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Squid Game (Korean: 오징어 게임; RR: Ojing-eo Geim) is a South Korean survival drama television series created by Hwang Dong-hyuk for Netflix. Its cast includes Lee Jung Jae, Park Hae Soo, Wi Ha Joon, Jung Ho Yeon, and Oh Young Soo.
Squid Game was released worldwide on September 17, 2021, to critical acclaim and international attention. It is Netflix's most-watched series, becoming the top-viewed program in 94 countries and attracting more than 142 million member households and amassing 1.65 billion viewing hours during its first four weeks from launch, surpassing Bridgerton for the title of most watched show. The series has also received numerous accolades, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film for Oh Young Soo and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series and Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series for Lee Jung Jae and Jung Ho Yeon, respectively, with all three making history as the first Korean actors to win in those categories. A second season is in development and slated to be completed and broadcast by 2024.
Synopsis[]
Seong Gi Hun (Lee Jung Jae), a divorced father and indebted gambler who lives with his elderly mother, is invited to play a series of children's games for a chance at a large cash prize. Accepting the offer, he is taken to an unknown location where he finds himself among 455 other players who are all deeply in debt. The players are made to wear green tracksuits and are kept under watch at all times by masked guards in pink jumpsuits, with the games overseen by the Front Man, who wears a black mask and black uniform. The players soon discover that losing a game results in their death, with each death adding ₩100 million to the potential ₩45.6 billion grand prize. Gi-hun allies with other players, including his childhood friend Cho Sang woo (Park Hae Soo) and North Korean defector Kang Sae Byeok (Jung Ho Yeon), to try to survive the physical and psychological twists of the games.
Cast[]
- Lee Jung Jae as Seong Gi Hoon / "No. 456"
- Gi Hoon is a gambler down on his luck who gets recruited to play in the Squid Game, a series of deadly childhood games, for a high cash prize, which he ultimately wins. Gi Hoon was based on one of the childhood friends of series creator Hwang Dong Hyuk. Gi hOOn and Cho Sang woo were based on Hwang's own personal experiences and represented "two sides" of himself; Gi Hoon shared the same aspects of being raised by an economically disadvantaged single mother in the Ssangmun district of Seoul, while Sang Woo reflected on Hwang having attended Seoul National University with high expectations from his family and neighborhood.
- Park Hae Soo as Cho Sang Woo / "No. 218"
- Sang woo is the childhood friend of series protagonist Seong Gi Hoon, and the former leader of an investment team at a securities company. A graduate at Seoul National University, Sang Woo became millions of won in debt. To solve his financial problems, Sang Woo participated in the Squid Game. Initially allied with Gi Hoon and several other players, he takes on a darker role as the series progresses, becoming willing to kill other players to ensure his own survival. Gi Hoon shared the same aspects of being raised by an economically disadvantaged single mother in the Ssangmun district of Seoul, while Sang Woo reflected on Hwang having attended Seoul National University with high expectations from his family and neighborhood.
- Jung Ho Yeon as Kang Sae Byeok / "No. 067"
- Sae Byeok is a North Korean defector and pickpocket. She originally had grandparents, parents and an older brother, but an epidemic at her native village killed her grandparents and older brother. Her father was shot by the North Korean guards while fleeing the border into China and her mother was captured somewhere in China and repatriated back to North Korea, where she was imprisoned in a prison camp. At one point, Sae-byeok worked for gangster Jang Deok-su, but later went independent from him, causing animosity between the two.
- Wi Ha Joon as Hwang Jun Ho
- Jun-ho is a South Korean police officer and detective who, by the beginning of the story, is searching for his missing brother. When Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) explains his experience in the first game to the police, Jun-ho is the only one who thinks he is telling the truth. After seeing the same invitation card in his brother's apartment, Jun-ho realises his brother took part in the games, and decides to infiltrate the game to search for his brother. He follows a car transporting players to the ferry to the island the games take place on, and sneaks in undetected by killing a Worker guard and stealing his uniform. He records several events of the game on his phone and also takes pictures, with the intent of sending them to the police at the end of his investigation. Later on, he takes on the role of a Manager and asks Gi-hun if he has heard of a player named In-ho, Gi-hun responds by saying the players do not know each-other's real names.
