Goddamn, some of you have been drinking that Red Scare propaganda juice 😒I wasn't "shilling" for North Korea, I was pointing out that the current situation of the Koreas is not as simple as "North Korea is poor because communism makes a country poor and South Korea is prosperous because capitalism makes a country prosperous." At no point did I say North Korea is BETTER, only that Squid Game's message is that a capitalist society may seem glamorous, but it comes with its own dark problems that need to be addressed. Speaking up against capitalism does NOT equal calling for an instantaneous installation of communism. It's not one or the other. We don't have to live like this. We can call for more worker's rights, job benefits, social security, universal health coverage and more without having things suddenly turning into gulags and mass famines. And we SHOULD speak up and protest. It's 2021 and the drastic income inequalities all over the world are right there for you to see, and yet you want to keep going like "oh well, this is the best it gets"? Please. PS. If you like my steamed bun earrings, I got them from the indie store Studio Thebe! studiothebe.bigcartel.com/ Support indie businesses! 🥺✊
Makes me think about how the moment a glassmaker started using his skills to help everyone, the VIPs "evened things out" again. As though a factory worker using his practical knowledge is somehow an "advantage" from their cushy perspective.
Exactly! Everyone has their own unique skills. The Deok-Su's tug of war team won from strength, but nothing was changed in that. I don't believe that was even about equality. The VIPs were upset, so the rules were changed to please them
@@mrmr4622 Do you mean fuckin studies and research and science discovering NEW things about a NEW disease to try and keep us all safe? Yes - we do love that lol And we hate capitalism ✌🏾
What's even more wild about the "labour shortage" is some politicians decided the solution was making it legal for 14 year olds to work past midnight. They're so entrenched in the current system they'll try to exploit child labour before trying to make anything better.
Next thing they're gonna ban abortion and limit contraception, so poor families will end up having more and more poor children who will have no choice but to work, just to survive and feed their younger siblings...... Oh wait, that's already happening. Women (who are rich enough) are already travelling to different states and countries to get abortion. And 14-year-olds around the world are already working to feed their younger siblings. Great. Who needs to read dystopia novels when we're already living in it.
i've said it before i'll say it again; cyberpunk fiction is better than our current reality. we are just as dystopic as all but the most extreme cyberpunk fiction but we lack the technological advancements and the escape from poverty through unorthodox means. in Shadowrun or Cyberpunk even someone with absolutely no advantages in life (someone to teach hacking/magic/engerneering/other-black-market-skill or spirits or a hook up for tech/drugs/whatever) could just hurt or kill some people (who probably deserve it even!) for money then use a deepdive VR system to escape hell until they need to pay for food again, and someone with some small advantage could probably do something far less violent for the same escape. in real life there is no easy escape and stepping too far out of line will get you thrown in jail or put into a worse financial situation than when you started.
I vividly remember showing this to my mom after finishing the series, and when we got to episode three, she cried out: “But that’s not fair! They all got different shapes.” I explained to her the differing shapes were a metaphor for capitalism, hence episode titles like “A Fair World.” While every player is given a different shape, each one varying in levels of difficulty, they are expected to complete the same task in the same amount of time.
Fairness is fundamentally unachievable, because humans arent born equal, and I dont mean rich or poor, black or white, I mean everyone has different physical and mental capacities thus we're all unequal.
@@mrmr4622 A true equality may be unattainable, but we can, and should, take that into account and give assistance to people who need it to make life more equitable.
@@logic_error ah, equity, of course this word would come up.. You mean that equity that openly discriminates against Asians trying to get into university? The equity that says you need to hire a woman based on quota even if she might be less qualified for the job? Yeah, all of that sounds very fair. What's next, gonna hire a blind guy as a surgeon?
@@mrmr4622 First of all you don't seem to know what the word means. Secondly, if a blind guy somehow finishes medschool and passes his exams to the point he's able to become a surgeon, then absolutely I'd want to hire him.
FINALLY someone who actually researched Korean history and current contexts. The Western perspectives and lenses were getting really exhausting but they were all that dominated UA-cam and other analyses of Squid Game. I've also been really annoyed by how everyone kept losing the point by making videos on "how to beat the squid game" (no you can't, the system is rigged) or make moral judgements of the players debating "who deserves to win the most". You also captured the false democracy of the games, the casual cruelty by justifying violence thru their coerced "consent", and finally Korea's colonial and authoritarian history. This is just brilliant.
