World

‘Squid Game’ is entertaining the world. But there’s a different feeling in South Korea

HONG KONG — Why are South Koreans watching “Squid Recreation”? As a result of everybody else is.

The nine-episode horror sequence on Netflix has hit No. 1 in 90 of the streaming service’s markets around the globe, together with South Korea, the place it was made.

“I acquired to the purpose the place I couldn’t maintain a dialog with out watching the present,” stated Jung Dunn, a safety analyst in Seoul, the South Korean capital.

However the present additionally strikes a nerve as a result of it unflinchingly addresses an issue that’s significantly entrenched in South Korea: debt and the endless battle to pay it off.

The forged of “Squid Recreation” options a few of South Korea’s greatest stars, together with Lee Jung-jae because the protagonist, Seong Gi-hun, a hopelessly indebted father who receives a enterprise card from a stranger providing him a manner out. Together with 455 different contestants — from all walks of life however all deeply in debt too — he agrees to compete for a money prize of 45.6 billion received (about $38 million) by enjoying a sequence of conventional Korean kids’s video games, solely to find that elimination from every spherical means loss of life.

A card with a telephone quantity on one aspect is given to the sport’s 456 individuals in Netflix’s “Squid Recreation.”Youngkyu Park / Netflix

“There’s this dissonance between Korean delight that this Korean present is dominating Netflix all around the globe, and the discomfort with what the present seems to reveal about Korea,” stated CedarBough Saeji, an assistant professor of Korean and East Asian research at Pusan Nationwide College in Busan, South Korea. “Koreans like to be No. 1, however No. 1 at the price of form of airing your soiled laundry is a considerably totally different factor.”

That South Korea additionally produced “Parasite,” the 2020 Oscar winner for finest image that additionally targeted on themes of inequality, has most likely accentuated this discomfort, Saeji stated.

Nonetheless, “Squid Recreation” is wildly widespread in its dwelling nation.

The present was launched on Sept. 17 simply earlier than Chuseok, a Korean vacation much like Thanksgiving when households collect, the right time for binge-watching. The surge in community site visitors led one web service supplier to sue Netflix to cowl its prices.

The fervor has additionally spilled over into actual life. A road vendor in Seoul who supplied the makers of “Squid Recreation” with dalgona, a brittle sugar sweet on the heart of one of many video games, advised Reuters that he had seen a growth in enterprise.

One of many video games in “Squid Video games” on Netflix contains carving shapes like circles, stars, and triangles into a chunk of honeycomb toffee known as Dalgona with out letting it break.Youngkyu Park / Netflix

Hundreds of curious South Koreans additionally tried the eight-digit telephone quantity that seems on the enterprise card, which the present’s makers didn’t understand would attain an precise individual. The proprietor of the quantity, and even folks with related numbers, have been inundated with calls and messages in any respect hours.

On Wednesday, Netflix stated it was working with the present’s native manufacturing firm to handle the problem, together with modifying scenes to take away the quantity.

Park Sae-ha, a senior finding out economics at Yonsei College in Seoul, stated “Squid Recreation” was “spell-binding as a result of it was so specific and blunt.”

“Though I’m younger, I may simply relate to the onerous actuality of a really aggressive society,” she stated.

That intense competitiveness could also be one motive South Korea has been so profitable, with a interval of fast industrialization beginning within the Nineteen Sixties that turned it into the world’s Tenth-largest financial system. However as in lots of different nations, a college diploma and a white-collar job don’t assure the monetary safety they used to, Saeji stated. With a median revenue of about $42,000 a 12 months, many Koreans now discover they need to borrow to maintain up.

Fueled by low rates of interest, family debt in South Korea has grown considerably lately, and is now equal to the nation’s annual GDP. (Within the U.S., against this, family debt is about 80 % of GDP.) Folks could rack up debt due to bank card spending, unemployment or playing losses, however a big chunk of it’s tied to actual property.

Housing costs have been rising quick, particularly beneath President Moon Jae-in, and the typical value of an condo in Seoul is nearing $1 million. Lending curbs and efforts to chill the housing market have executed little to rein in family borrowing. Along with housing, some Koreans, particularly younger folks, borrow cash to spend money on cryptocurrency.

