The Suicide Game

 Second Viewing of the “Squid Game” directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk, 2021

This show is now a 'reality' series on Netflix too, but you do not die if you lose. Many of the games, tricks, optics and arenas in the reality game are the same as in the film. The reality series reveals aspects of human behavior in the pursuit of money honed by years under capital, somewhat similar to the film. It is actually interesting. Given reality contests for $money$ are rampant on TV, it figures. However, these comments are about the film itself:

On the way to work at the Game

#  'Squid Game' is a clear parable of man-eat-man capitalism.

#  The gang thug and the wall-street wonder boy eventually turn out to be the same kind of killer.

#  Male chauvinism is rampant. Korean nationalism comes next.

#  Those who break the rules do better than the rule-followers.

#  A bunch of masked billionaires betting on death and life provide the cash. They're bored and have too much money to know what to do with.

#  The lead character flashes back to being beaten by cops during a Korean auto strike occupation, paralleling the brutality of the Squid Game guards.

#  Kindness, experience, memory and smarts can benefit survival, as is joining a group. Even the worst loner finds this out. Individualism takes a beating until it doesn't.

#  Most cops are useless.

#  People believe 'luck' or their personal skills will win against the hard odds, as if the game is some weird meritocracy.

#  Conditions are so bad for the working poor in Korea that they opt for incredible riches in the face of death. Only 14 refuse to return to play the game once conditions are made clear.

#  Money is the motivator. Layoffs, sickness and health bills, supporting a family, being an immigrant and huge market losses factor in. Players explain that it is as bad outside as inside the game.

#  The masked 'front man' running the game claims it is 'an equal playing field.' It is not. The unseen bosses, guns and the cash compulsion make it so. This parallels the rhetoric of 'legal equality' alongside social inequality we are fed in the real world.

#  A sideline is selling human organs, now popular across the world, just as it was in Mary Shelley's day.

#  This game has been going on for more than 20 years and no one has noticed until now... (It's actually been going on much longer than that.)

#  Love or friendship do not always protect one in these conditions.  Playing the game is actually a form of suicide.

#  The physical conditions are spare – little food, bunk beds, uniforms, strict regulation, computerized controls on everything, including time.

#  The Squid Game arenas, tunnels, Escher maze and large bunk hall are 100% surveillance societies.

#  The young game 'workers' who wear circles and triangles are treated almost as poorly as the contestants. There is a clear, brutal hierarchy in the work-force, like being in the army.

#  Anonymity is crucial to avoid connections and liability. So the masks and #s.  Anonymity is the key to wealth protection too.

#  The Christian religion is sent up the pipe three times as absurd.

#  There are crazies, sociopaths, nincompoops, religious nuts, thugs, narcissists, fools and idealists scattered among the contestants. Like normal.

#  Squealers on the outside who inform on this bloody game can be stalked and possibly killed.

#  The game ends with a form of class struggle and a billionaire twist.

This series is dystopian and exaggerated, but that is the point of parables. Hard to watch but worth watching. Don't let the faint-hearted scare you away.

Prior blog reviews on this subject, use blog search box, upper left, to investigate our 16 year archive, using these terms: “Squid Game,” “Parasite,” “Hunger Games,” “Hunger,” “Friend,” “Triangle of Sadness,” “White Lotus,” “Wolf of Wall Street.”

The Guardian likes Squid Game;  The Challenge reality show:  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/07/squid-game-the-challenge-gameshow

The Cultured Marxist

December 6, 2023