Squid Game

***Squid Game*** (Korean: 오징어 게임; RR: *Ojing-eo Geim*) is a 2021 South Korean web series created by Hwang Dong-hyuk for Netflix, starring Lee Jung-jae, Park Hae-soo, Wi Ha-joon, Jung Ho-yeon, O Yeong-su, Heo Sung-tae, Anupam Tripathi, and Kim Joo-ryoung. The series was released on September 17, 2021 on Netflix at 6PM (KST)

The series revolves around a contest where 456 players, all of whom are in deep financial debt, risk their lives to play a series of deadly children's games for the chance to win a ₩45.6 billion prize. The title of the series draws from a similarly named Korean children's game. Hwang had conceived of the idea based on his own economic struggles early in life, as well as the class disparity in South Korea and capitalism. Though he had initially written it in 2009, he was unable to find a production company to fund the idea until Netflix took an interest around 2019 as part of their drive to expand their foreign programming offerings. All nine episodes were written and directed by Hwang.

## Premise

Seong Gi-hun, a divorced father and indebted gambler who lives with his elderly mother, is invited to play a series of children's games for a chance at a large cash prize. Accepting the offer, he is taken to an unknown location where he finds himself among 456 players who are all deeply in debt. The players are made to wear green tracksuits and are kept under watch at all times by masked guards in pink jumpsuits, with the games overseen by the Front Man, who wears a black mask and black uniform. The players soon discover that losing a game results in their death, with each death adding ₩100 million to the potential ₩45.6 billion grand prize. Gi-hun allies with other players, including his childhood friend Cho Sang-woo, to try to survive the physical and psychological twists of the games.

## Casts

### Main

* Lee Jung-jae as Seong Gi-hun
* Park Hae-soo as Cho Sang-woo
* Wi Ha-joon as Hwang Jun-ho
* Jung Ho-yeon as Kang Sae-byeok
* O Yeong-su as Oh Il-nam
* Heo Sung-tae as Jang Deok-su
* Anupam Tripathi as Abdul Ali
* Kim Joo-ryoung as Han Mi-nyeo

### Recurring cast

* Yoo Sung-joo as Byeong-gi (111)
* Lee Yoo-mi as Ji-yeong (240)
* Kim Si-hyun as Player 244
* Lee Sang-hee as Player 017
* Kim Yun-tae as Player 069
* Lee Ji-ha as Player 070
* Christian Lagahit as Player 276,
* Kim Young-ok as Gi-hun's mother
* Cho Ah-in as Seong Ga-yeong
* Kang Mal-geum as Gi-hun's ex-wife
* Park Hye-jin as Sang-woo's mother
* Park Si-wan as Kang Cheol

### Guest cast

* Gong Yoo as a salesman who recruits participants for the Game
* Lee Byung-hun as The Front Man, overseer of the Squid Game
* Lee Jung-jun as Guard
* John D Michaels as VIP #1
* Daniel C Kennedy as VIP #2
* David Lee as VIP #3
* Geoffrey Giuliano as VIP #4
* Stephane Mot as VIP #5
* Michael Davis as VIP #6

## Episodes

*Squid Game* consists of one season of nine episodes at a run time of between 32 and 63 minutes (the penultimate episode is much shorter than the rest). The series was released in its entirety in all Netflix worldwide markets on September 17, 2021.

## Production

### Development

Around 2008, Hwang Dong-hyuk had tried unsuccessfully to get investment for a different movie script that he had written, and he, his mother, and his grandmother had to take out loans to stay afloat, but still struggled amid the debt crisis within the country. He spent his free time in Manhwabang (South korean manga cafes) reading Japanese survival manga such as *Battle Royale*, *Lar Game* and *Gambling Apocalypse: Kaiji*. Hwang compared the characters' situation in these works to his own current situation and considered the idea of being able to join such a survival game to win money to get him out of debt, leading him to write a film script on that concept throughout 2009. Hwang stated, "I wanted to write a story that was an allegory or fable about modern capitalist society, something that depicts an extreme competition, somewhat like the extreme competition of life. But I wanted it to use the kind of characters we’ve all met in real life." Hwang feared the storyline was "too difficult to understand and bizarre" at the time. Hwang tried to sell his story to various Korean production groups and actors, but had been told it was too grotesque and unrealistic. Hwang put this script aside without any takers, and over the next ten years successfully completed three other films, including the crime drama film *Silenced* (2011) and the historical drama film *The Fortress*

In the 2010s, Netflix had seen a large growth in viewership outside of North America, and started investing in productions in other regions, including Korea. Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix, stated in 2018 that they were looking for more successes from overseas productions: "The exciting thing for me would be if the next *Stranger Things* came from outside America. Right now, historically, nothing of that scale has ever come from anywhere but Hollywood." Netflix had opened up a division in Asia in 2018, and while they were still operating out of temporary leased office space in Seoul, Hwang brought his script to their attention. Kim Minyoung, one of Netflix's content officers for the Asian regions, recognized Hwang's talent from *The Fortress* and his other films, and upon seeing his script for *Squid Game*, knew they needed it for the service. Kim said "[W]e were looking for shows that were different from what's traditionally 'made it,' and Squid Game was exactly it". Netflix formally announced in September 2019 they would produce Hwang's work as an original series. Netflix's Bela Bajaria, head of global television operations, said that of their interest in Hwang's work, "we knew it was going to be big in Korea because it had a well-regarded director with a bold vision", and that "K-Dramas also travel well across Asia". Regarding his return to the project, Hwang commented, "It's a sad story. But the reason why I returned to the project is because the world 10 years from then has transformed to a place where these unbelievable survival stories are so fitting, and I found that this is the time when people will call these stories intriguing and realistic." Hwang further believed that the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 impacted the economic disparity between classes in South Korea, and said that "All of these points made the story very realistic for people compared to a decade ago".

