Squid Game is a suspense thriller about people who participate in the game who risked their lives for W45.6 billion. The messages and intense psychological warfare behind the simple game have drawn attention all over the world.
Squid Game: New Criteria for Survival Game
Introducing the drama
Air Duration: First released on September 17, 2021
Broadcaster: Netflix Original Series
Genres: Survival, Thriller, Drama
Introducing drama characters and characters Plot Summary_Squid Game
Sung Ki-hoon (Lee Jung-jae): Gambling and debt-ridden contestant No. 456. A person who tries to maintain humanity in the game.
Jo Sang-woo (Park Hae-soo): Ki-hoon’s friend and contestant 218. A person who does everything in his power to succeed.
Kang Saebyeok (Jeong Ho-yeon): North Korean defector participant No. 067. A girl in dire need of money for her family.
OIL NAM (Oh Young-soo): Mysterious contestant 001. A person who holds an important key in the game.
Hwang Joon-ho (We Ha-joon): The police who broke into the game to find his brother.
Plot Summary_Squid Game
Squid Game revolves around the story of 456 participants who are on a dead end in their lives and play six games to win W45.6 billion in prize money. The drama centers on the main character Sung Ki-hoon (played by Lee Jung-jae), who deals with the conflict, cooperation, and fierce survival instincts of participants from different stories and backgrounds.
Sung Ki-hoon is a man in his 40s who sits in debt and lives his daily life by gambling. His situation only gets worse and worse, and he does not play a proper role as a breadwinner for his sick mother and daughter. Then one day, Ki-hoon receives a business card from a mysterious man (played by Gong Yoo) on the subway, and by participating in the game, he is offered a chance to start his life again with the prize money.
Arriving at the game venue, Ki-hoon faces 455 contestants who are in the same situation as him. They are all either financially bankrupt or in a desperate situation. In the first game, **’Archery Blossoms Bloom,’ the contestants realize the shocking fact that the game is not just for making money, it is a survival game for life. The loser of the game immediately loses his life, and the contestants gradually adjust to the game’s brutal rules.
Sung Ki-hoon makes alliances with some of the participants through the games. They are Ki-hoon’s hometown friend Cho Sang-woo (Park Hae-soo), a prestigious university graduate, North Korean defector Kang Sae-byeok (Jeong Ho-yeon), an elderly participant Oh Il-nam (Oh Young-soo), and Ali (Tripati Anirud), a sincere foreign worker. At first, those who played the games based on cooperation and trust show how competition and conflict between the participants intensified as each round progressed.
In the second game **’Dalgona Picking’**, the contestants will decide their fate based on the shape they choose. Sung Ki-hoon accidentally chooses the most difficult shape, the umbrella, but he uses his wit to survive dramatically. As the game continues, contestants make increasingly extreme choices for their own survival.
Teamwork appears as an important factor in the third game, **’Tug of War’**. Ki-hoon’s team wins by beating physically stronger opponents through experience and strategy, but it shows that it loses its humanity in the process. In the fourth game that follows, **’Tug of War’**’, participants struggle for survival by tricking or sacrificing each other.
In the fifth game, **’Crossing the Sword of Swords’ **, participants are required to cross the glass in order, with their choices determined by life and death. As the game reaches its peak, participants become more and more extreme, with the last survivors reaching the final game, **’Squid Game’**.
In the last game, Sung Ki-hoon and Jo Sang-woo face off in a fierce battle for survival. The two, who were childhood friends, conflict with different values and choices in extreme situations, and Ki-hoon eventually wins. However, he falls into guilt and emptiness even with the prize money in his hands, and he is shocked that all of the games were brutal entertainment with human life as collateral.
Through a conversation between Oh Il-nam, the creator of the game, and Ki-hoon in the last episode, the drama reveals that all these games were made for the pleasure of a wealthy few. Ki-hoon is furious at this fact, and the drama ends with a determination to stop the game.
Beyond mere survival thrillers, Squid Game has resonated worldwide, exploring in-depth the inequality of modern society, human desires, and moral conflicts.
OST Information_Squid Game
squid uses a sound from existing OST.
Main theme: Create a nervous atmosphere, and shipbuilding games.
Traditional Korean songs and effect: “Mgung flower flowers bloomed flowers bloomed in the drama.”
The reason why you have to watch this drama_Squid Game
Original story: dealing with inequality and human nature in modern society, not just survival games.
Global Popularity: First Korean drama to win an Emmy Award, proving its global impact.
Actors’ passionate performances: immersive performances by actors such as Lee Jung-jae and Park Hae-soo.
Intense visuals and production: Set design, color, and game symbolism impresses.
A similar drama recommendation_Squid Game
‘Hellbound’: a Netflix original drama about death and judgment.
‘Kingdom’: a thriller that combines history and zombies.
‘Mr. Sunshine’: a touching drama set in Korean history.
‘Memories of the Alhambra Palace’: a drama about the blurring of the boundaries between the game and reality.