You might ask yourself, “Did the world need Squid Game 2?” But Hwang Dong-hyuk, who wrote and directed 2021’s Squid Game, didn’t initially think so. He conceived the Korean Netflix series as a single production. Season standalone. But success is intoxicating for businesses, and fans find new endeavors with Song Ki-hoon (aka Player 456), played by Lee Jung-jae, on a secret island where hapless souls are killed in the name of entertainment for the wealthy. Ta. Pretend to play a game.
You may also ask yourself why a show with such a sadistic setting and content became a worldwide hit, but you probably went to see Saw He’s the kind of person who’s waiting for Saw XI. In that case, the question won’t make sense to you. Nor can anyone question the rationale behind Squid Game: The Challenge, a reality competition produced in the UK last fall and also available on Netflix. The film is now seen as something of a prequel to the sequel, which opens on Thursday, and will likely have a tough Christmas. Mellow. (No one was actually killed during the course of “The Challenge,” just figuratively.)
I don’t mean to imply any qualitative or moral equivalence between “Saw” and this. “The Squid Game” was intelligently written, beautifully acted, and well directed. This work, about a hero who retains his humanity in the face of violence, decadence, and corruption, had an ideological and moral core, and was even a little sentimental. Still, it’s not a show you’ll want to watch twice.
Instead, I watched its follow-up professionally but without complaint. Like most sequels, this one is almost by definition less substantive than the original, with its repeated Fisher-Price set conceits and MC Escher. Of course, there are new characters, but many of the old characters die in the first round. For those who haven’t seen the first series, I’d like to add that a financially strapped population is being lured into playing the series. A murderous version of the children’s game where the last person standing will be rewarded with a huge prize. There are rules to stop the game and distribute the wealth, but you know what happens to people.
The end of the first season hinted at more action, but that hint was enough to continue. Ambiguity can be more powerful than closure. (In any case, we’ve been living in that caesura for three years without any ill effects.) It’s about time that the newly wealthy and good-looking Ki-hoon gets on a plane to Los Angeles to meet his daughter. It ended at that point. When we catch a glimpse of Squid Games’ recruiter (Gong Yoo), known as a salesman, he realizes the game is still running, turns around and walks towards the camera. The new season begins there, focusing on Gi-hoon’s crusade to completely destroy the game. Dramatically speaking, or in keeping with his character, there’s really no other choice. And then we leave.
Wi Ha-joon plays the role of Hwang Joon-ho in season 2 of “Squid Game”.
(Noh Joo-han/Netflix)
Three years later, detective Hwang Joon-ho (Wi Ha-joon) wakes up from a coma after being shot by his brother-in-law, Hwang In-ho (Lee Byung-hun), who was just unmasked at the end of the first series. Frontman, former player, now running the game. Juno, who managed to survive that and a fall into the sea, was transferred to the traffic department in search of an easier job after being charged with a serious crime. (He can’t provide any evidence, and can’t show where on the island he was searching during off-duty hours.)
Meanwhile, Ki-hoon lives like a pauper, holed up in the empty flea bag hotel he owns and refusing to use his acquired wealth for himself. He calls it blood money and only uses it to fund his ill-formed plan to crush Squid Games. The first few episodes involve an attempt to locate a salesman through a network of agents. These are not without violence. Still, I’m glad I can’t go back to the island just yet. There, players who were not informed of this outcome in advance would literally be eliminated. Meanwhile, Ki-hoon returns and, like the catcher in the rye, rushes to save as many people as possible.
Life is short, so I’m not going to rewatch the first season for comparison, but my impression is that the new season will focus more on relationships (good and bad) and team dynamics. It’s an impression. people die. (This time the game feels bloodier and more sinister.) Even more young people are involved. Former rapper Thanos (Choi Seung-hyun) lost all his money to a virtual currency scam by YouTuber Lee Myung-gi (Im). Siwan) is also bankrupt (he is also wanted for fraud), and his ex-girlfriend Kim Jun-hee (Cho Yoo-ri). It’s all there by pure chance. The presence of Jeong-bae (Lee Seo-hwan), Ki-hoon’s gambling buddy from the outside world since season 1, is also a coincidence. His survival is even more personal to the protagonist than usual.
Thematically it’s very simple, even commonplace. Kindness is better than selfishness, community is better than loneliness, no matter how stacked the deck is against it, no matter how depressing the outcome. It was often pointed out in reviews and essays from the first season that the rather depressing Squid Game can also be read as a critique of late capitalism, and it is clear that income inequality is the structural foundation of society. It is. The story of the fed up rich exploiting the desperate poor and dividing them to maintain power. If this season has a unique theme, it may have to do with distinguishing between enemy engineers and fake enemies.
“People think of humans as just race horses, and they are the owners of the horses,” Ki-hoon tells the frontman. (They’re speaking through pig-shaped speakers, echoing a giant piggy bank full of money hanging above the player’s dormitory, enticing them to play for ever-bigger payouts.) It’s a typical game show.)
“They were all just losers in the game,” the frontman says of the hundreds of dead. “Trash has been eliminated from the competition. Tons of new trash is being poured into the world as we speak.”
Ki-hoon, who has been stockpiling weapons and assembling an attack force in Seoul, and Jun-ho, who wants to confront his brother — the front man, remember — begin to converge on their mission, but it turns out to be a promise of some kind. It looks like it is. battle royale. However, this is only the middle chapter. The third season is scheduled for 2025 and my Christmas wish is for it to be “Come Up.”
Does Squid Game have the courage to live up to its philosophy, or is it just another horror story? “The game isn’t over until the world changes,” the frontman says, but you might want to think the other way around. But you never know.
