Criticism of capitalist society in its most primitive and painful form.
On September 17, Netflix burst into what is arguably the best TV show of September, The Squid Game. The colorful trailer, released two weeks earlier, promised a lively massacre and definitely intrigued everyone who had red suits from The Paper House for a long time looming in front of their noses. Only now, unlike their Spanish counterparts, the Korean guards turned out to be ruthless to their hostages.
Ki Hoon (Lee Jong-jae) is an unemployed father of forty who will soon be separated from his only daughter. One day he receives a business card offering him an adventure with a tempting prize if he wins. Along with 455 other gambling losers with horse loans or empty bank accounts, he finds himself in the center of a bloody, fatal child's game. The entire action of the series takes place in modern South Korea with its social inequality. The main character is surrounded by a community that does not leave us indifferent - each of their actions responds to us in its own way.
TV series director Hwang Dong-hyuk ("Cruel Ordeal") explained in an interview with IndieWire that he wanted to create a story that would be an allegory or a fable about a modern capitalist society with extreme competition. The work on the project was quite painstaking, and in order, for example, to write the script for the first two episodes, it took Don-hek six months, after which he constantly consulted with his friends to improve the quality of the material. As a result, all efforts were able to pay off, according to the director of content for Netflix, "Kalmar" has every chance of becoming the most popular series in the history of the platform. Moreover, the director himself did not expect such success, and he is unlikely to be disingenuous in this matter, because over the past decade, Korean TV shows continued to dominate mainly only in Asia.
In order, God forbid, not to jinx the potential release of the second season, it is worth mentioning the obvious disadvantages for the sake of decency. For example, the part of the story that involves the Korean police is of no interest at all. Once again, she demonstrates her permanent stupidity and corruption. Or, please, meager dialogues that sound unnatural enough for people who find themselves in such a stalemate. But despite this, the series still has a good bouncy pace, charismatic characters and, as they say among young people now, the aesthetics of a real reality show about inhuman cruelty mixed with childhood, which is a great idea to describe the chasm between evil children (but children in the first place) and mature adults who overnight become cowardly and cruel scum.
The Squid Game rooted us in our own truth: we, too, enjoy watching this violent and uncomfortable act. What will the next game be like? Who will survive? We also choose our favorite and hope that he goes as far as possible. But that's not all, in the drama, for once, naked female breasts appear. Not that it was very necessary, but it was high time for South Korea to finally dare to show something other than hundreds of well-built male torsos. And how rare it is to see a non-Korean actor on a Korean drama. Indian Anupam Tripathi claims to be touching and benevolent naivete, denouncing Korean society for mistrust of foreigners, as well as precarization and discrimination of immigrant workers. Seemingly insignificant trifles, but it is from such radical solutions that the success of this puzzle develops.
As for the visual design, it is ideally symmetrical here and completely disarms the viewer, since in survival games the viewer's eye is used to observing more dull scenery. Labyrinths of stairs with mysterious doors are generally reminiscent of Tim Burton's insane universe, and the synchronized movements of the soldiers are accompanied by a delightful soundtrack that can bring anyone to a panic attack.
This article was sponsored by Robert Bachhuber.
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