@@MohamedRamadan-qi4hl it's a false democracy because it was a forced decision. Ultimately most of the players came back because they had no other choice. And something tells me the ones that didn't go back died.
I feel the same way. It's been frustrating to see all these takes on the show that don't really account for context and don't seem to realize that Gi-Hun's victory was completely hollow, a fact that the character knows.
You know, I found it weird that the Old man/Ilnam said he has a friend in Yeouido (when Gihun met him outside the convenience store). Thats because Yeouido is like South Korea's version of Manhattan, aka the financial district.
Financial district + the HQs of several broadcasting stations and, you know, the NATIONAL ASSEMBLY. So yeah, having a friend in Yeouido is having an important friend one way or another. Very good point you make
Agreed, at the point about people raging against Gi-hun wanting to end the game there. He's saying no to being a puppet, even at that point it's not too late to say "screw your fun at my expense". In a show about themes and allegory, viewers need to understand that they are the VIPs. You may not benefit financially from it, but you gain entertainment from the character's suffering. If Gi-hun had actually forfeited with Sang Woo, like the VIPs you too would be denied the satisfaction of an ending. His rebellion would've been successful.
Not really. We know that they're not really being hurt and that it's all for show. All the actors went home to their nice homes at the end of the day, if they were truly suffering, than yes, but these people are being paid to read lines off a script for money. Let's not mix fiction and reality here. Vips are integrated into the show as a direct cause of the characters suffering. The audience is merely watching actors on a screen pretend to be hurt. By your logic, the director and the writer would be more like VIPS because they're "making" these characters suffer. Unlike VIPS also, no one has a say on who dies or not, these actions already happened long before the audience came into the picture and we're merely watching a scripted replay. The VIPS are bad people because they're playing with actual human lives in the context of the story, the audience is paying 8.99 a month to watch people being paid to fake everything and go home safely afterwards, knowing that these people aren't actually going to be effected physically. There's a stark difference. We know they're ok. The VIPS don't and don't care. If Squid Game was a reality TV show, then yes, we'd be more equated to VIPS, but as things are, it's not a reality TV show and we are not. This is kinda flawed take.
@@MahouShoujo-Studios That's a good point that even translates to the show! We say it's okay because it's not real. In the same way, how real are the contestants to the entitled VIPs? They're also just watching people die theough a screen.
@@applzd We're saying it's not real because ALL of the actors are ok, getting paid, and having a good time off set. These people were actors before in different shows and movies, and are all still alive. No one actually died while filming Squid Game. The VIPS want people to die because it's entertaining. They couldn't care less, regardless of how real it is. Basically, all of the deaths were faked and no one got hurt, and WE as the audience know that no one actually died. The VIPS don't care who actually dies or not. This is fiction to us, and fiction is entertaining. These people aren't dead, and that's why it's entertaining, no one is actually effected. If this, again, was reality TV, then yes, it would be more comparable. But fiction has no affect on reality, hence why it's called fiction. Do we "cry" when these "characters" die? Yes, because we're invested. Are we suprised to see these actors alive in other places, however? No, because we know these people didn't actually die. Heck, the VIPS themselves are also actors and aren't actually rooting for people to get hurt because it's not real. Was I sad when Will Smith died in I Am Legend? Yes. Was I suprised to see him in the Aladdin remake, however? No, because I can separate fiction from reality. That's the reason why we get entertainment from fiction: we know no one is getting hurt. It's like saying that we're murderers for playing call of duty, or that we're evil for watching game of thrones when the entire point is that none of this is real, so we don't have to worry about morality issues. That's usually why we tell little kids that horror movies aren't real. At the end of the day, all of these actors are doing even better than we are in life.
Thank you so much for elaborating on how the "consent" in the game is actually not real consent. Having watched this show and the hype around it, I find not nearly enough people understood this part.
