Squid Games (2021)

Works because capitalism doesn't

I want to start off by saying that this is more a think piece than a legit critique of the show. You don't need me to tell you that this show is good, you've probably heard that before. But in case you want to hear me say it again: Yes it's good. It's fantastic.

I discovered my love for Korean cinema with Bong Joon-ho. So mý approach to Koreas movies and dramas has always been a political one and it's what I appreciate most about this country's media.
This is on every level a more than competent show, acting, writing, cinematography-wise. But its brilliancy lies in its portrayal of the struggles of the working class.

Squid Game is not subtle with its portrayal and criticism of South Korea’s economy. The entire competition as shown in the show is held by the elites, who watch poor people killing each other for entertainment. The super-rich organizers have become so detached from everything, that the suffering of regular working-class people has become funny for them. We see rich men enjoying expensive whiskey and making jokes while the people in front of them are dying. The participants of the game are no longer human to them, in fact it gets literally said out loud, that they bet on them like they’re horses. It starts with them only getting referred to by numbers. And with each game, the players get more and more de-humanized, more and more alienated. The competition and brutality is what the game thrives on. It’s why the organizers deliberately give the participants less food, to “weed out the weaker ones”.
But there is more subtext to Squid Game, which makes it so brilliant. None of the contestants have been “forced” to play. Unlike in titles with similar premises the characters are here according to their free will. In fact, after the first game, they vote whether they want to continue the games, and the majority votes for no. And yet they still return. Because they have nothing out there waiting for them. In the real world, they have no real, tangible opportunity, to earn the money they need to restore their life, but in this brutal competition, they do. They can turn the cash down. They can leave the competition. But as participant Mi-nyeo beautifully puts it: “It’s just as bad out there as it is in here.” And that’s the thing, no one is forced to take part in this- and yet they are. Because their circumstances leave them no choice. Because partaking in capitalism is not a free choice, it’s the illusion of free choice. They’re playing a game of survival, no matter if they’re in the real world or in the game. But here at least, winning seems more realistic.

The harsh reality of capitalism also plays a big role in multiple backstories of our leads. Gi-hun, our protagonist, is unable to get back on his two feet after losing his job. Not only that but he is also traumatized after watching a friend and colleague die through police brutality at a strike.
We have Ali Abdul, an exploited Pakistani immigrant, who basically has no rights as a worker in Korea, since he’s there illegally. Kang Sae-byeok also fled to the South half-island from the North hoping for a better life, but finds herself disillusioned and trapped in poverty. The players of the competition can only exist because of capitalism. They are not unique and unlikely cases but part of a structural problem.

The idea behind the games is to give the participants one last fair chance to success. The frontman says out loud, that he wants a fair competition. In the real world the players of the game have been discriminated, based on their social status, based on their gender, based on ethnicity. But in this game where they play seemingly arbitrary games, everyone is supposed to have equal chances.
But do they?
Even though every single player could, in theory, make it through the majority of the games unscathed, how high their chances are is almost entirely based on circumstances that pretty much are out of their control.
Just like in Squid Game, whoever gets the advantages in life is based in arbitrary factors. In which family or country, we are born in as well as dumb luck. It's the meritocracy lie, the lie of the American dream gamified. Haven’t we all been reassured time and time again, by the 1%, that our system is fair and just, even though it clearly isn’t? The prize money is just hanging there, barely unattainable yet sufficiently close enough to see it and we keep telling ourselves, that we will get there if we push ourselves just enough.

Then there are the guards of the competition, dressed in menacing red robs. Though it’s easy to hate them since we constantly see them actively taking the lives of players on screen, there is subtlety in their portrayal, showing that they too simply are clogs in a machine with basically zero autonomy. Aside from, you know, constant murder, their schedule reminded me of that of an average warehouse employee. Their schedule is tight and strict and they’re not allowed to ask questions. A disembodied voice tells them what to do, when to eat or sleep, not all that different from the schedule of an Amazon warehouse worker.

In an environment as brutal and bloody as the one in Squid Game, kindness is a privilege that is impossible to afford. To make it through, you have to play dirty. Everyone who is kind and trusting by nature, like fan-favorite Ali, gets crossed. Many people have stated, that Squid Game makes a thesis of human nature.
But Squid Game isn’t as much about human nature as it is about the circumstances our players are put in. Except for a few exceptions, like the over-the-top evil mafia boss and his goons, the participants are neither good nor evil, they’re desperate. And they want to survive. It simply shows what happens to people who have nothing to lose.
Our hero doesn’t get as far as he does because he is kind, or because he is witty, but based on luck and technicalities. But his soft heart is the reason why he is left a broken man, unwilling to even touch his prize money. Humans aren’t good or evil by nature, but you won’t make it to the top through honest work or good character.

Korea isn't the thriving capitalist utopia that we imagine it to be. Korea's economic growth lies on the exploited working class, which works an average of 52 hours per week. In comparison to other countries, unions are weak. Human rights organizations such as Amnesty International have consistently denounced the situation of workers. Kang Sea-Byeok, the Korea from North Korea in the Series, was hoping for a better life in the South. But when asked if that wish came true, she simply stays quiet. Kang Sae-byeoks story is not an unrealistic one. Many North Korean refugees live as second-class citizens. Forever strangers living in a country that speaks the same language as their homeland.

The fates of Gi-hun, Ali etc. are familiar to many Koreans, but claiming that Squid Game’s scenario is only applicable to Korea, would be a false deduction. Many American critics have now taken it upon themselves to praise Squid Game for its portrayal of South Korean workers specifically. Fact is, that Squid Game works because capitalism has failed everywhere it’s been tried. It’s certainly not a coincidence that the two Korean pieces of media that have reached the biggest global success are both deeply anti-capitalist.
One of the elites in the show watching the competition live, states that South Korea's games are the best ones, in a throw-away line, implying that South Korea isn’t the only country that organizes games like this one. Meaning that, in the world of Squid Game, what we see on screen is supposed to be happening all around the world.
It’s one of the most telling lines of the show. Explaining Squid Game’s success despite all its cultural differences is simple: We all speak the same language under capitalism.

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