My Review of "Squid Game"

Squid Game is possibly Netflix's 2021 hit of the year. The last time I heard this much hype about a Netflix original series was probably Bridgerton. I tried watching that series and I didn't really like it. Although the series before that show with the most hype was The Queen's Gambit and I loved that show. All this to say, I was hoping it would be as good as The Queen's Gambit.

The show starts off innocently enough. It helps us understand who our main character Gi-hun. He's pretty much a deadbeat but you can tell he has a heart of gold. In certain scenes you can tell he's trying to do good but he just falls under his own spells and screws everything up. Gi-hun is definitely a flawed character that we would hate if we met them in real life.

He gets some money and as a deadbeat he's of course going to go bet it all at the local horse track. To everyone's surprise, he actually wins a pretty large sum of money. Through a series of unfortunate he eventually loses it though. It was only a matter of time when all of the bad things you've done in the past come and get you in the present. He's chased after by loan sharks and pick pocketed by a crafty street urchin.

Life can't get any worse for him as he once again disappoints his 10 year old daughter, and his mother. Just when things can't seem to get any worse a mysterious man shows up and offers to give him money if he plays a simple child's game with him. Should Gi-hun win he gets a large sum of money but if he loses he gets a smack in the face.

Reluctantly Gi-hun agrees to the terms of this game since he's out of options. Oddly enough, the man is true to his word. Gi-hun gets a good beating because he's no good at the game however eventually wins the large award. Before leaving the mysterious man gives Gi-hun a mysterious business card with a number to call if he's interested in playing more games.

With everything going down the tubes for him, Gi-hun desperately calls the number to see what's up with the game. He gets picked up in a mysterious car and then gets gassed unconscious.

Gi-hun eventually wakes up in some huge enigmatic facility. There happens to be 455 other participants in this game. When the games actually start they all realize that the games are a lot more serious than they initially intended them to be.

Like other Korean films that I've seen there's a lot of discussion over morals and class systems. They talk a lot about the humanity in our daily lives. Are we blind or ignorant to the fact that people suffer and die as collateral damage to our own ambitions. Participants of the game at times have to decide whether they should kill in order to gain a large reward. Just how desperate were they in order to get this money they were seeking?

On the other hand they talk about their lives outside the game. At times some of them believe that their lives outside the death game is really not worth living. Some of them have gone down such dark paths that they don't see a way of getting out without resorting to the game to become financially independent.

There's a social commentary in everything that they do in this series. They talk about cheating in games, justification of deception, the value of networking and getting to know your neighbors. A lot of this stuff kind of happen in our everyday lives and we don't see it. I think this is why a lot of people gravitate to this series. In a way we can all see ourselves in these games and acting the same way as these contestants are behaving.

Although Gi-hun is a deadbeat dad we can see this character as a character in real life. There truly are people that think and behave just like him. He's narcissistic and self-righteous. He thinks he's doing good but he doesn't even see the bad that he's doing to the people closest to him.

I for one didn't think that this movie was going to be popular since it's originally Korean. Usually foreign TV series don't do too well. Netflix has changed North American tastes in shows. We were delighted with the French series Lupin and this Korean series shows that North American's are willing to watch anything as long as it's got good content. This is a huge relief for film makers around the world because now they've got an even bigger chance of making it big.

Overall, I had a blast watching this TV series. I honestly didn't think much of it from the initial description of the movie. It sounded much like the Japanese movie Battle Royale. This was definitely not that similar to that movie at all. Although it is in Korean you may watch the English dubbed version of the movie or can hone your skills in Korean and leave the subtitles on. I have to give this series a 8.5 out of 10. They set it up where there could definitely be a sequel. I can't wait to see what's next.