Income inequality that is highly skewed. Household debt is becoming worse. In the face of intense competition, survival of the fittest is the only option.
Squid Game, a South Korean thriller that is now No. 1 on the global Netflix list and generating a lot of attention on social media, is seen as a “wonderful metaphor” for the East Asian country and reveals many unpleasant realities that its citizens endure. “I’ve been playing the Squid Game for 30 years,” one netizen said.
The nine-part drama follows 456 individuals as they compete in a series of deadly twists on childhood games like marbles and tug-of-war in order to earn a cash prize of 45.6 billion won (S$52 million).
Gi-hun, the primary character, is a down-and-out man who is battling with his life. He chose to establish his own fried chicken business after losing his job in a car manufacturing firm – a harsh reminder of how Ssangyong Motor lay off over 2,600 people in 2009 – but racked up a debt of over 400 million won.
He enters the Squid Game in the hopes of winning enough money to pay for his diabetic mother’s operation and to reclaim custody of his daughter from his ex-wife.
Mr. Hwang Dong-hyuk, the drama’s writer and director, stated that everyone in a capitalist system may descend to the bottom like Gi-hun. “Thousands of people have become self-employed as a result of Covid-19. I wanted to convey it to the characters in the programme “Mr. Hwang stated.
South Korea, home to mega corporations like as Samsung, SK, and Hyundai, surpassed the United States to become the world’s tenth biggest economy last year, thanks to rising exports of memory chips, smartphones, and consumer electronics fueled by the epidemic.
Many individuals, however, are suffering as a result of rising housing prices, rising family debt, increasing economic disparities, and high young unemployment, all of which have been worsened by the epidemic.
