SPOILER DISCUSSION - Squid Game (Netflix Korean Series)

[BakeOffRewatch]

Thread to discuss plot with spoilers.

Don’t read on if you haven’t watched!

Tagging people who said they are interested: @Mol1628 @DeathOnTheNile

Just responding here if that's OK. I'd have loved to have seen more physical Korean games. The honeycomb one annoyed me because it was set in a playground so I was expecting them to actually use it , they mentioned freeze tag so I was expecting something more along those lines. Imo it seems they only designed the set that way so they cound have the shot of the dead dude going down the slide. Cool shot but the games were a bit boring.

I thought the games were brilliant. The first was shocking and the glass game was really tense. Wish we hadn't binged it now.

But... what the hell was that red hair about????

@SirenSays

Just responding here if that's OK. I'd have loved to have seen more physical Korean games. The honeycomb one annoyed me because it was set in a playground so I was expecting them to actually use it , they mentioned freeze tag so I was expecting something more along those lines. Imo it seems they only designed the set that way so they cound have the shot of the dead dude going down the slide. Cool shot but the games were a bit boring.

I don’t think actually playing the games was the point of them........ the games were a means to an end . They could have just made them pick numbers out of a hat.

I was completely misled by number 001.

Want to know more about how the policeman’s brother morphed from being a winner to his present position. I hope season 2 has some explanatory back stories.

Like how do they recruit the pink suit people?

Why are all the VIPs the people they are, (apparently rich , white, foreign) how do they get involved.

I think the setting of the playground was more for shock factor, the juxtaposition of innocent children’s games and the obviously horrific goings on. But I agree it would have been cool to see them use it.

The bridge game was my favourite. So tense and really showed how horrible humans can be to each other when placed in a life or death situation.

From the start I thought 001 might have been something to do with it. It also didn’t show him being killed like they did with all the other main characters.

I would love more explanation of it all in another series.

I don’t think actually playing the games was the point of them........ the games were a means to an end . They could have just made them pick numbers out of a hat.

Haha of course it wasn't, but the point of the show was to entertain, and I think actually playing different games would have been more entertaining.

I really enjoyed this, but yes, wtf with the red hair???

Where did all the money come from? Was it from the VIPs?

Did the show have any connections with the rusty lake series of online escape room games?

I was reading this thinking red hair? What red hair? Picturing a single auburn strand being in one of the games. And then I remembered.

It was sad that Front Man killed his own brother, though I don't quite get the timing of what sparked his brother's search for him. I might have missed something - does he just go 'missing' periodically when the game is on? Or had he been missing since he won the game years before?

Was he actually killed? He was shot and fell off the cliff into the water, but he was only shot in the shoulder..

I thought that too he could still be alive.

@DeathOnTheNile

It was sad that Front Man killed his own brother, though I don't quite get the timing of what sparked his brother's search for him. I might have missed something - does he just go 'missing' periodically when the game is on? Or had he been missing since he won the game years before?

And when the policeman went to the brothers flat didn’t he find a card for the current game, whereas if his brother had already won the game some years previously , and was so involved in it as Front Man he wouldn’t need a card for this game.

Or have I got that bit completely wrong.......

Place-marking until I've finished it!

Hello everyone!

@DeathOnTheNile exactly what I wanted to ask about! I don’t get the brothers Jun-Ho and In-Ho storyline at all. Didn’t the landlady say he only went missing a week ago or something like he last paid his rent a week ago?

@SirenSays I get what you’re saying, but I disagree it would have been more entertaining, it would have been a different show. The simple games were a backdrop. Like tug-of-war was about picking people for strength and getting lumped with the dud people, but actually the old guy’s tactics were their saviour. From reviews I’ve read on IMDB and reddit though, I can see most people who don’t rate it are people who are already fans of shows where the games were the centre, and were disappointed. I’m completely new to it, it’s not something I’d choose to watch at all, but got hooked by the trailer showing them first saying you can’t keep us here.

The “honeycomb” game, I think the playground setting was part of it too. What were we all doing at that stage of the show? Trying to figure out the next game! So the equipment with the sugar boiling throws us for a loop, you walk in and wonder what the game will be.

Speaking of “honeycomb”, do we think Sang-Woo had figured it out? They left it very vague. I don’t think he did otherwise why would he let Gi-Hun take the umbrella.

The glass tile game was my favourite too @Mol1628. The guy saying he was going to take control of his life by going for No 1 shirt, oof…

The most disturbing part I found was the bit they didn’t show - how the organ selling people talked about “The Thing” that was still alive, and wriggling so much the doctor “ruined” the organs, and then No 28 says they all raped her. So she’d been shot, survived, raped and had her organs out whilst still living. I think cos I didn’t see it, it stuck with me the most.

I think I need to rewatch, but the reason I don’t watch this gory/horror/dystopian stuff is it really plays on my mind!

