I wanted to say a few things about Squid Game, that new Netflix show that everyone is watching.
I just finished it a couple days ago. I have to say that I really enjoyed it.
This is not a video review channel but I was compelled enough to share a few jumbled thoughts
on this TV show.
Oh by the way, this one is going to have spoilers. And I want to give huge props to the talented
artist who drew this beautiful illustration for my thumbnail: Squirrel Paparazzi. Go follow
them on Instagram @squirrelpaparazzi.
In
an interview with Variety, writer-director Hwang Dong-hyuk says:
> “I wanted to write a story that was an allegory or fable about modern capitalist
society, something that depicts an extreme competition, somewhat like the extreme competition
of life. But I wanted it to use the kind of characters we’ve all met in real life.”
Hwang drew influences from Japanese works like "Battle Royale" and "Liar Game" to write
Squid Game. But he found the games in those to be too complicated. So Hwang simplified
the games to be kids' games. They were easy to explain, which gave space to develop the
characters.
Hwang's previous movies reflect the emphasis on character. A while ago, I watched his other
film - "The Fortress", released in 2017. It depicts a famous historical event: The Second
Manchu Invasion of Korea.
The Manchu leader Hong Taiji invaded the Kingdom of Korea, cornering the King and his court
at a fortress at Namhansanseong.
Everybody knows what happens in the end - the Korean King loses his resistance to the Manchu
and has to publicly kowtow to Hong Taiji. The event is deeply engrained in the nation’s
collective historical memory.
But the drama is watching the King's two advisors go back and forth with their own ideas on
how to escape the inevitable. This drama between these two forceful and fleshed out characters
carried the Fortress despite everyone (except me) knowing the ending.
And it carries Squid Game as well.
People still get hooked to Squid Game despite the simple plot because plot is not important
as having characters that the audience is invested in. The show does this in three ways.
First, Squid Game’s main characters are memorable. They have a distinct look and sometimes
even markings to help viewers recognize and remember them. This matters when you have
such a large cast.
I am thinking the snake tattoo on gangster Deok-Su. Ali Abdul's Pakistani identity. Or
the stud in Ji-yeong's nose.
Second, the characters are not one note. They show different faces and emotions throughout
the show. This helps make them feel more human.
Deok-Su, normally arrogant and outwardly confident, feels fear when his underling pushes him to
the brink of death at the marbles game.
Sae-Byok takes care of her little brother and helps Gi-Hun find the first step on the
glass ladder. But she also pickpocketed him earlier in the movie and cut up a broker who
scammed her. Gi-Hun is the protagonist with a golden heart. But real talk, he is also
kind of a trashy guy. He has a gambling problem and hasn’t held down a steady job in years.
His best friend would not lend him money. Would you?
And third, we are shown why each character needs the money. Shown, not told. The show
spends as much time with the characters outside and between the games as they do in the games.
And as a result, we can really get a sense of their desperation. It makes it that much
more terrible as they start dying.
Okay, so we have our cast of characters. Simple, but sweet. The show has dedicated copious
amounts of runtime with them so that we may care for their plight and want for them to
get what they want.
There is a famous piece of writing advice: Make great characters that you care for. And
then do awful things to them.
You watch them long enough to like them. And then watch them get put through some awful
things.
One of the unique parts of Squid Game is that it gives us a look into the inner workings
of the militaristic machine running the Games.
In the TV show, the Front Man confronts a ring of Game Workers who have managed to set
up a little side business harvesting organs from losing players and selling them to China.
They recruited one of the players - a disgraced doctor - to do the actual messy business of
harvesting the organs from the "donor". And in return, they tell the doctor what the next
game is going to be.
The Front Man says that he does not care whether or not they harvest the organs of dead players.
The real sin was that they violated the game's spirit of equality by telling some of the
players what the next games would be.
The Front Man seems like a consummate professional and seems to really value what he believes
to be the equality between the game's various players. Outside of the Squid Games, its players
are downtrodden, taken advantage of, and defrauded. All those are wiped clean once they step into
the arena.
In some way, the audience can sympathize with the Front Man's desire for equality in some
twisted way. Take away all the silver spoons so that we can truly compete with each other
as equals to see who really "deserves" the money. Leave it all to chance.
Battle Royale style games like the ones practiced in the TV show do not demonstrate skill, capability,
worthiness, or desire. It simply chooses a winner.
Computer simulations of winners and losers in Battle Royale-style games find that results
are only weakly aligned with skill. Games have to be simulated multiple times before
the most skilled player wins. In one simulation with 100 players, the game will have to be
played 500 times to get a 90% chance that the most skilled player can win.
