DISCLAIMER: SQUID GAME PLOT SPOILER
I was quite skeptical about this new Netflix show since I felt that it was going to be just another over-hyped production, however after I watched the first episode, I knew this was going to be a worldwide hit. This new Netflix show I am mentioning is the one and only Korean TV show called “Squid Game.”
The tv show starts off by following a lazy man called “성기훈" or Seong Gi-Hun. He lives under his old-aged mother and is immature as to steal money from his mother’s hard-earned savings and use it to gamble it all away. He ends up getting into some deep trouble and they make him sign a contract to sell his organ away if he does not pull through with the payment he owes them. While on his way home, he ends up meeting a gentleman in a suit who offers him money if he wins a very simple children’s game called “딱지” that involves flipping your opponent’s card with your own card by hitting it on the ground. Gi Hun wins the game and wins $100. He gets a small taste of victory and the gentleman makes an offer by asking him “would you like to play a game” in which he can win millions of dollars just by playing simple games like he just did.
After he agreed to participate, he later wakes up in a room full of beds with 455 other people who are wearing the same tracksuit as him. Suddenly, a group of men in red tracksuits enter the room and tells them that they will get the opportunity to play 6 games and if they are able to win all of them, they can get millions of dollars. The men also remind them that this is probably their best bet for survival since all of the participants are in heavy amounts of debt- impossible to pay off no matter how much they work. All of the participants are eagerly waiting to play the game now.
The first game is called “무궁화 꽃이 피였습니다" which is “Red Light Green Light,” a classic children’s game that I also used to play when I was little. All they had to do was to get to the finish line without getting caught by this giant girl robot. At first, it seemed very light and easy. However, when one person got too greedy and started to run for the finish line without being careful, he got caught by the robot and was shot on the scene. This caused entire chaos and panic which got even more people killed because their movements were being detected by the robot. It was only the people who stayed calm and absolutely still that were not eliminated. By the end of the game, almost half of the entire participants have been killed and the rest are in utter shock of what they have signed up for.
After watching the first episode, I was also in complete shock, but I was also completely hooked on the storyline and the motifs that were touched in this show. It reminded me so much of the oscar-winning movie “Parasite” in a sense that it also covered the subject of the socioeconomic divide in the world. Overall, the first episode was a killer opening which is why I think it got everyone addicted and wanting for more.
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