[Review] Squid Game

We’re back with our review for the crazy popular K-drama ‘Squid Game’. Right now more than 111 million people have watched it, and we couldn’t resist watching it either. 

The Story

The series was written and directed by Hwang Dong-Hyuk who also wrote and produced the films ‘The Fortress’ and ‘Silenced’.

It has some crazy A-listers in its cast and has such a high production quality. It also skyrocketed the popularity of some smaller actors. 

‘Squid Game’ tells the story of a brutal survival game based on old Korean kids games. Whoever wins the games gets the massive prize money of ₩45.6 billion (approximately 38 million USD). 

In the series we get to know these characters, both good and bad who are all chasing the money for some reason. We also learn a bit more about the creators’ side, but I won’t spoil that part. 

The characters

Seong Gi-hun is our main character. He is portrayed by Lee Jung-Jae who you might know from ‘Along with the Gods’, ‘Deliver us from evil’, ‘Svaha the sixth finger’ and ‘Chief of Staff’. From the very first episode he seems very lost. He’s being rude to his mother, drowning in debt, being chased by his debtors and losing money he doesn’t have at the horses. 

He is approached by a mysterious character played by Gong Yoo who you’ll know from ‘Goblin’, ‘Train to Busan’ and ‘Seobok’. He offers Seong Gi-hun money in exchange for playing a game in the subway station. In the end he offers him the chance of a lifetime in the form of the business card that acts as access to the game. 

Seong Gi-hun accepts and enters the game, only to find out that the game is a life or death scenario. 

Love or hate

Some other notable characters are Cho Sang-Woo played by Park Hae-Soo. He is a childhood friend of Gi-hun and is also in deep debt. There’s the old man Oh Il-Nam with a brain tumor, played by Oh Young-Soo. The fan favorite Ali Abdul played by Tripathi Anupam.

There are also the two characters we love to hate, Jang Deok-Soo and Han Mi-Nyeo, played by Heo Sung-Tae and Kim Joo-Ryung respectively. They did such a great job with their characters. 

Lee Yoo-Mi who played the character of Ji-Yeong definitely gave a lasting impression with her portrayal. She was also in ‘Young Adult Matters’. Jung Ho-Yeon rose to fame with her acting. This was her first major role and she blew everyone away.

In the nine episode series we get to see some excellent acting, some very fresh and original characters and excellent tension building. 

There’s so much more to the story but it’s impossible to list every character that will move you, make you hate them or sit on the edge of your seat for them.

Definitely go watch it, if you haven’t yet. Check out the trailer below.