Also with the brother thing - if he’d won a previous game why did he live in a cupboard! Could say he was too traumatised to use the money but then he was with it enough to run a whole games himself.

The brother thing definitely leaves lots of material for a second season. So many unanswered questions, plus the way he said 'you know why' just before he fell off the cliff. Could be totally wrong, but I took that in the sense of 'you know what this is all about and why it's done and you STILL do it. Maybe there's more than rich people betting on humans.

I didn't mind the ending with the main guy wanting to take the games in and expose them. But I was worried for a while that he just wanted to go back in, because that's not a storyline I'd be interested in. (DH thinks the frontman will try to recruit him to be part of the games in the background).

I also thought the games were brilliant; really tense and edge-of-my-seat watching. It really got me when the two young women were playing marbles. All these fucking men who are pretty shit people on the outside and have gotten themselves into trouble, and these two young women had very sympathetic stories.

That’s why I found Ali’s story gut wrenching. That guy did nothing wrong, he worked hard and wasn’t paid and lost fingers. Then for Sang-Woo to screw him over, Ali totally trusted him like a puppy.

1 more Q before bedtime - what do we make of 001’s deciding vote to leave the games in the second episode now we know he created it and ran it and always wanted to play it?

I think 001 knew that it was inevitable that even though they all left after the first game they would return, because they had no choice. Their lives were all too shit in the outside world

I just came on here to search if anyone knew what the policeman's brother meant about "you know why?"...so confused .

I think there's a lot of loose ends in series1 that will be developed in series 2

I’ve just finished it and really enjoyed it.
Ali’s death was the saddest he was so sweet. I think I’d like the next series to be more of a prequel. It would be interesting to see how the pink soldiers were chosen as they were like prisoners too.

I guessed 001 was in on it in the second episode, the way he worded something was weird and I said to my DH it was going to be like Jigsaw getting up in the room after being apparently dead!

The creator said about series 2 -
"I don't have well developed plans for 'Squid Game 2," Hwang Dong-hyuk, who wrote and directed all nine episodes said about a follow-up season. "It is quite tiring just thinking about it. But if I were to do it, I would certainly not do it alone. I'd consider using a writers' room and would want multiple experienced directors."

If it’s given a second series I hope a different team doesn’t spoil it

Is that from this Variety exclusive @CaptainHammer? variety.com/2021/tv/asia/squid-game-director-hwang-dong-hyuk-korean-series-global-success-1235073355/

I really enjoyed reading it, thank you. I found this section interesting:

So, Hwang is quietly peeved to find himself accused of borrowing too much from other survival genre films “Hunger Games,” “Battle Royale” and, in particular, 2014 Japanese film “As the Gods Will” by shock-meister Miike Takashi.

But Hwang brushes off the criticism by referring to his notes for the project, originally conceived as a feature film, in 2008. “I freely admit that I’ve had great inspiration from Japanese comics and animation over the years,” he said. “When I started, I was in financial straits myself and spent much time in cafes reading comics including ‘Battle Royale’ and ‘Liar Game.’ I came to wonder how I’d feel if I took part in the games myself. But I found the games too complex, and for my own work focused instead on using kids’ games.”

Simplicity and easily-relatable characters are two of the elements that Hwang believes have helped “Squid Game” succeed abroad.

“I wanted to write a story that was an allegory or fable about modern capitalist society, something that depicts an extreme competition, somewhat like the extreme competition of life. But I wanted it to use the kind of characters we’ve all met in real life,” Hwang said. “As a survival game it is entertainment and human drama. The games portrayed are extremely simple and easy to understand. That allows viewers to focus on the characters, rather than being distracted by trying to interpret the rules.”

Sounds like a real labour of love if he first thought of it in 2008 as a film. A second series will be like a follow up album - created under pressure and shadow of the first.

@CaptainHammer

I’ve just finished it and really enjoyed it. Ali’s death was the saddest he was so sweet. I think I’d like the next series to be more of a prequel. It would be interesting to see how the pink soldiers were chosen as they were like prisoners too.

I guessed 001 was in on it in the second episode, the way he worded something was weird and I said to my DH it was going to be like Jigsaw getting up in the room after being apparently dead!

The creator said about series 2 -
"I don't have well developed plans for 'Squid Game 2," Hwang Dong-hyuk, who wrote and directed all nine episodes said about a follow-up season. "It is quite tiring just thinking about it. But if I were to do it, I would certainly not do it alone. I'd consider using a writers' room and would want multiple experienced directors."

If it’s given a second series I hope a different team doesn’t spoil it

I did wonder about 001 aswell, when they played the marble game and he kept saying it was identical to where he had grown up. Then I thought about how he'd known how to win the game that seemed like they'd definitely lose and how he'd gone missing when they had deliberately set things up to everyone would attack each other during the night. I was still surprised at the end though.

Ali was so sweet, really sad....the way he was betrayed