Squid Game
2021
Original language: Korean
- action & adventure
- mystery
- drama
The story
Hundreds of cash-strapped players accept a strange invitation to compete in children's games. Inside, a tempting prize awaits — with deadly high stakes.
What it’s like
Saturated primary colors set against drab grey and beige: the pastel pink, yellow and green of the children's playground sets, the stark white of the sleeping quarters, and the blue-tinged sterility of the cold corridors. Its camera stays mostly steady and composed, with wide symmetrical shots of rows of identical green tracksuits that make the crowd feel like a single, anxious organism. Sound is built from the eerie, bright chimes of schoolyard games played against near silence, then broken by sudden gunshots and the crunch of a crowd pressing forward. Tension builds in long, held pauses rather than constant motion, and the emotional register is bleak, unsettling and quietly sorrowful, with moments of desperate tenderness between people who have little left. Violence is frequent and sometimes graphic, with blood, shootings and bodies on screen, and there is ongoing dread and cruelty throughout, so this is not gentle viewing. It suits a late-night binge when you can handle sustained tension. It is for viewers who want a grim, stylised survival drama about debt, class and desperation, and who don't mind watching people be pushed to brutal extremes.
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