Squid Game

Gripping and Bingeable show but doesn’t need a second season

Like the headline says, Squid Game is pretty gripping and held my attention very well. It was a nice change to the 16 hour long episode dramas that I’m used to watching and I will highly recommend to kdrama vets and newbies. However, after watching, I’m ready to get back what I know. As usual, the Korean actors were amazing but the Americans really messed it up for me. As an American, I cringed every time they were in a scene. This drama was obviously created to appeal to Western audiences because there were a lot of things going on that other kdramas wouldn’t dare touch. I get wanting to appeal to larger audiences but ugh, the Americans really irked me. They were so stereotypical “rich white American guys” who “American-ed” around to get their way. Maybe their roles were to be the comic relief from so much gore but they were all just super corny and cringey and their acting was a bit rough. Anywho, overall, the drama was entertaining but the end kind of alludes to another season that I hope does not happen. First season was good, let’s not ruin it with another and even more bad American actors.

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Stressful and intense

Squid Game (2021)

Likes
1. Loved the six games and how each game levelled up the intensity and danger. Esp the tug of war and the glass bridge. I didnt like the honeycomb. I probably would have died in the first game! 😅
2. The killings were brutal and i was stressed every single game, but knowing that the leads wont die til the very end made the game less fun.
3. At one point i thought the lesson of the show was to learn to share and not be too greedy. Or find a way to work together and get out alive not kill each other and they will all get the money. But i was wrong both times.

Dislikes
1. The main lead mostly passed the levels because of luck or someone else. Same with Saebyeok, she also didnt fo anything but sulk. Sangwoo was strategic but in the end he lost against the morally nice guy. Is that the message the writer eants to tell us?
2. But then the reveal of the main guy and his explanation didnt make sense. Why go through all of that and kill hundreds of people every time just for the fun of it?
3. After all the blood sweat and tears, Gihun sat on the money for a year and didnt use them! At least pay off Sangwoo's debts and get Saebyeok's brother out. But dumping the money and the brother with Sangwoo's mom was also terrible. I was hoping Gihun will be more responsible after this but he's still dumb.
4. Felt like Junho had a separate story that didnt feel connected with the rest. And why Inho became the host was not explained.

Rating: 8/10

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great cast, eerie story

As someone who's a big fan of Alice in Borderland, this genre suite my taste perfectly. It's so eerie in a nonchalant way, how each individual factor of the cinematography contributes to the unsettling mood. The music fit in so perfectly, I'm honestly such a big fan.
As mentioned in some other reviews, it started off strong and caught my attention however the ending and last few games felt too fast. The ending becomes more and more expected after the halfway mark--which makes it less climatic as it could be. (which doesn't really do some of the characters justice)
On the bright side, the casting is absolutely amazing; I was highkey cringing at the VIPs' acting,,,that english and the things they said were so cringey I would rather have them be Asian people or just Korean. The main casting was really great, I'm glad they didn't decide to cast anyone who was super well known or the go-to norm popular actors/actresses. Seeing new faces (some of them were, at least) was really refreshing :) Also i love how we're seeing more of Wi Hajun these days;; he's very eye candy and gives such manly vibes; i support LOL
This series really makes you question your morals and how you would react if you placed yourself in their shoes... the human instinct and selfishness is very complicated; so I couldn't exactly say I hated any of the characters for acting the way they did (ahem sangwoo smh).
All in all, Squid Game was incredibly good, I'd certainly like to see more of it. The cinematography is beautiful (they understood the assignment alright), the music was such a great contribution, and the casting was the icing on the cake. Great film overall, I highly recommend watching!

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Willie Wonka Run Amok

Oh that beloved Willie Wonka, inviting kids on a great adventure in a colorful, magical playland with the promise of a wonderful lifetime prize! And if terrible things happen to the other kids, does that stop the fun? Does everyone insist they be allowed to leave immediately? Do the parents resort to violence to save their children from a possibly terrible fate? Why no! There's a prize to be won and the terrible fate is only possible, not certain. Besides it's the other guy who's most likely to lose.

And thus, Hwang Dong Hyuk pays homage to a treasured children's tale and turns it into a gory story about beleaguered, debt-ridden adults in Nightmare Joseon who receive a golden ticket (actually a business card, because, you know, adults) to play in a game that could forever change their lives. Like the kids at the Chocolate Factory, the Squid Game contestants sign a contract with murky fine print and the fun begins. It doesn't take long, however, for the players to stop playing against the house and start playing against (and preying on) each other. After all, the rich and powerful can never be rich and powerful enough to allow the unwashed masses play against them indefinitely. By sheer numbers alone, the unwashed would eventually become the conquerors. In order for the rich to continue to win, they have to ensure that the masses turn on each other. And the masses do. They always do. Even in children's games.

