I frequently dream of murder games. It didn’t start till the pandemic though. Maybe? It’s hard to remember things before 2020. In 2015 there was a trendy game called “撕名牌” (or “rip the name tag”) inspired by a popular reality show. The show started in Korea and gained popularity but got imported to China that year. That summer, empty campuses became easily accessible for anyone who wants to participate in their own version of the game. My friends and I played two games. It wasn’t until we actually became participants that we realized despite the simplicity of that game, it was physically draining and a whole lot of brain work.
6 years later, I remember 3 particular instances.
-We were playing on a college campus, which was a considerably huge “map.” As the only girl in the game (I think we had 11 people), I pretty much ran out of stamina 10 minutes into the game. Despite always thinking I would be the last standing person in any type of apocalyptic-simulation games, I just gave up—I know, very typical. I sat in the middle of a brush-enclosed but open-air area, not really hidden at all, and soon enough one of my friends showed up. I knew everyone playing, but him in particular was my closest friend in the group besides my best friends. We made eye contact, my friend noted that I was exhausted, and let me get away. He was one of the last players standing at the end.
-I ran into one of my best friends. At the time he was still my bestest friend, actually, but we’ve been bickering for a whole year for something happened the summer before. 6 feet apart, while each keeping one of our hands on the name tags on our backs, I said, “Let’s team up.”
I think he said something along the line of, “Uh, can we not,” with an awkward smile on his face. But he dropped his hand as he said it. We were far enough into the game / spread out enough that phones were involved at this point. He teamed up with some people already as well, so he started texting, exposing his back entirely to me. I had about ten seconds of time to act, it’s hard to remember what I really considered at that moment, probably only solely thinking about the game. Ten seconds later, other people showed up, it’s people on the same side. I lost my chance of eliminating my best friend.
Now that I think about it, yes, I proved loyalty within the game; but if I would’ve ripped off his name tag, perhaps we could’ve cleared that bickering between us, and we would’ve still been friends today.
-We soon split up once we ran into the other side (yes, it ended up being a game of groups, as all games do). Quickly, I found my other best friend. There was no question asked whatsoever, we both knew there was no way we would eliminate each other. This is a bond that’s determined by real life relation beyond the rules of this game, so in a sense, an act of cheating. People were texting so much at this point, our group chat was giving out live updates of eliminations. The game had a 1-hour cap and we were 45 minutes in. This best friend is particular good at hiding. We found the perfect hidden place and decided to stay in until the very last 5 minutes. No one even came close to where we stayed.
At the end, the last standing players were rounded up for one final fight. I voluntarily gave up my chance, since there was no way I could fight against three of my guy friends, who were all deliberately taller and stronger than me. I think there were three people remaining, I forgot who won, this isn’t a crucial detail for 6 years later.
Do you also recognize the similarities of this game to Squid Game. To be fair, without actual death in the equation, these kinds of games are really really fun. While we were at it, it was fun to be involved. Looking back, I now can see how our social roles do get revealed in a simulation like “rip the name tag.” I’m not gonna deny the fact that I survived till the very end only because I was helped by three different people because 1) I’m good friends with them and 2) because I’m the only girl playing. The first best friend I bumped into is who I’d consider as someone with a very high emotional intelligence. He has good relationships with almost everybody, but that somehow also became an issue among us few “best friends”—we didn’t feel special enough, and by that summer the sense of trust between us was ceasing. And the other best friend of mine, he’s really good at hiding everything: emotions, past, the way he interacts with other people… And he’s avoidant. He avoids all conflicts possible.
Squid Game is no difference. You can easily recognize the characteristics of each character—but unlike real life with real people, it does not display personality, just characteristics.
Squid Game as a show was a mild gore fest that stole ideas from both older Asian cinemas and the typical societal functions in Asian societies, boiled down to generic representative characters who even as tokens, were uninteresting and lacking in true human identities.
I don’t even think I’m being harsh, I think most people can agree with me.
Squid Game - Most Memorable Moments
I would say the very beginning of the show was pretty epic. The whole scene with Pickpocket happened so quickly but it was very memorable. Mostly because her face was so memorable. I also liked how the gift turned out to be a lighter gun (which apparently was a hint of the gift box coffins used to incinerate everyone). Then there was the slapping game. Gong Yoo is one of the most famous male celebrity in Korea, so seeing his face was definitely a nice little surprise. And I will gladly watch him rapidly slap 400+ people, anytime. Personally, I’m a big fan of visual dark humor, and the first half of the first episode was full of that.
Besides the gift box hint, apparently the other two moments were also significant in terms of foreshadowing - but it’s all talks, no one knows for sure what these meant. Sae-byeok almost always appeared with a knife until the night fight (wait, don’t tell me the guy who killed her was the one who saved her that night, tell me I got it mixed up.), Sang-woo killed her by slitting her throat. There are also talks about people who chose the red pocket instead of the blue one during the slapping game would be chosen as the workers instead? I like this one but I guess we won’t find out till the second season.
Among the games, I’m guessing most people’s favorites would probably be the bridge too. First game is interesting because it was just so visually striking. It also established the main characters’ qualities very very well. I would talk more about why the 6th episode is especially disappointing in the next section. The actual Squid Game itself was just, boring.