Folks have a look at Seoul’s skyline from an commentary deck of Woomyeon mountain final July.SeongJoon Cho / Bloomberg through Getty Pictures file

Many Koreans begin out by borrowing from authentic monetary establishments like banks, stated Koo Se-Woong, a commentator on Korean tradition based mostly in Germany. When that avenue is exhausted, they might transfer on to second-tier lenders that cost larger curiosity.

Within the worst-case eventualities, he stated, debtors flip to mortgage shark operations that may cost triple-digit rates of interest, “after which you might be pushed into conditions from which you actually can’t get out.”

In response to some estimates, there are 400,000 Koreans in debt to mortgage sharks.

“Whenever you have a look at the characters within the present who’re collaborating on this recreation, they characterize that demographic of the Koreans who’re within the worst potential scenario due to their private debt,” Koo stated.

In a current broadly shared Fb submit, Koo stated he was shocked when a pal advised him he was residing paycheck to paycheck, regardless of having job.

The pal “does not strike anybody as extravagant,” Koo stated, however struggles to afford the trimmings of middle-class life: an condo, a automobile and occasional journey along with his spouse and youngsters.

“It is all paid for by loans, I’m telling you,” Koo stated his pal advised him. “We simply don’t have any cash.”

Jung, the safety analyst, stated the plot of “Squid Recreation” was simple to simply accept as a result of “it handled such acquainted tales of debt-ridden folks you come throughout in actual life.”

A scene from Netflix’s “Squid Recreation.”Youngkyu Park / Netflix

“The story stems from a deeply rooted notion of how society seems to be at failure, particularly particular person monetary failure,” he stated.

Chapter in South Korea is usually seen not as an opportunity to start out over however as a devastating destiny. That’s underlined in “Squid Recreation,” Saeji stated, when contestants are given the choice to depart however select to maintain enjoying even on the threat of their lives.

“Within the common world it’s not simply the loss of life of their physique, it’s the loss of life of their delight. It’s the disgrace of getting to be such an unsuccessful individual in entrance of your loved ones,” she stated.

Viewers in South Korea say the present is all of the extra disturbing as a result of it injects loss of life and violence into playground video games like Purple Mild, Inexperienced Mild and tug of conflict.

The present performs on childhood nostalgia “and together with it the harmless instances whenever you had no issues,” stated Kim Hern-sik, a popular culture critic in Seoul. “But the story tells you that escaping from actuality just isn’t the reply.”

“Squid Recreation” is “essentially a Korean story, that includes video games folks would keep in mind enjoying as children,” Don Kang, vice chairman of Korean content material at Netflix, advised NBC Information in an e mail. “So we knew it will resonate with our members right here.”

The doll acts as the one who is “it” for a lethal model of Purple Mild, Inexperienced Mild in “Squid Recreation.”Netflix

Its recognition within the West got here as extra of a shock. However Korean cultural exports have been sweeping Asia for years, and Netflix was already betting on their rising enchantment. The corporate is spending $500 million this 12 months on Korean content material, nearly as a lot because it spent within the final 5 years.

Saeji stated that after a long time of Western cultural affect, the success of “Squid Recreation” exhibits that South Korea could make a TV present with a Hollywood really feel “and so they can do it higher.”

Whereas “Squid Recreation” just isn’t the primary story a few struggle to the loss of life, director Hwang Dong-hyuk, who has a movie diploma from the College of Southern California, made it influential in his personal manner, stated Oh Dong-jin, a distinguished movie critic in South Korea.

“Each film borrows this and that from different films. What issues, due to this fact, is how creatively you’ll be able to borrow from totally different references,” he stated. “So, even from this standpoint, the normal kids’s video games the present makes use of make ‘Squid Recreation’ fairly authentic.”

Margie Kim, a housewife in Seoul who’s watching “Squid Recreation” together with her household, stated that whereas she loved its depth and pop-art-influenced visuals, the underlying messages have been additionally vital.

“I do really feel the ache of what our society goes by,” she stated. The present offers with so many urgent points, she stated—revenue inequality, youth unemployment, a quickly getting older society—that it’s one thing her whole household can relate to and discuss.

“So many middle-class, strange folks stay with a lot debt,” she stated. “I may completely empathize with individuals who joined the sport.”

Jennifer Jett reported from Hong Kong, and Stella Kim reported from Los Angeles.

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