@@sarahwheat7094 how could someone miss such an obvious message one of the characters LITERALLY says something along the lines of "its not much better out there than it is in here"
Yeah I feel like if they're not already looking at it from a mildly leftist perspective, it flies over lots of people's heads despite how painfully obvious it was in showing how miserable they were (gihun's mom in the hospital with outrageous bills and practically about to die without care because they can't afford it, ali's boss hoarding money while he can't do much since he's so otherized by Korean society, etc)
@@sarahwheat7094 I think that might only be partially true mat pat did a video that explains it better that I could but the Guard said something along the lines of any players who complete the games gets a cash reward in the main character was allowed to bring something from the previous game
I’ve found it very interesting how wealthy people have interpreted the show. They see the characters as “greedy” rather than desperate because these people have never experienced this desperation. They think it’s a story about human greed rather than a critique on capitalism.
@@MohamedRamadan-qi4hl Sometimes it's their stupidity, sometimes it's bad luck, sometimes its a combination of various factors, regardless they all suffer the same.
Sang-Woo's actions always makes perfect sense in context of his character. He's the smart character, whos always think ahead and know what to do, have every situations planned out. He figured out how to beat the hide and seek doll by hiding behind players He was the 1st to evoke the rule to vote and stop the game, then decided to go against it because he knows there's nothing for him out in the real world, in here he has a chance. He doesn't disclosed the information he gets in the honey comb game because he wants as much people eliminated as possible for a bigger prize, also if his entire team knows about the game will make it suspicious and mark a target on their back. Outside in the real world, he's kind and gives Ali money & helps because he has nothing to loose anymore, when given the chance, he still hesitate, teach Ali how to play, stalling till the last moment until the pressure caves in that forces him to betrayed Ali's. He refused Gi-Hun's proposal to pause the game because they both made a promise to take care of the other's mom if one of them walks out of there alives. He knows the type of person Gi-Hun is, he even tells Gi-Hun that, he knows Gi-Hun will held up his ends of the promise no matter what, so in the end, his goal has already been acomplished, it's just the matter of who walks out alive. When he can't beat Gi-Hun and Gi-Hun refused to kill him, he did the only thing that was logical, refused to let either one of them walk out empty handed after all they've gone through, ensureing his mother get the money at all cost. He still is a horible person but it's not by his nature, it's by the twisted environment that forces him to become. Ultimately, he just wants his mother to be taken care off and in the end, when there's only him and his childhood friend left, he has already won the game.
Agreed. I see Sang-Woo as the Shane character from The Walking Dead. Also the unscrupulous and ruthless best friend who has different idealogiies from our main hero character and betrays him but in the end, still kinda sorta wins because his family is still taken care by the survivor.
@@InBedwithaBL Because nothing i said justified his actions. At the end of the day he still let his friends go in blind in the candy games and almost got them killed. He still refused to help others that is not important for his goal. He still choosed to cheat and betrayed Ali after knowing his story, knowing how must Ali trusted him. He still pushed that guy off the glass and killed Kang Sae-byeok with his own hands. The motive doesn't justified the horible actions.
@@lordheadass8310 none of those were cheating though. He just played the game to survive just like every other character. all other main characters did that were not by the books as well to survive. the editing was to make him look more devious, but his actions were in line with just about every other character. your candy game statement rang true, also he wasn't 100% the girl he just met wasn't lying. If he didn't trick Ali (not against the rules) he would die. if he didn't push the man (not against the rules) he would die. in the context of the situation he was in, nothing was abnormally horrid. ya know?
Americans aren't well-educated about non-capitalist systems on purpose. I've spoken with teachers and college professors who are...discouraged...from discussing those topics in any sort of depth.
Americans are so brainwashed to the propaganda that's been shoved down our throats, that if you even bring up the idea of Universal Health Care your an insane communist who wants gulags and famine to them immediately. It's disappointing.
@@MohamedRamadan-qi4hl You make it sound like we only have two kinds of systems. That is extremely narrowminded. Why should we bow down to the oppression of either a capitalist or communist regime, when we could ask for something better? These talks and even conflicts on ideologies & economic systems have existed for a very long time, so isn't it the least bit suspicious that a hypothetical third option hasn't become mainstream? That sounds like a status quo problem that needs to be fixed. Other systems can and do exist, but it takes quite a lot of support to get them implemented... while also fighting the existing systems. FYI, I can already name 4 main types of systems: traditional, market, command, and mixed. The world isn't as black and white as you make it seem.
