“Squid Game” fans know that a trumpet call to wake up means someone is going to die. Not our hero, Ji-hoon, but one or more players hoping to win a fortune competing in childish, but deadly, games. It is both a thrilling story and a critique of inequality and greed.
Netflix
The first season was a global hit. With 330 million views, it is Netflix’s most watched series of all time. It won Emmy Awards for its lead actor, Lee Jong-jae, and creator Hwang Dong-hyuk. Both made history as the first Asian winners in their categories.
We first spoke with Hwang in Korea while he was about to embark on a global promotional tour for Season 2.
“So, you’re kind of in a nice place now?” I asked.
“I don’t know what you mean by ‘sweet spot,’” Hwang replied.
“Just that things are going your way?”
“But it’s not easy. There’s nothing easy,” he said. “People keep telling me: ‘You’re the happiest person in Korea.’” But in my opinion, I’m not happy. “I suffer every day and night.”
This is thanks to a grueling workload: Hwang directed and wrote every episode. After being sworn to secrecy, “Sunday Morning” was invited to a soundstage outside Seoul where much of Season 2 was filmed.
CBS News
Hwang was at the top of his game, but it wasn’t always that way. He was only five years old when his father died. After that, he says, his family became trapped in poverty. As a struggling and debt-ridden filmmaker, Hwang said he sought escape through comic books. “I read a lot about survival games and gambling,” he said. “That got me thinking, ‘What if you combined childhood games with people putting their lives on the line for a huge cash prize?’ And that’s how the idea was conceived.”
It generated a huge blockbuster.
In the show, contestants, driven by desperation, risk everything for money and are exploited by the game’s evil master, the powerful front man.
When asked if “The Squid Game” represented his view of capitalists and capitalism in general – a group of desperate people being manipulated by a ruthless, wealthy elite – Hwang responded: “I think fundamentally what continues to drive this system is human selfishness and greed.” These days I’m more pessimistic about human nature. I almost think that for Homo sapiens, it is greed that allows him to create a society in which he feels most comfortable.
Many of the characters in Season 2 are new (Hwang killed off many of them in Season 1), but the Guardians are back, as is Ji-hoon, now on a doomed mission to stop the game.
To watch a trailer for “Squid Game: Season 2,” click the video player below:
Huang said that the second and third seasons of “Squid Game” will “show people the bottom of this world, the bottom of man.”
So, it gets darker? “Yes, it’s getting darker, episode by episode,” Huang said.
The show is so popular that 50,000 people recently applied for a chance to participate in the realistic (but non-lethal) Squid Game in Paris. The reward: an early look at the new season.
Hwang was particularly surprised by the huge success of his show in the United States, where audiences had not traditionally turned to subtitled TV series: “I had always hoped to make something that would be very popular in the United States, so I was surprised.” “At the same time, it was a dream come true. But this level of success (was) beyond my expectations.”
Ironically, he who created a dystopian tale of despair and poverty now finds himself a rich man – one of capitalism’s great winners. Did that change him? “Not much,” he said. “It made my life better, for sure, because I didn’t have to worry about (making) money anymore. But since then, I don’t think I’ve changed much because of more success or more money, because it’s just a number. It doesn’t have any meaning to me.” To me at all.”
What He does His meaning is his work. But the success and pressure of “Squid Game” has taken a toll: “It’s been over five years that I’ve been working on this project day and night. I’m so exhausted. I’m so tired, you know?” He laughed. “I need a break, I need a break.”
A break from continuous work…and from his deep dive into the dark depths of human nature.
So, what makes Hwang Dong Hyuk laugh? “My friends! I like to talk to my friends and have a beer.”
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The story was produced by Michaela Bufano. Editor: Joseph Frandino.
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