Seong Gi Hoon is a ne'er-do-well chaffeur from a small town who has had a hard time at life. A failed marriage and failed business ventures have left him a middle-aged, debt-ridden, deadbeat dad who has no qualms about stealing money from his hardworking and sick, elderly mother for a day of betting on the horses. When his luck at the racetrack goes pear-shaped and he learns that his mother needs surgery, it is only with the most minimal modicum of shame that he demands that his remarried ex-wife give him the money he needs. His ex-wife's new husband acquiesces with one small caveat: Gi Hoon can have the money only if he agrees to stay away from his family (including Gi Hoon's 10-year old daughter). Drawing the line at losing access to his child, Gi Hoon refuses the money then meets a mysterious stranger in the subway who invites him to join the Squid Game.

The other contestants (both friends and foes) in the Squid Game have sad and sorry stories similar to Gi Hoon: an old man dying of a brain tumor, small-time loser gangsters, embezzlers, fraudsters, desperate immigrants and pickpocket defectors from North Korea. Whenever one of the contestants dies from the rigors of the game, they are placed in beribboned coffins that look oddly reminiscent of the last-minute gift from an arcade claw machine that Gi Hoon gets for his daughter's tenth birthday (the present inside the gift box is a nice little foreshadowing touch as well). Although the brutality of these games hearken to the Hunger Games and Stephen King's The Long Walk, these contestants are here totally of their own free will (as are the contestants in another dystopian/art-imitates-life classic, "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?") and all of them can stop the games and leave at any time if the majority of the contestants vote to do so.

One of the flaws of this story is that the contestants have nothing more than the masked host's word that the winner will actually receive the cash prize. Unlike with Willie Wonka (and other dystopian tales)--where the media and the public were aware that a major prize was involved so that there would be some accountability--the contestants of the Squid Game are whisked away to a private and secret location and don't even know who their host is. Even the gun-toting Oompa Loompas at the funhouse are masked. The contestants don't even know if the money they are shown in a giant piggy bank is real money, or if the stacks of cash are only blank sheets of paper with real legal tender only on the outside. They are willing to put their lives on the line simply on the Squid Game's host's word that they could win a life-changing prize.

Another flaw is the incredible stupidity of some of the players, even in a game where they have bet their lives. In real life, people can make some incredibly poor choices, but some of the choices the contestants of Squid Game make are beyond the pale. Trusting your opponent when it is clear it's his life against yours, annoucing your game strategy to all and sundry, being fine with killing a whole bunch of people one day, hesitant to kill a solitary person the next. Some of the players obviously have a code, it's just really difficult from game to game to ascertain what that code is. There are no heroes in this extended voluntary death match, which is why it is so strange that the screenwriter is so determined to make it appear that there is one.

The imagery in this series is impressive: the bright, primary colors, the children's playground, the baggy costumes of the guards that evoke blindly obedient Oompah Loompas, the maze of staircases the contestants tread to each new game. Behind the colorful and child-like facade the brutality of the games is revealed and the hardships began. The contestants are given adequate food at the start of the games, but with each subsequent game the food becomes less substantial. The area where they take their rest literally shifts beneath their feet and becomes dangerous and hostile. Bit by bit, the contestants are stripped of provision for their basic needs, peace and security and eventually their humanity.

There are traces of Snow Piercer and Battle Royale in Squid Game as well. Westerners, rich Americans in particular, are portrayed as effeminate, obnoxious, sex-obsessed VIPs who bet on the games and desire to make Asian men their bitches. The acting abilites of the men who portray these VIPs is terrible (as is the stilting dialogue) and I am not sure if they couldn't secure better casting for these roles or if they wanted to portray Westerners as incapable of competent acting as well. Nevertheless, the message of contempt for the West is not subtle.

The eventual winner of the Squid Game becomes disillusioned with money and the workings of the world after his victory and in possible foreshadowing, adopts a hairstyle and hair color strongly reminiscent of Batman's violent counter-cultural revolutionist, The Joker. He learns more about the game as he prepares to take an important journey and once again, the Squid Game changes his life. In subsequent sequels, will the victor find out that like Willie Wonka, the master of the Squid Game was manipulating his life all along? Or, as in Snowpiercer, will he outsmart, outplay and outlast long enough to view the Squid Game as a lesser evil for the good of society and be chosen as the new master of the game? Will elements of another dystopian tale, The Watchmen, factor into future sequels? After all, as today's billionaires show us daily with their ability to circumvent laws and achieve what only the gross natural product of whole countries could heretofore do, money is the new superpower and without it, the rest of us are just desparate contestants in a never-ending, Everlasting Gob-stopper of a Squid Game.