With the Netflix order, the film concept was expanded out to a nine-episode series. Kim stated that there was "so much more than what was written in the 120-minute format. So we worked together to turn it into a series." Hwang said he was able to expand the script so that it "could focus on the relationships between people [and] the stories that each of the people had". Initially, Netflix had named the series *Round Six*, rather than *Squid Game* as Hwang had suggested; according to Netflix's vice president for content in Asia Kim Minyoung, while they knew that the name "squid game" would be familiar to Korean viewers from the children's game, it "wouldn't resonate because not many people would get it", and opted to use *Round Six* as it self-described the nature of the competition. As production continued, Hwang pushed on the service to use *Squid Game* instead, which Kim said its cryptic name and the unique visuals helped to draw in curious viewers. At the time that Hwang wrote the series, his goal was for having the series reach the most-watched show in Netflix in the United States for at least one day.

### Casting

Hwang said he chose to cast Lee Jung-jae as Gi-hun as to "destroy his charismatic image portrayed in his previous roles". Jung Ho-yeon was requested by her new management company to send a video to audition for the series while she was finishing a shoot in Mexico and preparing for New York Fashion Week. Although this was her first audition as an actor and her expectations were low, Hwang said, "The moment I saw her audition tape from New York, I immediately thought to myself, 'this is the girl we want.' My first impression of her was that she is wild and free like an untamed horse". On casting Ali Abdul, Hwang said, “It was hard to find good foreign actors in Korea.” He chose Anupam Tripathi because of his emotional acting capabilities and fluency in Korean. Both Gong Yoo and Lee Byung-hun had worked with Hwang during his previous films, *Silenced* and *The Fortress* respectively, and Hwang had asked both to appear in small roles within *Squid Game*. The VIPs were selected from non-Korean actors living in Asia; in the case of Geoffrey Giuliano, who played the VIP that interacted with Jun-ho, his prior role from *Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula* led to his casting for *Squid Game*.

Casting for the series was confirmed on June 17, 2020.

## Original soundtrack

The soundtrack was released on September 17, 2021.

 Label | * Genie Music
* Stone Music Entertainment

## Marketing

A squid game doll was installed in Olympic Park, Seoul in October 25th, 2021.Replica of *Squid Game's set* was exhibited at the Itaewon station in Seoul since September 5, 2021. However, the exhibit was prematurely closed due to COVID-19 quarantine regulation concerns.

In the Philippines, a replica of the doll used in the show was exhibited on Ortigas Avenue in Quezon City in September 2021.

A *Squid Game* pop-up store opened in Paris on October 2 and 3, and a person could win a free one-month Netflix subscription if they managed to get the right shape from the dalgona in one minute and 30 seconds.

In the Netherlands, Netflix hosted its own Squid Game where people were able to play the game *Red Light, Green Light* in both Maastricht]] and Rotterdam. A replica of the doll was exhibited and staff were dressed as guards. Winners were awarded with Squid Game memorabilia. The event attracted hundreds of people.

In October 2021, the *Hollywood Reporter* interviewed Netflix Asia's executive Kim Minyoung, who said that the company was looking into a possible video game adaptation of the series.

Netflix has licensed *Squid Game* for merchandising. Funko plans to release a set of *Squid Game* themed Funko Pops figurines in May 2022.

## Notes

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 At the time of broadcast, ₩45.6 billion was approximately US$38 million or €33 million.
2. ↑ *lit.* The day hibiscus bloomed. The English title references the game Red Light, Green Light. The Korean title references the Korean version of the game.
3. ↑ The title is a reference to the 1924 Korean novel with the same name that tells the story of a rickshaw man initially being happy earning a lot of money from having a lot of customers on a rainy day, and thrilled to buy his wife some soup, only to find his wife dead in her house.
4. ↑ Following the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in September 2008 and as part of the financial crisis of 2007–2008, banks in South Korea had tried to help provide external investments to stabilize foreign currency rates. As the crisis worsened into 2009, these stabilization attempts had failed, causing a reversing of money from the country, and forcing banks to drastically increase interest rates and seek high-risk short-term loans made to citizens to try to recover.

## References

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3. ↑ "Squid Game – (Korean Drama, 2020, 오징어게임)". *HanCinema*. Archived from the original on August 11, 2021. Retrieved August 12, 2021.
4. ↑ "Korean series 'Squid Game' gives deadly twist to children's games". *ABS-CBN News*. September 15, 2021. Archived from the original on September 15, 2021. Retrieved September 15, 2021.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Moon Ji-yeon (March 11, 2020). "[공식] 이정재X박해수, 넷플릭스 '오징어게임' 주연 캐스팅" [[Official] Lee Jung-jae X Park Hae-soo] (in Korean). Sports Chosun. Archived from the original on October 3, 2021. Retrieved September 29, 2021 – via Naver.
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52. ↑ Reed, Chris, *Squid Game Funko Pops Are Up for Preorder*, retrieved November 19, 2021

## External links

* *Squid Game* on Netflix
* *Squid Game* at IMDb1
* Squid game at rottentomatoes
* *Squid Game* at HanCinema
* *Squid Game* at Daum (in Korean)