‘Squid Game’ in South Korea has become a breakout success for Netflix as the streamer’s biggest non-English-language series. But audiences in the show’s home country are divided over its merits.
A recent on-air promotion event by K-pop girl band Itzy on KBS Cool FM radio recently deviated into a discussion of the survival show. While they were supposed to be promoting their single ‘Loco’, three of the band’s five members discussed their reactions to the show.
South Korean singer Chaeryeong, said that she found the series too violent and that she could only stomach some of it. That is a common criticism of the show, in which the majority of the 400-plus contestants in a mysterious contest are brutally eliminated.
For many South Koreans, part of the show’s appeal is its use of childhood games and activities, reports variety.com.
The price of dalgona, an old-fashioned brittle candy featured in one of the ‘Squid Game’ episodes, has been raised from around $0.84 per piece to a reported $5.88.
Another sign of ‘Squid Game’ mania in South Korea has been soaring real-life use of the telephone numbers depicted on screen.
In a reactive and attention-seeking move, a local politician was reported to have offered more than $4,000 to buy the number that belongs to a person living in his district and who had been plagued by hundreds of nuisance calls.
On Wednesday, Netflix said that it would edit out the number.
“We are working to resolve this matter, including editing scenes with phone numbers where necessary,” said the streamers.
Netflix Korea established a pop-up game experience installation at Ogem World, in the heart of Itaewon, Seoul’s nightlife district. It garnered huge interest and attention from the South Korean general public, but had to be shut down ahead of schedule, due to infringement of social distancing regulations.
Model-turned-actor Jung Ho-yeon, who portrays a North Korean refugee, has now become the most followed actress in South Korea with 15.6 million Instagram followers.
Jung told Korean media in a recent interview: “Too many great big things happened so quickly, it’s best to take time and recollect myself.”
Hwang Dong-hyuk’s latest offering on Netflix is the Korean survival show ‘Squid Game’. The director has talked about what is making Korean content so popular among global audiences.
The craze for K-content is currently on its peak courtesy the boom in the digital world. Be it K-pop or K-drama, Indians are just lapping up content.
The growing popularity of the Korean content even has its own phrase ‘Hallyu’, a term that the Chinese gave which means ‘Korean Wave’.
Talking to about the reason behind Korean content getting popular globally, Hwang Dong-hyuk said: “Korean society, I would say, is a very dynamic one. It is the only single country remaining divided in the world. The people of the same origin are divided because of the military tension and there are a lot of people staying in a small sized land.”
He added: “We have a very hyper-connectivity with a high speed internet so a lot of influences are being given and received among all the population living in this country.”
He credits the “diverse layers” in the Korean society that are making people “receptive to change”.
“We get influenced a lot by the other factors that are surrounding us that is why probably the Korean content is very much liked.”
“The content is responding to external conditions and it is also accepting a lot of changes fast and it is sensitive to the changes that probably Korean content is perceived as entertaining one to the global audience.”
Dong-hyuk’s series ‘Squid Game’ is the latest addition to the Korean content. The show tells the tale of people who risk their lives in a mysterious survival game which has a cash prize of $38.7 million.
What makes the nine-episode series, which also stars Lee Jung-jae, Park Hae-soo and Wi Ha-joon, interesting to watch?
Dong-hyuk said: “So, there are many works that depict survival games or death match but most of those survival game themed artworks depict how complex the games are and how dangerous games are. Those are mostly the focus of those works but then ‘Squid Game’ is different.”
Unlike other survival or death games, this show focuses on childhood games but with a dark spin.
“It features childhood games that are quite childish and simple. The participants are putting their lives at risk to win in the games and the irony that is coming from this is too dark and contrasting characteristics say they have a lot of power and are the refreshing aspects of the series,” he said.
The director says that the games depicted in the series are easy to understand – not just for Koreans but the global audiences.
“(They) can understand the rules instantly and from a certain point afterwards they can not only understand the rules of the games but more the people and their emotions. That I would say sets ‘Squid Game’ apart from other survival games.”
Video streaming giant Netflix has announced it will edit several scenes in “Squid Game” showing a phone number, following the revelation that the number actually belongs to a real person here who has been bombarded with messages and phone calls from viewers.
“Together with the production company (Siren Pictures), we are working to resolve this matter, including editing scenes showing the phone number where necessary,” citing the company, The Korea Times reported.
The breakout hit series used a real eight-digit phone number in several scenes in which cash-strapped people receive a business card inviting them to the deadly survival game.
The owner of the phone number and some others with similar ones have claimed their privacy has been infringed upon since the series’ September 17 release.
“Since the release of ‘Squid Game,’ I have been bombarded with calls and text messages and it’s impossible to live a normal life. Many people who have watched the series call me day and night to say they want to join the game, and my phone battery runs out in less than half a day,” the owner of the phone number said in an interview with a local media outlet.
“The stress from incessant prank calls is driving me crazy,” wrote another person, whose phone number has only one digit different from the one in the series, posted the screen capture of their phone call records on social media.
Netflix Korea asked viewers to refrain from calling and texting the number but did not comment on the progress in compensating the owner of the phone number when asked over the phone by The Korea Times.
“Squid Game” has topped Netflix’s list of series in all 83 countries where the company provides the over-the-top (OTT) service, the report said.
‘Squid Game’ star Jung Ho-yeon is now the South Korean actress with the highest number of Instagram followers.
Jung has garnered significant international recognition following her breakout role in Netflix’s ‘Squid Game’, which is well on its way to becoming the streaming platform’s “biggest show ever”, reports nme.com.
Since the show’s release last month, the actress has seen her Instagram following count rise from around 400,000 to 13.5 million as of now.
Earlier this week, the actress overtook veteran actress Song Hye-kyo, who currently has a following of 12 million on the photo-sharing website, to become the second-most followed South Korean actress.
Just hours later, Jung’s follower count soon caught up with that of Lee Sung-kyung, another model-turned actress known for roles in Korean dramas such as ‘Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-joo’ and ‘Dr. Romantic 2’.