SQUID GAME. (2021) THE HIT NETFLIX SERIES REVIEWED BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©
SQUID GAME. (2021) A NETFLIX DRAMA CREATED, WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY HWANG DONG-HYUK.
STARRING
LEE JUNG-JAE, WI HA-JOON, JUNG HO-YEON AND PARK HAE-SOO.
REVIEW BY
SANDRA HARRIS. ©
This Korean survival drama-slash-horror/thriller is Netflix’s most
watched show ever, and that’s saying something. I gave in to pressure to watch
it over Halloween 2021 after family members claimed it to be the Best Thing
Since Sliced Bread. And whaddya know, they were nearly right too, lol.
I loved it, and was barely breathing for some of the tenser
moments, and it was chock-a-block with tense moments. I was sad when I was
finished watching it, and I would definitely watch any sequel the powers-that-be
had in mind, though I truly don’t know how any sequel could better the original
series.
I just want to note also that Hwang-Dong-Hyuk, the creator, writer and director of the series, should be the richest and the happiest guy in the world right now. Should be, I said, because things don’t often turn out the way you expect them to in the world of so-called fame and fortune.
He
could be utterly miserable right now for all we know, tearing his hair out
trying to out-do himself with a sequel to the biggest thing to hit television
since, well, Netflix itself. Either way, kudos to him. SQUID GAME is a
coup indeed.
The lead guy Gi-Hun is a lovely fella and really cute too,
but he’s also a total loser. He’s a chauffeur-slash-gambling addict who can’t
catch a break, though how he expects to do so when he's involved in such a mug’s
game as gambling is a mystery to me.
He lives with his elderly and overworked mum who, let’s face
it, supports him when he’s down on his luck, which is most of the time. He’s a
deadbeat dad to his daughter, who’s leaving soon for America with her mum and
step-father, and Gi-Hun, who clearly hasn’t been regular with the child support
cheques, will never see her again if this happens.
Up to his tonsils in gambling debts, being chased by some
very dangerous men and on the verge of losing his only child forever, he’s at
the end of his tether. That’s when fate literally slaps Gi-Hun in the kisser
and chucks him a most extraordinary lifeline…
The lifeline leads him to a Mysterious Island (similar to
the one in THE SIMPSONS which is based on the old television series THE
PRISONER), where he’s invited to take part in a competition to win millions
of dollars in cash, a ridiculous sum of money which no-one in their right mind
would turn down. Gi-Hun voluntarily agrees to take part, and becomes Competitor
Number 456…
The other 455 contestants are all here on the Mysterious
Island ‘voluntarily’ too, although, as they’re all in similar dire straits to
Gi-Hun as regards their crippling, life-destroying debts, it probably feels to
most of them like they haven’t much choice. In the outside world, they are all
failures. Here on the island, playing the game, at least they have a chance.
Well, they do have a chance. It’s just that it’s a very slim one…
The games, which sometimes replicate the games the
contestants played as children, are bad for your health. For if you lose, you
die. When you die, more money is dropped into the already gigantic kitty-ball
that is always in plain sight, just to keep competitors motivated. As if the
notion of ‘you lose, you die’ wasn’t motivation enough.
Gi-Hun and the people he meets quickly realise that life is
cheap here on the Island, and all their lifelines are suspended by the
flimsiest of threads. The anonymous masked guards in their pink jumpsuits show
no mercy to the green-track-suited contestants, and the Front Man, otherwise
known as ‘Front Desk Speaking,’ moves the chess pieces around the board with a
cold-blooded detachment, but even he’s not pulling the real strings…
Here are Gi-Hun’s main friends and, also, competitors,
because here on the Island, all friends are competitors:
Sang-Woo, Gi-Hun’s much smarter old school friend, top of his
class in Business Administration at Seoul National University. Watch out,
Gi-Hun, he’s ruthless…
Oh Il-Nam, a sweet, terminally ill old man who just seems
happy to be here with people.
Abdul Ali, a Pakistani migrant worker who can’t feed his
family on what his crooked boss pays him, or doesn’t pay him, as is more to the point.
Kang Sae-Byeok, a young woman who has defected from North
Korea (that’s the bad one!) and needs the money to help her mum and little
brother do the same so that they can all be together.
Ji-Yeong, a heartbreakingly brave girl who’s just come out of
prison for killing her abusive father.
I particularly like the pairing up of Jang Deok-Su, a tough-as-old-boots
Korean gangster, and Han Mi-Nyeo, a foul-mouthed, pushy and opinionated woman
who vows that she’ll kill him if he ever lets her down. I think Deok-Su might
just have met his match…
Of all the games, the glass bridge one is the one I found the
scariest by far. I also found it hilarious that a professional glass-maker who’d
worked his whole life in a glass factory is one of the remaining contestants
when they do the glass bridge challenge. The show is not without its black humour.
It hits all the ‘feels’ buttons, really. Fear, hold-your-breath
tension, laughter, an excess of wrenching emotion when the contestants take one
for the team or do something really sweet/selfless/brave/heroic/gutsy/foolish/reckless/courageous.
The show has been so successful that there are probably a
million script-writers out there at this very moment, feverishly penning
stories about Killer Games taking place on a Mysterious Island Somewhere. I look
forward to watching the fruits of their labours, but I’ll be bearing in mind
that SQUID GAME was the first, the original and, probably even in the future, still the
best.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA HARRIS.
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO
Her debut romantic fiction novel, 'THIRTEEN
STOPS,' is out now from Poolbeg Books:
https://www.amazon.com/Thirteen-Stops-Sandra-Harris-ebook/dp/B089DJMH64
The sequel, ‘THIRTEEN STOPS LATER,’ is
out now from Poolbeg Books:
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