Squid Game ‘reminds me of colleagues who died’, traumatised South Korean workers say
- With more than 111 million views, the show has captivated global audiences since its September debut and is now Netflix’s biggest hit ever
- But it has struck raw nerves in South Korea, where there’s growing discontent over soaring personal debt, decaying job markets and stark income inequalities
Netflix survival drama Squid Game, about desperate adults competing in deadly children’s games for a chance to escape severe debt, hits a little too close to home for Lee Chang-keun.
But it has struck raw nerves in South Korea, where there’s growing discontent over soaring personal debt, decaying job markets and stark income inequalities worsened by financial crises in the past two decades.
In the dystopian horrors of Squid Game, Lee sees a reflection of himself in the show’s protagonist Seong Gi-hun, a laid-off autoworker coping with a broken family and struggling with constant business failures and gambling problems.
Seong gets beaten by gangster creditors into signing off his organs as collateral, but then receives a mysterious offer to play in a series of six traditional Korean children’s games for a shot at winning US$38 million.
The South Korea-produced show pits Seong against hundreds of other financially distressed players in a hyper-violent competition for the ultimate prize, with losers being killed at every round.
In Squid Game, you see characters scrambling to survive after being laid off at work ... That reminded me of my colleagues who died
It is raising disturbing questions about the future of one of Asia’s wealthiest economies, where people who once crowed about the “Miracle of the Han River” now moan about “Hell Joseon”, a sarcastic reference to a hierarchical kingdom that ruled Korea before the 20th century.