Live or die. The South Korean series Squid Game hits Netflix this Friday, September 17. A fiction halfway between Hunger Games, Black Mirror and Battle Royale which is likely to make a lot of talk about it.
Uploaded to the streaming platform on the same day as the long-awaited season 3 of Sex Education, Squid Game presents a scathing scenario: 456 people find themselves “participating” in a mysterious game where the winner can walk away with the sum colossal 45.6 billion South Korean won, or 33 million euros. They all share one thing in common: they are in debt up to their necks, and live in great poverty.
Sent to an unknown place, they will confront each other in child’s games, such as 1, 2, 3 Soleil, under the gaze of strange armed guards with masked faces and dressed in outfits which are reminiscent of those of La Casa De Papel. But very quickly, they understand that death is the only fate reserved for losers, or recalcitrant. And that protesting will not help.
Available in 8 60-minute episodes, Squid Game bathes viewers in a strangely playful and horrific universe. The cast is almost exclusively South Korean, with Lee Jung-Jae (The Thieves, New World), Park Hae-Soo (Time To Hunt, Master), Lee Ji-Ha (Sweet Home), or even Wi Ha-Joon ( Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum, Something In The Rain).
On Netflix, the quality of South Korean series is no longer to be proven, as evidenced by the well-deserved success of Kingdom which mixes historical fresco and zombie apocalypse. No doubt Squid Game should hold the attention of the (informed) public.