I would say, my favorite character in the entire show is probably the hot cop. Yes, also mostly because of his look—I would admit, there are all kinds of hot people on this show and that’s perhaps the greatest part about it. So his timeline being so nicely sprinkled into the 5th game was just, again, visually and emotionally a lot more interesting. I also question why there had to be 6 games, it really wears down the viewers’ attention span a lot, especially for a Netflix series which typically only has 8-9 episodes. I love the side plot with the organ sales, the missing brother and the game’s history. These are the parts that genuinely do make you slow down and think about the morality issues implied in the main gaming plot.
The 5th game itself too was just the most thrilling. It’s one that you can’t pass with either intellectual nor street wisdom. You certainly can’t pass it with physical strength. In fact, the only way to pass it, as represented on screen, was to brutally push off other people in front of you. I also really, really, truly enjoyed the glass-blasting scene. God knows I was getting so bored at that point of the series. I wanted to SEE something.
All the Missteps of Squid Game - from the Asian perspective
So, I don’t know if there’s a name for this phenomenon. But obviously we all know the “Stranded Island” phenomenon. Well, the Asian version of it also tends to feature a more extensive cast than the Western “Lord of the Flies” ensemble. The Asian version, besides the “pure” character/the “evil” character/sometimes a “God” character, typically, also has a “weak but likable” main male lead, a “nerdy but turned evil” sidekick and a “slut” woman side character.
Among Asian cultures, there was also Korean Netflix show from the beginning of 2021/end of 2020 called “Sweet Home.” It also featured a similar cast from the same troupe. Also gory. Also end-of-the-world, stranded-island kinda vibe. I didn’t watch the show, I read the comic instead because people said it was better, but supposedly the show was deemed really good among Asian viewers. Better than Squid Game.
The plus side of Sweet Home that Squid Game lacked was an actual sense of humanity. It’s totally fine for the other side to be completely and insanely brutal. The Front Man and his pink soldiers are supposed to be senseless, like the tight-grip of reality and the government (but I do appreciate making the Front Man an actual person, ALTHOUGH it was very, very easy to guess); but the participants should not have been simply poor and moral-less and nothing more. I saw discussions about the characters being rounded—what rounded? What part of it is rounded? From a literary perspective, all the main characters in Squid Game are so flat.
Sure, some of them are developing characters but they. are. flat. In this case, I’m really thankful that the “slut” character is always required in the Asian cinema version of “Stranded Island,” because I would argue that Han Mi-nyeo is definitely the most interesting, “alive” character. I was really disappointed that the three most likable characters—grandpa (I genuinely loved grandpa even if he turned out to be evil at the end), Ali and Ji-yeong (you may not even remember her name but she’s literally the mirrored version of the girl lead why would you kill her off so easily UGH)—all died by episode 6. I’m not even exaggerating by saying I lost my interest to keep going after this episode: I’m just not emotionally involved with the leads.
And you know a show’s a failure when that happens. I also found that a problem with the 2nd and 3rd season of Sex Education, which has also been a big disappointment.
One of my friends mentioned how Asian cinema tends to have a very unsettling (not in a good sense) ending—and I fucking agree and it’s so annoying. But you got to understand that typically this is not in the control of the creators. In this case, you know they’re gearing up for a second season. They could’ve easily tied up all the lose ends in the last episode—also, the 8th episode being 30 minute long is a fucking joke. There really aren’t that many questions left THAT unanswered in the show, we have brains, we can guess. With all that being said, be prepared for a second season with a massive detour from the main characters in the first season.
—ONCE AGAIN, for someone who tends to get obsessed with any shows with good main characters, this is a massive mistake made by Squid Game’s creative team (I think).
The most frustrated moment of the whole show—sorry, for someone who dreams of murder games a lot I really didn’t care about the gore and the 6th episode was just so obvious—was the ending. You KNOW our main character would turn the fuck back and try to save the world (I would be happily distressed if he dies in the first episode of the second season), because that’s just what this character would do! But dumbass! Why! Why would you! God!
Can you tell Gomi is losing it lol. Let’s wrap it.
Things to Savor
I think at multiple points of the story, the creators proved their ability to keep up the stamina, I don’t even know how they managed to lose it so quickly each time because they just seemed to be doing great at first, you know? Some camera treatments were also cheeky and fun, like the blasting glass mentioned above, and the scene with Gi-hun woke up on the street after winning to an upside down man with a sign that says “Believe in Jesus” echoed with the later scene of the grandpa dying—also an upside down shot. Speaking of grandpa, I love how they exchanged the 001 and 456 jackets, it’s as if the grandpa quite literally given Gi-hun his power—his power to survive.
Overall, since we are here already, I’m actually not too bummed by the fact that there’s a second season. I genuinely hope the detour from the first season can be interesting, potentially even making a more lasting impact from the first season. Meanwhile, I am once again asking you to go watch more Asian cinema. Seriously. If you survived and liked Squid Game (and a big fan of Parasite), you NEED to watch “Strangers From Hell.” If you want more stamina, “Train to Busan.” I also had not one, but two articles about good Asian shows and movies, one specifically about suspense and horror that you can check out on this very site.
So, run free, my white fellas (lmao sorry I’ve run out of brain cells writing this whole thing), explore.