Culture Shock - Squid Game

Jonah Chadwin, Sofia Mang

In this episode, staffers Jonah Chadwin and Sofia Mang discuss the deeper meaning and themes in Netflix's most watched show, Squid Game. Listen on Spotify here!

Sofia: Hello, and welcome to point of view where we give students a place to listen, learn and lean in. I'm Sofia Mang

Jonah: And I'm Jonah Chadwin.

Sofia: And today we're dissecting Squid Game, the popular survival K-drama, we will be diving deep and unpacking the intricate themes and layers of the show.

Jonah: So, the series Squid Game revolves around a contest where 456 players are in deep financial debt, they put their lives at risk to play a series of children's games for the chance to win 45.6 billion won prize money.

Sofia: So, if we kind of just go into squid game and talk about the theme, I feel like something that's obvious is capitalism, right?

Jonah: Yeah.

Sofia: And so, everyone knows that capitalism is the idea that the poor stays poor and the rich only get richer. So, it's just money equals power. And it's an ongoing cycle that just never stops, right?

Jonah: Yeah.

Sofia: And I feel like in Squid Game, you know how they said that the whole point of the games was to keep everything fair.

Jonah: Yeah. They were focused on that a lot. Yeah.

Sofia: Yeah, but then like, in that, it just showed human nature because the people still created their own social hierarchy.

Jonah: Yeah, they all had their own little groups. Eventually, throughout, they were never just gonna be on their own, they had to form a society.

Sofia: They're always teamed up. And then when they were all killing each other that wasn't even part of the games, but it was in a sense, because it's just how humans are, and they always just find ways to be on top and cheat their way out of the system.

Jonah: Yeah, it's just human nature to have sort of like a human government, wherever you are, you can't all be equal. There's got to be someone above, and capitalism, it's shown a lot throughout, the poor stays poor, when Gi-Hun even after he won all that money, he'd never spent any of it. We see throughout the series that he doesn't spend it at all, and he's still poor a year later, when he meets the old man that the rich get richer. The old man never stops getting rich, he keeps making money eventually he gets bored with how rich he is and how much power he has throughout.

Sofia: Yeah, and I mean, I guess besides capitalism, what else did you notice throughout?

Jonah: I noticed how it talks about how childhood is easier than adulthood, and how the games are their childhood, and when they play the children's games it represents them as a kid and how it feels as a kid. While the real world is them in debt and for Gi-Hun it's impossible to overcome. There are hints at this when we see Gi-Hun play a children's claw game, but as an adult that fails, and ultimately a kid wins the claw game and the prize for Gi-Hun, we see Gi-Hun have a choice between going back into the games or staying in the real world, childhood or adulthood, and he picks childhood which is the games, which may seem gruesome and deadly, but it's still easier than adulthood for him.

Sofia: Yeah. And I kind of noticed, I was like, I think one of the biggest aspects of why it was so popular was because of these children's games turned dark, right?

Jonah: Yeah.

Sofia: Like seeing people die from tug of war was really interesting to me, but I feel like another theme that they touched on was luck. You know, and what I said earlier about how the people who are in charge of the games emphasize the fact that it was always fair, but then it just teaches a theme instead of a theme because all of these games, yes, they're technically fair, but in a sense, they're really not. It's just about luck. Like for the last game sport, the second to last game specifically, it was literally luck.

Jonah: Yeah, it was only luck. There was nothing more. Tug of war was a little bit of making sure, well that wasn't exactly luck, tug of war you had to be strong. And you could even pick who you were with too.

Sofia: Exactly. I guess it just has multiple themes for each character and their backstory, but I feel like, like I said earlier how it's been so popular. It is a Korean Asian media, but why do you think it has such a vast appeal?

Jonah: I think it has such a vast appeal, because adults will be able to relate to Gi-Hun’s struggle, because there are many adults out there that may not be in such financial areas as others like the old man in Gi-Hun's place and they can relate to his struggles, but while Korean kids and kids like us can relate to the children's games, but that dark twist turned on it.

Sofia: Yeah, and obviously, Korean debt is very, very bad thing compared to America, but it's still something that we can all relate to, but I feel like it also kind of draws back to America's obsession with Asian media. You know, like K-pop has become very, very popular recently. And anime has always been a big thing, but I feel like even recently, more teens have gotten to it instead of like shedding it away. And some people kind of just value Asian media more or just foreign media in general, like French movies they've seem, oh, it's so sophisticated compared to like, American movies, stuff like that. So, I feel like just the foreign media overall gives it even more of like an edge.

Jonah: Yeah, it's nice to see America evolve into liking other things than just their own and appreciating good media from anywhere.

Sofia: Yeah, I feel like because it's, another reason why it's so popular was because all ages just love it because of the different factors. There's the satisfying visuals like that place that they went through every time he went through a game watching them walk through that

Jonah: Yeah, those stairs.

Sofia: Yeah.

Jonah: That was yeah, that was visually appealing.

Sofia: The colors are so pretty and like the way that it's structured like I've never seen that before. And then like, once again, the children's games being able to, I have a few Korean friends who are talking about how they play these games when they were kids. So, watching in Squid Game was like kind of like a tongue twister for them. And also, just like even when they play these games as a kid, obviously they did it innocently. And then all of a sudden, they're watching these people play these games, and they're dying because they can't cut out a cookie, right?

