!SPOILERS!
ANOTHER BIG THING INTERNATIONAL VIEWERS MAY NOT PICK UP FOR SQUID GAME:
any viewer for squid game will understand that each game/round in the show are all childhood games from korea. this is well known.
but a smaller, unsubtle nod to another korean classic is actually the very last episode. it’s titled ‘A Lucky Day’ or in korean ‘운수 좋은 날’. a modern classical literature text written by a korean author in 1924 about a rickshaw driver who went out to work despite his sick wife’s protests, had a unusually lucky day and earned enough money, but upon returning home found his wife dead.
a big symbolism noted in the book itself is its showcase of rain and the wife’s yearning (for warm broth). the very last game/battle between gihun and sangwoo ends in rain. when gihun returns home its raining heavily. gihun gets fish (well albeit rather reluctantly takes it from sangwoo’s mom) for his own mother only to find her dead. despite how the games initially seems favourable in gihun’s part, his world ends up rotten to the core when he returns back home. everyone he cared for now died.
i just feel like the director-writer made it such that the whole plot is a big nod to old korean classics (be it games or literature) and i just didnt see this noticed in social media so just wanted to share this! very happy to see such symbolism of korean literature in squid game.
p.s. anyone notice that both junho and inho, the two brothers, are actually playing hide-and-seek throughout the show— 👁👁
squid game
Squid Game
(spoilers ahead!)
I have now watched all of Squid Game and it’s 100% deserving of the hype. VERY good and VERY horrifying. Oh and aesthetically stunning as well, of course.
This show is incredibly bleak but it’s bleak about capitalism and systemic violence, not about humankind in general, I think. During the very last game, the one between Gi-hun and the player whose name I will not spoil, I wasn’t sure which side would be the victor and was pleasingly surprised that Gi-hun’s faith in human nature won out. And throughout the Squid Games themselves there are instances where the players behave selflessly and heroically. I’m still not over Ji-yeong’s death, she could probably have lived but instead she chose to sacrifice herself for Sae-byeok, who she’d known for mere days. I’ve seen people say that Sae-byeok’s later death rendered her sacrifice meaningless, but I personally think it was probably the least meaningless thing in the whole show.