Ryan Yan

With all the murder and gore, you would think that this television series is just another horror extravaganza. However, South Korean film director Hwang Dong-hyuk conveys an extremely important and relatable message in his Netflix drama TV show ‘Squid Game’. Hundreds of cash-strapped contestants accept an invitation to compete in children’s games for a tempting prize, but the stakes are deadly. Hwang teaches us a crucial lesson about human nature and what we would do for money. In this case, 456 participants who all have major financial problems risk their lives for a handsome amount of money - 45.6 billion South Korean won (equivalent to 38.5 million United States dollars at the time of release). While at first, they do not realise that getting “eliminated” means dying, they quickly find out. Most who survived the first game, ‘Red Light, Green Light’, return after they stop the game, even after the guards had killed more than half of the 456 competitors in the initial game. The first two episodes already demonstrate the main idea of money-hungry instincts. It gets worse as the games progress, with betrayals and brutality becoming more common. The games let out the worst of the players, and they soon show their true selves. They shatter their personas and completely change their personalities. Under these stressful conditions, nobody can trust each other, afraid that the other may become a traitor to them. When you think about this, it probably comes to mind that these people are crazy to put themselves in such a situation, but in reality, as humans, this is exactly how we behave. We are constantly craving to be wealthy.