Battle Royale is a game of chance. Gi-Hun eventually wins the 2020 Squid Games not because
he was the best or most skilled. Not because he had a heart of gold or showed kindness
to the right person. It was because he was lucky. The guy who lost game after game at
the start of the show ends up winning the biggest game of them all.
Is that okay? How you feel about that, I think, is a reflection of what your own personal
values are. Perhaps you can feel at peace, knowing that it is entirely out of your hands.
Perhaps the idea of that very loss of control is absolutely terrifying.
Squid Game, the actual squid game itself, is real. Writer-director Hwang says:
> It's the most symbolic game that reflects today's competitive society, so I picked it
out as the show's title.
It is a game of haves and have-nots. The people inside the squid start out with the privilege
of being able to walk on two feet.
Those born on the outside of the squid looking in, they have been deliberately crippled.
They have to scratch and fight their way into the head of the squid. It ends up a massive,
brutal brawl between two groups. One trying to keep the other out of their place in the
squid.
When judged by household, South Korea's income inequality as measured by the Gini Coefficient
is about average for a developed country. But this is because Korean households tend
to have more income earners than that of your average developed country.
If you were to look at it on an individual basis, then Korea drops very low on the rankings.
The top 10% highest earners in South Korea earn nearly 5 times more than the bottom 10%.
This puts it on the same level as the United States.
Up until the late 1990s, South Korea had not been so unequal. But in 1998, the Asian Financial
Crisis and the ruling Kim government pushed through a set of new labor laws that would
change the way Koreans worked.
Tens of thousands of workers lost their jobs, including Squid Game protagonist Gi-Hun. It
is mentioned that he used to work at a steel factory that eventually laid him off. In 1998,
a hundred thousand workers lost their jobs each month.
Not all these laid off workers found jobs. The lucky ones got hired or re-hired by companies
as "irregular" workers - on a temporary, freelance, or contract basis. The proportion of irregular
workers in the working population increased drastically from 43% in 1996 to 58% in 2000.
That number has remained persistently high ever since.
Many of these layoffs were older people, which has led to a situation where more than half
of South Korea's elderly (65+ years) suffers from poverty. And the TV show reflects this,
where the mothers of Gi-Hun and Sang-woo are both still working despite age and health
issues. This is kind of shocking for a country so imbued with Confucian traditions.
This is where social safety nets should exist. But South Korea industrialized and aged so
fast that they were not able to create and mature one good enough to fully protect the
vulnerable. They were one of the last developed countries to add a form of universal
Health care, instituted in the early 2000s. A decade after Taiwan.
Furthermore, as tax rates for the richest members of society have fallen from 70% in
the 1970s to 35% in the 2000s, a lack of tax revenues has made implementing new reforms
difficult.
And for those inside the squid at the start of the game, there is more money than ever.
Whether it be CEOs raking in massive stock-based compensation packages (same as in America),
or elite graduates at the top chaebol earning nearly twice as much as their comrades, the
top earners have been able to earn more than ever.
Many of these people have leveraged their high earnings to invest in real estate, becoming
yet even richer. Their wealth has benefitted from an extended bull market in Korean real
estate.
FYI, this is a critical difference between themselves and the working poor, borrowing
to invest rather than borrowing to consume - something Gi-Hun repeatedly does in the
first episode.
These divides have left South Korea rather polarized - home to some of the highest highs
and the lowest lows of society. A challenging socioeconomic situation, but at least it makes
for amazing art right?
In recent years, various Korean presidents have ascended to power on the back of promises
to corral the chaebol and reduce the wealth inequality gap. For various reasons, these
have almost all failed.
So if you are in the bottom earning class group, with no way out and no hope seemingly
coming, then it is possible to believe that existing can be such a hell that you would
risk it all for a chance to win it all.
In recent years, South Korean art and cinema have been telling really great stories on
the themes of wealth inequality and poverty.
A few notable examples of this - other than Squid Game, of course - have been OldBoy,
Oscar winner Parasite, Mother, or Burning. The theme notably appears in Train to Busan,
as well, where the main antagonist is also a finance/businessperson.
South Korea has had a mixed relationship with Big Business, long a foundation of their export-led
prosperity. I have been thinking about doing a future video about why it has been so hard
to reform wealth inequality and the Chaebol in South Korea. Let's see if I can finish
it.
All in all, I really enjoyed Squid Game. It was one of those TV shows that grabbed me
from the very start and dragged my busy self kicking and screaming until the end. Thanks
for listening to my rambling review and soon we will be back to our regularly scheduled
programming.
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