Binging Netflix is now part of my weekend plans - on top of armchair traveling with my Kindle (you get what I mean :)). After all, staying home isn't that bad (minus the prolonged you-and-me-only interaction and the tiring on-screen work relationship. WFH fatigue is a thing now). So this is me after watching Squid Game - which became a global sensation after it premiered on Netflix. Some said the nine-episode Korean survival drama is very much similar to the Japanese drama - Alice in Borderland (yup, I watched it too - this happened when you were cooping up within the four walls with a premium Netflix subscription). However, I hold the opposite view.
The Squid and The Parasite
The Squid Game is like the gaming version of Parasite (the South Korean movie that bagged numerous accolades and made history as the first non-English language film to be the best picture of Oscars 2020). Both Parasite and Squid Game have revealed the brutal truth of an unequal, winner-takes-it-all society where deception and violence are out of control. Unlike Parasite, which is about a poor family's struggles and their plot to infiltrate the super-rich family, the Squid Game exposed harsh realities of modern society's real struggle where the cast of the main characters mirrored a portion of the society. They are either desperately cash-strapped, or in mountain debt, or on the brink of going bankrupt, without any help. From a divorced man who steals from his mother to fund his gambling addiction and can't afford a birthday present for his daughter, to a fund manager facing bankruptcy lawsuit and police investigation, they all hoped that they can start afresh with the winning cash.
The Game
The game started with 456 competitors where the final winner will take home 45.6 billion Won (around RM 1.6 million). All they needed to do was to nail all six deceptively straightforward Korean children's games. On the surface, the game was the light at the end of the tunnel for those desperately poor participants. However, the game's dark side was revealed immediately after the game started. The participants were "eliminated" one by one. To be precise, losers were brutally murdered. The participants then formed alliances, got into the bloody struggle, betrayed their friends, and tried their best to survive and win.
Squid Game and Our Society
A seemingly fair children's game has only one rule - the winner takes it all and losers are left with nothing. You need to learn the logic of the survival of the fittest to win the race. In Squid Game, the highlight is not the simplicity of the children's game nor how you nail it, but the brutality behind the race. Though violence was forbidden throughout the game, the host has manipulated those participants by allowing them to kill each other at night. The weak ones were brutally massacred by the strong ones - just to get more food or a bigger share of the money when there are fewer competitors, which is our reality. Squid Game uses simple children's games as a subject matter, but through the games, it examines society and capitalism. The reason behind Gi-hun's survival is not because he had the best strategies or he made the right choice, but because of luck, which is our reality, too.
Have you watched the Squid Game?
Photo credit: allkpop.com