- Oh Young Soo as Oh Il Nam / "No. 001"
- Anupam Tripathi as Ali Abdul / "No. 199"
- Heo Sung Tae as Jang Deok Soo / "No. 101"
- Kim Joo Ryoung as Han Mi Nyeo / "No. 212"
- Lee Yoo Mi as Ji Yeong / "No. 240"
- Kim Young Ok as Oh Mal Soon
- Yoon Seung Hoon as Park Ju Un / "No. 369"
- Im Ki Hong as Jung Min Tae / "No. 322"
- Park Hye Jin as Sang Woo's mother
- Park Sun Ah as Kim Mi Ok / "No. 107"
- Hong Woo Jin as Oh Yeong Uk / "No. 118"
Soundtrack[]
Episodes[]
Reception[]
The show received critical acclaim. On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the series has an approval rating of 94% based on 63 reviews, with an average rating of 8.20/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Squid Game's unflinching brutality is not for the faint of heart, but sharp social commentary and a surprisingly tender core will keep viewers glued to the screen – even if it's while watching between their fingers." On Metacritic, the series has a weighted average score of 69 out of 100 based on 13 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Joel Keller of Decider opined that the concept of the show was creative. When writing about the narrative, he described it as "a tight narrative and a story that has the potential to be tense and exciting." Keller concluded, "STREAM IT. Squid Game takes a fresh idea and spins it into a thrilling drama; we hope it continues to build the tension we saw in the last 20 minutes throughout the season." Pierce Conran of the South China Morning Post rated the series with 4.5 out of 5 stars and wrote, "Overall, this is still a savagely entertaining slam dunk from Netflix Korea, which is likely to be embraced around the world as its predecessors were." Hidzir Junaini of NME rated the series with 4 out of 5 stars and opined, "Thematic intelligence aside, Squid Game is also a white-knuckle watch, thanks to its visceral competition element." John Doyle of The Globe and Mail described the series as "a brave, dark, ambitious tale, at times moving and at times terrifying" and added, "Its power is in its understanding that money is survival. This is not some dystopian fantasy like Hunger Games. This is present-day life in all its complex awfulness."
Karl Quinn of The Age described the series as "enormously derivative", but wrote: "there are two tensions that elevate Squid Game. One is within the narrative, where the primacy of the individual is in direct combat with the notion of community, and where the illusion of "choice" justifies all manner of exploitation." S. Poorvaja of The Hindu wrote that "the nine episodes manage to leave its viewers horrified, yet invested in the show, thanks to the razor-sharp writing and compelling performances by its ensemble cast." Abha Shah of the Evening Standard wrote that the series was "tightly written, each episode packed with enough pace to make it truly binge worthy", and praised its themes as being "universally engaging". Hugo Rifkind of The Times described parts of the series as being "glacially slow", but stated that it was "definitely interesting", and wrote: "Behind it all, there's an almost Lovecraftian sense of horror, to do with normal lives being unliveable, and huge, unknowable powers in the background that will smirk while you die."
Writing for The New York Times, TV critic Mike Hale found Squid Game to be an "utterly traditional, and thoroughly predictable ... melodrama" with "eye-catching" but "not especially interesting ... production design and costuming". He also thought the series' "pretense of contemporary social relevance" failed to justify its "more than mildly sickening" violence, and thought its characters were "shallow assemblages of family and battlefield clichés". Daniel D'Addario of Variety wrote: "Like Joker, there's a having-it-both-ways insistence that a culture that could create violence is inherently sick and deranged, while playing out a wildly overstated version of sick derangement in a manner designed to be maximally tense and amusing."
Due to the popularity of Squid Game, Singapore's national newspaper The Straits Times named the show's director Hwang as The Straits Times Asian of the Year in December 2021.
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