Jonah: Yeah, another reason it's so popular is because it's dark enough that people who like horror movies people who are into that will like those gruesome moments, but it's not so dark, that it'll scare away the people that don't like those kinds of films. Combined with the emotional aspect and the mystery of who's behind it all. There's something for everyone. There's a different layer of the series that someone's gonna like the mystery, the gruesomeness, the adventure, the action, the romance, so many mysteries and questions at the end, that just leaves them wanting more. It didn't rush the characters with a show like Squid Game, it's very easy to just focus on the games and not the characters and not talk about the characters at all but it in episode two, it really went into their backstory, and you learned, and you grew a connection with those characters in such a short period of time.

Sofia: Yeah. And it's like, because of how our past society has always been kind of obsessed with the dystopian thing like Hunger Games.

Jonah: Yeah, that was big in the 2010s.

Sofia: Yeah, dystopian games, kind of like survival games, that's always been something that we like. And I remember, I really liked it as a kid. I agree. Like, I don't even like horror. I hate horror. And I hate blood, I hate gore, but I really love squid game. And it's just like, I mean, like, I close my eyes sometimes when they're like stabbing each other. I didn't like that, but I agree I also love the characters. I remember, just, I was always just rooting for the main character.

Jonah: Yeah.

Sofia: Even though he was introduced as a bad dad, a guy in debt, like all of this stuff, I was still rooting for him, because it was showing how even under all of these bad aspects that he is as a person, he's still a good person at heart.

Jonah: Yeah, you see how all of them like they may be in bad debt, but they all have like the good qualities about them. Even somebody like Sang Woo. Yeah.

Sofia: I mean, like, I don't know, some people, I guess he can be understood, because if you were in a life-or-death situation, what would you do?

Jonah: Yeah, we would all be partly saying we would there.

Sofia: Yeah, but so with this, I guess we could kind of infer the future media from Asia and how that's going to become more popular. Yeah. Like for me. I've already looked to other shows that have been similar to Squid Game. And have you heard of Alice in Borderland?

Jonah: Yes, I think I have.

Sofia: You have? Have you watched it?

Jonah: No, not yet.

Sofia: No, it's like, it's similar a lot to Squid Game, because they're, once again, its games, but they're Japanese. And it's a lot more complex in Squid Game, but it's just something that you see how they just draw inspiration from each other and how big everything is coming, because all of a sudden, after Squid Game came out. You saw Alice in Borderland being advertised more and more and more.

Jonah: Yeah, Squid Game sort of took us back to those days of the dystopian era. And it sets the bar for future media because it set a level of just being that good that not many shows are gonna top that.

Sofia: Exactly like even watching Alice in Borderlands. I was like, Okay, but how can I relate this back to Squid Game, you know, which is not something you should do when you're watching a show, but I was just like, the Squid Game was so good. I want more of it. You know? What's something that you think they could have done better in the show?

Jonah: I feel like because so many characters died in it, and we only had what one main character pretty much left? I feel like you could have kept at least one or two. I feel like you didn't have to kill every single one and give us something to look forward to. I mean, we're all looking forward to season two, but I feel like we'd all look forward to it more with some characters returning and they might there's been so many theories out there about characters still being alive and so many of those theories.

Sofia: Yeah, I mean, like, I feel like I didn't want anyone to die either. I really liked Sae-Byeok and I liked, actually I liked the old man before.

Jonah: Yeah same. He was sweet then. Yeah.

Sofia: But I feel like they couldn't progress the story more unless everyone died because obviously there has to be a winner. And I did like the character development that Sang-Woo showed at the end of the game when he did die. That was really interesting to see, but I don't really know what they could have done better because I didn't come out usually, I come out of a show thinking. Oh, I wish they did this. I wish I did that. I don't really think anything about Squid Game. I think it's the only thing was the first few episodes or the, like one of the episodes, one like portion of it. It was kind of slow for me. And I was binging it, but it was still like a little hard for me to get through that one part, but I feel like that's every show for me. Yeah, but I don't know it's just something to think about. And do you think that Squid Game would work as a movie instead of a TV show? Jonah: I do not. Because I feel like with a TV show, you have a lot more time than a movie. I feel like you needed that with Squid Game number one, to fit in all six games. And number two, to actually make us feel those characters and actually get a backstory to them.

Sofia: Yeah, like, because the show was already had like episodes that were like, 50 minutes long, almost an hour long, right? It shows that we needed all that context and all that information to be able to get such a detailed and interesting show with all the aspects that we liked.

Jonah: Yeah.

Sofia: So, I feel like if we had it as a movie, it would just feel extremely rushed.

Jonah: Yeah. It would either be that or it'd be very, very long.

Sofia: That's true. What a like eight-hour movie. I don't know I think it's just it's something that everyone can just relate to and watch, because I've never ever seen a show as big as this that everyone's watching. Like, everyone's been watching it even like my mom's watched it. My aunt's watched it. My little cousins watched it. It's just so big now.

Jonah: Yeah, I don't know many people who haven't watched it, I feel you have to there's so much peer pressure online and so much, god everyone's yeah everyone's talking about it.

Sofia: Yeah, exactly. Like didn't you watch it?

Jonah: I watched it because everyone was watching it.

Sofia: Exactly. And you just want something else to talk about.

Jonah: Yeah, I had to like, recognize and know what they were talking about.

Sofia: But at least it was a good show.

Jonah: It was a good show.

Sofia: This concludes our review. Thank you so much for listening. For a transcript of this episode, head to the point of view tab on our website, nhsmessenger.org. And follow us on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook at @nhspointofview for updates and new episodes. I'm your host Sofia Mang.

Jonah: I'm your host Jonah Chadwin.

Sofia: And this has been

Jonah: Point of View.