, and entire sections of society ignored/forgotten/mistreated by the establishment and its representatives.
When you watch this, you might need a strong stomach, but you will never be bored for a moment or wish for more action/excitement.
Should You Watch This? Hell Yes!
Squid Game is an action-packed series that has come into being after a decade of rejections by its creator and the effort and passion come through clearly in its storytelling, visuals, and acting. Watch it! you won't be disappointed.