@@TrueMentorGuidingMoonlight sorry but I found the absolute hatred that is displayed against capitalism to be against your own argument because you are portraying competive free market as some absolutel evil despite the fact that countries with the highest quality of living are captlisit including the Nordic model
It's also extremely important that you pointed out both the fact that the game hosts constantly withheld vital information, and even changed game parameters in the middle of the glass tile game when one of the players discovered an exploit. The rich are literally rigging the game to have the outcome they want, and this applies to the real world, too.
And they say it's for fairness, but it would have only been unfair if the glassworker kept his knowledge to himself. Then having the glass explode afterward and mortally wound Sae-byeok made it even clearer that fairness didn't exist.
There's also Ali, who shows how capitalism exploits those living at the margins of society, in particular immigrants from developing countries. They are also trapped in their situations because they are not originally from this country, and don't have the knowledge, means, resources, and sometimes even language to stand up for themselves and their rights. They may not want to rock the boat because they feel like they have been given an opportunity in their new country and don't want that to be taken away. And if they do stand up for themselves, they are lied to and continue to be taken advantage of. edit: and also from a narrative standpoint, he was the first of the main characters to be killed.
I think I read somewhere too that Ali specifically represents undocumented immigrants, who often end up being forced to take abuse from the companies they work for because legally, they can't fight back nor make a formal complaint. This also makes sense why he trusted Sangwoo so much, Sangwoo helped him with no questions asked (giving money for a bus, letting him use his phone, halving the corn) and was pretty humble about it.
As an immigrant in EU in search of a job I concur. My situation could be much worse; I'm lucky to be a skilled specialist with higher education, nevertheless I feel the disparity quite keenly.
I have said those things to many westerners who complained about Ali’s “racist portrayal” and they just told me I didn’t know what I was talking about when I literally come from an Asian country famous for exploiting migrant workers in the same way lol. Americans especially are too obsessed with the idea of a perfect minority representation.
@@smlj42069 Your racism is coming out and the way you’re saying “Americans”, as if your people aren’t the most racist on the planet is hilarious. 💀😭 Delusional af and dumb af.
'There is no such a thing as labor shortage, only bossess unwilling to give better jobs' HONESTLY. This might be really your best video so far only because it's so damn relevant for everyone around the globe right now. I too believe that things are changing and I HOPE not for the worse. We gotta stick together and see who the real villains are.
Honestly no one was talking abt the significance of the factory protest and how it severely impacted the Korean working class (hence justified gi hun's ptsd & lack of motivation to work). Initially I was not into gi-hun's story arch until this revelation abt his ptsd. I'm glad you opened my eyes about the history and reality of working class in Korea.
The strike impacted a few thousand workers. How did it "severely impact" the working class?? SsangYong Motors was going out of business. In the same year, five automobile companies in the US went out of business. In fact, 90% of the auto companies went bankrupt. The only reason they're still in business is the government bailed them out. The economic crash of 2008 that started in the US had a global impact.
@@CodyCha the few thousands of korean workers that got laid off are part of the working class. It shows how little power/agency and social security the working class have when businesses and the economy go south. The companies got bailed out but the workers are treated like thugs/outlaws, they are left to fend for themselves.
@@coffeemug3009 it's called life. In an economic downturn, you get laid off as an employee. Businesses go bankrupt. If a company is bailed out, employees will still have jobs.
The single most powerful moment in the show, for me, was in the finale episode when Il-nam and Gi-hun are watching the homeless man lying unconscious on the street and taking bets on whether or not someone will help him. Because in that moment, unwittingly, Gi-hun had become a sort of VIP alongside Il-nam, playing a little miniature Squid Game of their own with a "player" of one- the homeless man. All Gi-hun had to do was walk out of there, go down and help the man himself. It would be easy for him to do now. But with a few short words, he got sucked into seeing the man as a game piece instead of a person, even as he yelled at Il-nam for the doing the exact same thing to himself and the other players of the Squid Game. It's a harrowing and poetic reminder just how EASY it is to get lulled into the traps of capitalism and just general numbness to the harm it causes.
