SQUID GAME: What Everyone Missed
Spoiler Alert: This article contains spoilers of what’s in Squid Game
According to CNBC, Netflix’s biggest series debut “Squid Game” has produced almost $900 million for the platform.
The series itself has been quite a thing lately. To me, it is one of the best on Netflix. People are wilding out, even my store manager watched it. Everyone seems to like it.
It is a story about a man in his 40s with little to no income, living with his old mom in a small and cramped house. His name is Gi-hun. He has debts to pay and he gambles to do so. What a combination of a guy. Being desperately in need of cash, the only quickest way to earn a big pile of money is by joining Squid Game. The red-costumed guards running the game promise that the winner will get 45.6 billion won. The losers will get killed.
Besides he world-widely demonstrates a great thriller and horror-fiction series, the director, Hwang Dong-hyuk subtly puts quite a bit of life lessons in it.
True Self
The “chosen ones” are gathered in a massive arena built in the middle of nowhere. After waking up from drugged sleep, they find out that they either die or get out of the place with billions won.
Being in this state, they have no choice but to keep going and stay on top of challenges. To avoid death, to pay off debts, to win and ultimately to live a better life after the game ends.
In the face of death and money, good participants and bad participants are revealed. The “good ones” play the game fairly and the “bad ones” would do anything to win the game.
This is a perfect example of the real world that we are currently living in. We all have masks to cover our flaws. Wearing a personality mask gives people a sense of being mentally safe. People, including me, tend not to show the world their true selves because they are afraid that people would judge them.
They all wear masks until they really have to take it off. Hence, the true self is revealed.
In Squid Game, the only things that matters are survival and money. Seeking validation from others is not their top priority anymore. Participants don’t care about one another. Gi-hun, the protagonist, chooses to proceed fairly during the game. Sang-woo chooses to disregard everybody to win the game, including killing people in such an extreme way. Mi-nyeo sacrifices her virginity for other players to stay alive and to be in advantage. The list goes on.
Surviving is their main drive to stay in the game. All the eyes are fixated on the prize, not on their prestige. Nothing is more important than their life, therefore they have no shame in showing who they truly are.
Whatever It Takes
“If something is really important to you, you will do absolutely anything to get it.”
I am a big believer in that statement and apparently, Squid Game does as well.
In the first game of the movie, Ali saves Gi-hun’s life by grabbing the back of his t-shirt to prevent him from falling down while the “Red Light Green Light” doll was turning around. If Ali decided not to care about him, Gi-hun would have been dead by getting shot by the sniper.
Ali is putting his life on the line by saving Gi-hun because he knows that he had to do it. His act of treating people thoughtfully even though he is in danger is an embodiment of what he values in life. His kindness has been frequently portrayed throughout the whole series which made the audiences like his character.
On the other hand, Sang-woo, the guy who owes debts worth billions won, doesn’t give a single damn about the participants in the game. He does whatever is necessary for him to win the game.
In the beginning, the director shows Sang-woo as a generous guy that gives Ali a spare of money so that he could travel to another part of the city to see his family. He even lends his phone to Ali so that he could call his wife since he has no phone.
However, once Sang-woo is faced with death and money, he strives amongst the crowd and does what he thinks is good for him. He goes all in to win. This is proved by his act of tricking Ali in the marble game, in which Ali gets killed because of it.
People would do anything to get what they want in life, including me and you. Recall when something really important happened in your life and you just went all the way in to get it.
That is the spirit that Squid Game tries to show to people that we all have strong drive within us when something really decisive comes up in front of us.
Money is Not Everything
Money is their end goal. Participants think that by earning a lot of money from Squid Game they would be able to enjoy freedom since all the debts would be paid off.
Who doesn’t feel happy if their liabilities are erased just by playing Korean childhood games?
Sadly, life is not that simple.
Il-nam, the creator of Squid Game wouldn’t allow people to simply win the game and go back home with a cheerful smile on their face. Winning that large amount of money means a lot of people would get killed too. Each individual is worth 1 million won.
The more people die, the more money the winner would get.
In short, Gi-hun wins the game. He goes home carrying a credit card filled up with $45.6 billion won. By the time he gets home, he sees his mom, dead on the floor due to her severe disease that hasn’t been treated because they were poor at the time.
Yes, Gi-hun may have won a large amount of money that a small percentage of human beings in this world would ever earn in life. Yes, he could buy whatever he wants and still be rich. Yes, he has financial freedom.
But, what does life mean to him without her mom beside him? The last episode of Squid Game illustrates how upset Gi-hun is after being involved in a series of killing games and having to see his mom dying on the floor after he comes back. He doesn’t even have a chance to say goodbye to her.
After these consecutive tragedies strike him like a train going at full speed, Gi-hun then decides to not use any of his money and live like a poor.
He never touches the credit card even if he absolutely needs to. He doesn’t have friends and he lives on the street for the whole year. The bank even contacts him, asking if they could do anything for Gi-hun since he spends literally nothing.
The world has a lot to offer if you have money. The question is:
“What if you can buy anything in this world?”
Would you still be happy if nothing in this world could ever fulfill you anymore? Money will only give us short-term happiness.
Il-nam, the real antagonist and simultaneously the game maker, decides to join Squid Game itself as a participant. He wants to do so because his wealth doesn’t make him happy anymore. He has a brain tumor that is creeping inside him, killing him slowly. He joins the game because he wants to feel the “adrenaline” of life.
Clearly, having tons of bread is not the answer to life.
In Conclusion,
The director, Hwang Dong-hyuk, has successfully depicted the worst reality of life in his spectacular and mind-blowing survival series. Squid Game has given us more than entertainment to watch.
It taught us how nice and cruel a person can be, in the face of money and death. Being in the game doesn’t necessarily mean they could either win or lose. Even if they win the game, they still ought to carry the guilt they incur after seeing dozens of people getting killed because of them.
They may have sacrificed everything and done whatever it takes to win the game but money is not the answer to their problems.
Squid Game wants us to know that we have a strong drive within us that will get us to do whatever it takes to get something in our life. This should be fully utilized in a maximum capacity to win what matters in our life.
Your action plan is to find what that is.
Hint: It has nothing to do with the number in our bank account :)
