But Squid Game’s backdrop is South Korea’s present-day, very real wealth inequality.
Its success won’t come as a surprise to a generation of viewers who got hooked on murderous dystopian series The Hunger Games and cult favourite Battle Royale.
The nine-part series is the first Korean show to reach the top spot on the streaming platform in the US, and is currently number one in the UK. If you can stomach the events of the first episode, what follows is a tightly written horror thriller that has captivated viewers. It’s blood-splattered child’s play – a kind of Takeshi’s Castle with fatalities, or Saw with stylish shell suits. In the first episode, a game of Grandma’s Footsteps (known as Red Light, Green Light in South Korea) leaves bodies piled high as the shell-shocked winners proceed to round two. The small print: if you lose, you get killed. W hat if winning playground games could make you rich? That’s the basis of Squid Game – the South Korean show currently at number one on Netflix around the world – where debt-ridden players sign up to compete in six games for a cash prize of 45.6 billion won (around £28m).
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