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Utter madness....

Holy hell this bgame show was really madness!

Gambling with your life, killing friends, taking lives, all just for a dollars?

The games were utterly wild and there a couple of games i remembered playing but after watching this makes me see the games we played in a whole new light.

The show it self was really good and different, was enjoyable, the players and games were well set up.

A couple of surprises towards as too who the people were behind the masks.

The ending a bit of a disappointment, in the sense he played the game came out the winner and yet he lived his life unchanged, i get going through all of that will take it toll and you would probably need counselling after it, but i do feel he could have been a better person or helped the people he knew.

Overall not something i would re watch in a hurry. But definitely a good show

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Worth the hype :)

I wasn't sure at first that this would be for me, I'm usually more of a romance based story lover, but this really surprised me. Squid game has no romance, and I wasn't bothered in the least about it. I was just an interesting story with morally grey compelling characters.

I'm a bit confused about the ending. I'm not sure if they did it that way so that there could possibly be another season or just to make the viewer think? But overall, this kept me very engaged and I really liked it a lot!

If the creators were to do another show set in this world, I would LOVE to see more about how it started, how the workers are chosen and just more about the frontman. The frontman had the potential to be a really interesting character, the story just wasn't focusing on him. I just want to know why he chose to join the game maybe even (SPOILERS) see what his original game was like and ultimately led him to abandon his family and become a major part of the game.

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Again I was very excited for this drama because it reminds me of the j-drama Alice in Borderland which I really liked. I binged this in 2 days as well.

It was interesting to see how the games were inspired by children's ones although some of them were better than others and two of the games seemed really boring to me as for a viewer.

The characters were realistic and I was really happy to see the Indian actor there who scored quite a major role in the drama!

I rate Squid Game 8/10. It left me with some unanswered questions and the latter games weren't that interesting but it was still a wild ride to watch in a good way.

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"Squid Game" is a drama about a sick program that goes after people who are in debt and convinces them to participate in games in order to earn the money they need... the problem is that they have to risk their lives and those of others.

Gi Hun is our main character. He is not a bad person, but he owes money to basically everyone he knows. Initially, he joins the game, but is frightened by what happens, voting along with other people to end it. But reality dawns on him and Gi Hun realizes that he needs to risk his life in that place, in order to have the possibility of living for real on the outside.

There is a concern with the individual development of the characters, a whole process of getting to know them, of creating a bond with them... I loved Gi Hun, Ali and Sae Byeok, they are definitely the most interesting and captivating characters.

As the story unfolds, we notice a faster pace in the games. I really liked the excessive gore, but in my opinion, some situations were unfair, breaking the whole basis of the game of "everyone has the same opportunity". One of them was when Deok Su kills a man for food and it is at this moment that we realize that the participants can be eliminated even outside the games. Then comes the nighttime killing spree, where a group kills more than 27 people. I understand that this is a game strategy and technically there is an equal opportunity, but not just anyone has the ability to kill another person in cold blood.

The drama is not afraid to sacrifice the most beloved characters, in fact I realized that they are the favorites to die. Ali's death is devastating, since he was betrayed by the person he trusted the most. I really didn't expect Sang Woo to turn into a monster, he reached a point where he didn't care about anything other than money. Ji Yeong was a character we saw so little of, but it hurt to see her die after becoming friends with Sae Byeok. But the most incredible deaths, without a shadow of a doubt, are Deok Su and Mi Nyeo's. I knew this woman would leave the game in style! HAHA'

The story is very reminiscent of "Battle Royale", "As The Gods Will" and a bit of "Liar Game".
Gong Yoo <3

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Squid Game Review

Squid Game is a good show. No surprise there. It was the talk of the town a few months ago but has basically died off by the time I’m writing this. Everything that I wanted to say about this show, I’m sure has been said before. I would, however, love to reiterate how good the final product turned out to be.
There are a lot of ‘win or die’ death game stories out there. ‘Battle Royale’ and ‘The Hunger Games’ are two that come to mind. However, what makes Squid Game that much more interesting is the illusion of choice. The people playing this game are in debt to the extent that they are willing to take their chances dying over it. It’s a horrific statement on the effects of late-stage capitalism and how the rich regard the poor as nothing more than pawns in a game.
Ironically, a lot of rich people seemed to have missed the point entirely. Countless celebrities and influencers are dressing up in tracksuits and breaking dalgona as if they wouldn’t be the leering old men in masks sitting and watching if this were real life. A similar thing happened with the Korean film ‘Parasite’ a few years back but due to the increased popularity of Squid Game, it seems more prevalent now.
It really begs the question, ‘how out of touch do you really have to be to not understand that you are the problem?’

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