There is no love in Squid Game, is there? “Yes there is!” Hwang insists. I’m thinking of the one in episode four when two players, one a macho gangster, have sex in a bathroom. Perhaps that’s why the sex scenes in Squid Game are so grim. ‘It’s about people’s psychology in extreme situations’ … Squid Game. I’m not really into TV romance stories because it’s been six or seven years since I was in a relationship. People said Bridgerton was very good so I tried watching episode one but I gave up in the middle. There are only two I’ve watched through to the end: Breaking Bad and Mind Hunter. It shows that the global audience is resonating with the message I wanted to reflect.”ĭid Hwang watch Bridgerton to study the competition? “I find it difficult to watch any series in full. But it ended up being much more successful, the most watched show on Netflix ever. When I was working on the project, the goal was to rank No 1 on the Netflix US chart for at least a day. As I said, it’s not profound.”īut isn’t there a contradiction in that, without money from an international corporation, ie Netflix, your critique of global capitalism would never have been seen? Hwang laughs at me again and says: “Oh, the Guardian, asking profound questions! Well, Netflix is a global corporation but I don’t think it is aggravating inequalities. So I did try to convey a message about modern capitalism. They’re contracting viruses on the streets and even dying. During the pandemic, poorer countries can’t get their people vaccinated. “We are fighting for our lives in very unequal circumstances.”Īre you making a profound point about capitalism? “It’s not profound! It’s very simple! I do believe that the overall global economic order is unequal and that around 90% of the people believe that it’s unfair. Why did Hwang create a horrifyingly brutal contest that holds human life so cheap? “Because the show is motivated by a simple idea,” he says. Those caught out are mown down with machine-gun fire. In the first game in the show, all 456 contestants can only move when the face of a sinister mechanised doll is turned away from them. “I used to be good at fighting my way to the squid’s head,” Hwang says. ![]() He drew on a version of tag he played as a boy called squid game, named after the various squid-bodypart shapes that were drawn on to whatever field it was played on. If there was a survival game like these in reality, I wondered, would I join it to make money for my family? I realised that, since I was a film-maker, I could put my own touch to these kinds of stories so I started on the script.” ![]() I related to the people in them, who were desperate for money and success. “I read Battle Royal and Liar Game and other survival game comics. Hwang sought relief in Seoul’s comic book cafes. Hwang Dong-hyuk: ‘I tried to watch Bridgerton but gave up in the middle of episode one.’ Photograph: Ji Sang Chung/Netflix ![]() The series – which Netflix estimates has been watched by 142m households and boosted its subscriber figures by 4.4m – is thought to be worth £650m to the streaming service. Its return on that has been extraordinary. According to leaked documents, the nine-episode run cost £15.5m to produce, which works out at £1.75m per instalment. ![]() Squid Game earlier this month overtook Bridgerton as the most successful Netflix show ever. After all, the 50-year-old South Korean film-maker has made hundreds of millions for his paymasters. Netflix paid me according to the original contract.” That seems unfair. And it’s not like Netflix is paying me a bonus. Perhaps Hwang is now as rich as the contestant who wins the top prize? “I’m not that rich,” he says. Win and they go home with 4.6bn won (£28m). In the dystopian survival drama, a mysterious organisation challenges 456 players from all walks of life – each deeply in debt – to play a series of children’s games. I’ve just asked the creator of Squid Game, Netflix’s smash hit show, if its astonishing success has made him rich. H wang Dong-hyuk is laughing at me from his office in Seoul.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |