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The Squid Game

Kim Dorothy V. Borja

Andrei Felix
Jeremy Michael Warde
Treston International College
English for Academic and Professional Purposes
Ms. Tara Mae Mondido
October 17, 2021
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The top streaming corporation, Netflix, has announced that "Squid Game'' has
become the most watched series in history, with 111 million views in less than 30 days
and No. 1 on Netflix's Top 10 lists in 94 countries. It is a South Korean thriller and
fictional series that premiered on September 17, 2021, and tells the story of 456
participants who are desperate for money due to outstanding debts to compete in
children's games for a chance to win a large sum of money on a hidden island (Pallotta
& Kang, 2021). However, there is a catch: contestants who fail to complete the task die,
and each death is worth a specific amount of money, which adds to the cash pot. Only
one person must survive until the end, and that player is Seong Gi-Hun, whose reward
has grown to an astounding ￦45.6 billion ($35 million). Despite the fact that the series
depicted violence, it is a great series because it made it more interesting and did not fail
to deliver the message that condemns and abolishes the cruel and unjust systems
created by the wealthy and powerful, as well as the ridiculous measures on how far
people can go due to a lack or excessive possession of money.

The Korean series is made up of nine episodes that last between 50 - 60 minutes
each. Its name, "Squid Game," was most likely chosen since it is the final game that the
remaining players must play in order to determine the winner. There are 6 games that
the 456 players need to surpass in order to win the prize in the money bank. Wherein
each of which offers a different level of anxiety and worry to its viewers. As a result, the
games have been ranked in order of least to most stressful to watch. According to
Sarkisian (2021), Red Light, Green Light was the least stressful game, followed by Squid
Game, Tug of War, Dalgona Candy, The Glass Stepping Stone, and Marbles, which was
the most stressful and agonizing to watch. Overall, it is a brutal show to watch, but it
succeeds in conveying the director's strong message to viewers about how cruel and
unjust the world's reality is, not just in South Korea. Whereas some wealthy people may
regard poor and ordinary people as toys and accessories to their luxurious lifestyles.

In accordance to the description mentioned, the VIP who bets on the players and
treats watching the games as enjoyment exemplifies this. Although the players were
first enraged by the game and its features, the majority of them requested a withdrawal,
which was eventually granted. After being sent back to their normal lives, an invitation
was sent again, and they all returned of their own free will. The series would not have
continued if they had not returned, but this particular part shows how the decisions we
make on a daily basis do truly shape the future we will have. On the side note, although
the show made history it is still not perfect because there is no such thing. BuzzFeed
Video (2021) maintains that, since the majority of the viewers viewed it on an English
subtitle, the translation of it possessed errors that made a misunderstanding on the flow
of the story and characters.

Seong Gi-Hun was one of the main characters in "Squid Game," wherein the
majority of his life narrative was displayed. He is a divorced man living with his elderly
vendor mother; he had become hooked to horse betting as he was fired forcibly from
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the company he was working for years ago and had no idea how to restart his life due to
his poor debt. Despite winning the game, Seong Gi-Hun is not the good guy, according to
Zuva (2021) he does not deserve to be the story's main protagonist since he is an
"unsympathetic coward." He has a daughter named Seong Ga-yeong, who lives
comfortably with her mother and their new family. In order to treat his daughter with
good food outside when they meet, he would steal money from his mother, who works
hard outside the streets, and use it to gamble on horses in the hopes of making more
money. Unfortunately, this always happens, causing him to lend more money and
accumulate larger loans.

On the other hand, some viewers may think of him as a good man because,
during the game, he was very kind and caring to Oh Il-nam, an old player who was
suffering from a brain tumor. However, in order to survive in one of the games known
as round Marbles and Ddakji'. He took advantage of the elderly man's poor memory,
which led to the elimination of Oh Il-nam. Furthermore, although all players are in bad
debt, since the story showed more of Gi-Hun’s life, it is in him that one of the vital
lessons from Squid Game could be learned which are prioritizing our needs over our
wants, gambling will never be the answer to a successful life, and continuous debts will
only be just a temporary solution to financial problems but it will never solve it thus add
more to it.

Despite the fact that Gi-Hun was the main character, Vade (2021) claims in a
Twitter post that the plot of the series was Jun-Ho, the police officer who secretly snuck
into the game by disguising as one of the guards in order to find his brother who joined
Squid Game in 2015, and Kang Sae-Byeok, the only woman to be in the top three of the
game. The twitter post received 12,000 likes and 4,300 retweets. Kang Sae-Byok being
the reason viewers recommend the show to other people is reasonable as her character
represented people who are family oriented that would always be willing to sacrifice
their own lives for their families. Another character that did not fail to stimulate great
drama and emotions was Ji-Yeong. In the latter part of the game, Ji-Yeong told Sae-Byok
that “I’ll make sure you win. Whatever it takes” she stayed true to her words because on
the marble round, she made sure that Sae-Byok would win because she said that “I don’t
have reason, but you have reason to leave this place alive. Thank you for playing with
me.” This proves that real friendship is not measured by how long you have met each
other.

Meanwhile, another character named Ali, a Pakistani player, shows that being
kind and trusting too much might kill you because it enables people to think that you
are very easy to manipulate. Sang Woo on the other hand, Gi-Hun’s best friend is a great
representation that betrayal indeed comes from the ones you are close with. However,
in the end, after Gi-Hun wins, it is revealed that Oh Il-nam did not die as he is the main
organizer of the game. He said that he wanted to entertain himself alongside other
wealthy people by watching people die in a child’s game. Money is the greatest human
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invention, but it is also the most deadly. When individuals are in great need of money,
they will do things that will cost them their lives or the lives of others and so much more
when you have too much of it.

The “Squid Game” series has given people different impressions. To some, it
shows how people are willing to commit to violence to get the things they need. To
others, it shows how cruel society can be based purely on social standing. The lessons
that it has to offer are valuable to the now status driven world, where one mistake a
person makes could lead them to a path of ruination. Each of the main characters comes
from a different background and hence represents a variety of life situations. Rather
than focusing on the brutality depicted in the series, viewers should focus on how it
provided a lot of life lessons applicable to everyone's daily lives. From educating people
about the fact that the world we live in will never be a safe place to live due to greedy
people, to stressing the importance of financial literacy. “Squid Game” should be seen
especially by those people who are fond of lending money. Although they cannot be
blamed on why they resort to loaning money, being poor should not be used as an
excuse not to find a proper and legal way to resolve their financial problems.

Reference
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BuzzFeed Video. (2021, October 10). Squid game translations were deeper than
you think [Video]. Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/BuzzFeedVideo/videos/1045620476197199/

Pallotta, F., & Kang, L. (2021). Squid Game is Netflix's 'biggest ever' series launch.
CNN Business. https://edition.cnn.com/2021/10/12/media/squid-game-netflix-
viewership/index.html

Sarkisian, J. (2021). Every game from 'Squid Game' ranked from least to most
stressful to watch. Insider. https://www.insider.com/squid-game-games-
ranked-least-most-stressful-to-watch-2021-10

Vade, C. [@chrstnvade]. (2021, September 20). I watched the squid game for the
plot. [Tweet]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/chrstnvade

Zuva. (2021). Squid Game’s Seong GI-Hun (№456) Is Not the Good Guy. Medium.
Retrieved September 13, 2021 from https://medium.com/@zuvaseven/squid-
games-seong-gi-hun-456-is-not-the-good-guy-b7dbdc47eb2d