Greed and lust for life: why the "Squid game" drives the whole world crazy

Despite the well-known plot, he touched the hearts of viewers all over the world.

Yelena Ivanova

The hype around a movie or TV series is usually driven by a multi-million dollar marketing campaign of studios or platforms. Or it may arise, for example, when one of the richest people in the world - Jeff Bezos - tells his 3.4 million followers that Netflix has released "the new best series - Squid Game."First, he became number one in his homeland. in South Korea, then the wave spread to Thailand and Singapore, now it has captured viewers in Europe, America and other parts of the world. the popularity of the series and the influx of viewers, its servers collapsed.

In 9 episodes of the series, it is about a survival game: very rich people watch how poor debtors play deadly games with an incomprehensible opponent in terrible masks. The plot has been well known to the audience for a long time. It will be repeated many times from "Man Running" to "Hunger Games".

In the new series, first of all, the tension and density of the action attract. The director and scriptwriter of all nine episodes, Hwang Dong Hyuk, knows the rules of the game in this kind of films well, and although he sometimes breaks them, he never ignores them.

The nightmare remains a nightmare from the first to the last minute of the film. Unexpected plot twists bring an even greater sense of horror and hopelessness.

Korean films have long been among the best in the world. “Squid” confirms this once again: the editing rhythm is almost flawless, and each scene is built in such a way that “the composition deserves special attention, literally from every frame you can get an excellent photo. That there is only one ladder on which the heroes go to the games. "

There is a lot of aliens in the series that are not known to non-Korean viewers, but the Hollywood visual language allows the bearer of any other cultural code to easily overcome these obstacles.

Forty-year-old loser and gambler Song Ki Hoon, after being abandoned by his wife and daughter while living with his mother, met a recruiter for a reality show. Together with several hundred like himself, Song Ki Hoon goes to a desert island, where the losers will be shot, and only one will be the winner.

He will receive the main prize - 45 billion won, or about 38 million dollars.

The heroes of the show - both Song Ki-hoon himself, and a thieving banker, and a bandit, and a defector from North Korea, and a stray Pakistani - quickly realize that without each other's support they will not be able to stand it, but they can each count on themselves. Therefore, in each series, heroes are killed a lot and willingly.

“It’s quite interesting to watch, you think what kind of game will be next, and it’s interesting for both the participants and you, each subsequent game is a riddle, who is better to take as partners, to group or not is also a good question, to which you don’t know the answer until the very end. ”, Shares his impressions Ulia K.

Viewers' opinions are quite contradictory.

AnnyBannyPanda writes that while watching the first episode, there was only one thought - now we will finish it and then we wind up - there is too much violence, blood and trash. But at the end of the first episode, thanks to the finale, there was a desire to look further, and then the episodes rushed one after another.

Kitt1545730 did not like the series at all. “In the series“ The Squid Game, ”well, there is simply no one to put an eye on. The acting is lifeless, the characters are made of cardboard, and they also look awful".

There is not a single character that would please the eye, neither among women nor among men. Maybe the success of the series lies in the fact that the viewer constantly asks the question: what will I do in this situation?

Culturologists who willingly comment on the new sociocultural phenomenon argue that plots and themes appeal to the social instincts of the viewer. According to the newspaper "Kommersant", the series shows the society in miniature. There are “underdogs” in it, people who have fallen to the edge of poverty, and therefore willing to do anything just to get out of poverty. There is a "coercive apparatus", security guards and a game manager. And there are the mighty of this world, for the sake of which these games are held, sitting in masks and watching the show. The series also contains quotes from The Matrix and The Hunger Games. And there is the main illusion: everyone can win.

“The Squid Game contains deeper meanings. Its main distinguishing feature from fellow film-makers is that people themselves, on a voluntary basis, came into the game. Moreover, having the opportunity to stop it, they continue to play, knowing that most of them will die”, - the viewers write.

AnnyBannyPanda believes that looking at who and what is ready for the sake of millions, faith in humanity is lost:

“During the viewing, he visits the whole spectrum of emotions... Fear, compassion, surprise, pity, horror ... People are really sorry. After all, this is a story about how someone became very bored with living a rich life and he is looking for entertainment at any cost.

People are no longer people, but pawns.

Yes, they went to the game themselves...

Yes, they themselves came to such a life...

But do they deserve this?"

The participants in the games in the series feel like children, and not only because they are playing "childish games", which cease to be because the majority do not survive. The heroes are locked up in the barracks for the night, they receive instructions on the game and cannot but abide by its rules. They are practically not fed, except for one ear of corn a day. The camera makes people small, and their puppet opponents in the game - absurdly large. The music for the film only emphasizes the idea that people will remain small and helpless forever.

There are no comic moments in the series at all, this creates a feeling of hopelessness. And the main character is not the person who evokes empathy from the first minute.

“The series is straightforward, it broke all the templates

I definitely recommend it!", - the audience speaks.

Netflix considers Squid Game not only the most successful non-English TV series. It is said that the Korean drama will become the most successful format in the history of the platform and will push the LGBT drama "Bridgerton" out of the first place.

"The show's harsh but touching main idea that greed continues to be the antithesis of morality is still shared by most people in the world", - writes the Süddeutsche Zeitung.