I was struck at the way that the players seemed to be diverse (about half-and-half male/female, people of differing ages and backgrounds) but the finalists became more and more dominated by young male South Koreans based on the supposedly fair game choices.
Wtf are you on about xD its set in Korea so guess what, moat of them are Korean. Plus its stated a lot of times that the males had a lot of advantages in some of those games. Tug of war? The brawls at night come on dude use your brain.
If I recall correctly it wasn't really 50/50, they were mostly male. Also, of course it got dominated by South Koreans, the only non-Korean player is Ali.
of course young people are going to win out, that is just life, even without that the elders wouldve died naturally, and when squid game gives little room for wits unlike life, what can you do?
I loved the way show handled the inherent misogyny. Never saw anyone comment on that. Gi-hun notoriously a few times says that maybe there will be "girl games" and having women in team will be useful, but it's never that way. Even more, some of the games were likely never played by most girls and in a quite few of them men obviously have the upper hand. Average woman would have no way to win against an average man in this game. I don't think game was built with a way for a woman to win it in mind - just like our patriachal society. Women can compete, but factually there's little chance they will win in the given system.
That's another way that I noticed it wasn't really fair though they kept claiming it was supposed to be. That and how they incited them to riot and take out the weaker players the night before the rope game. A lot of women, elderly, or younger people would probably be seen as the weak.
We also see through the women in the show (but especially Minyeo) the only/best ways women can survive. She uses her body to try to gain favour with the strongest player. She begs and attempts to gain pity. The one time people actually sympathise with her is when she says she has a baby. Of course people try to disprove even that because they don't like her and her being a mother with genuine love for her child would somehow come in the way of that. And it would work normally but...since she's older she's seen as a "crazy" woman. Annoying. I guarantee people would have adored her if she was the same except a younger woman. She's doing exactly what other characters are doing, hey maybe even less destructive to those around he just to stay and survive. The alternative is becoming numb and detached. People call you badass and strong for those qualities that are traditionally male but also something that lively stems from deeply traumatic experiences.
the white actors performances may be painful, but watch the vip scenes and an interview with Bezos, Gates, Zuckerberg whatever side by side and it becomes kinda genius
There was an interesting theory going around, that perhaps SOME of the VIPs are the winners of the games in other countries, that had come into being after 1988. The prize money they got upon being the sole survivor gives them all a nest egg that they live on. If they also were gamblers before they entered THEIR version of the games, this partially explains their behavior. After being rewarded by "the system" they came to believe in the system. The Front Man's speech is not a fluke. He returns in Season Two. We may see his "back story" and also those of the VIPs then!!! Clearly, upon winning, as individuals... they would want to believe their triumphs were inevitable and that they deserved to be part of the elite. Not all gladiators in Ancient Rome ended up seeing life the way Spartacus did. The lucky few became very wealthy...
Yup, because they don't want to admit that late stage capitalism has replicated many of the same things they feared from communism. Everyone gets the same food and clothes? Look at all the monopolies and food swamps where a handful of corporations control all supplies and everything else is too expensive. Overlords control things with surveillance and brute force? Bosses watch you constantly and you cannot speak freely at your workplace lest you be fired and unable to find another job. I swear some people genuinely think capitalism is God's gift to the world rather than an economic system with flaws like any other, and they're so wrapped up in it that they've let those flaws fester and consume us all.
I think contestants are forced to play childrens games as a commentary about how much of our lives is determined by those early years. You weren't that good from math in grade school? Well, good luck with finding any good paying occupation later in life. Were you not competetive during playground games? Well, good luck with trying to be competetive with your coworkers for higher wages and positions. Our brains seek the pleasure of our younger days, and if those pleasures don't align with what the society thinks is valuable... you will most likely have miserable life.
As explained, children's games have simple rules that are very easy to learn even if you're unfamiliar, and they are very fair for the most part. That's my take on why it's kids games. It could just as well be because the old man very clearly loves thinking back on his days as a kid where he'd play such games.
Black Comet, yes, this hit me hard. I'm disabled and neuro diverse, and let's just say that the education system has made it impossible for me to be hired, as I have no grades to my name at all. This is also not even reflective of my abilities as I am not stupid but no one will hear my explanation of why its wrong because they're so sure that it's right. Did I mention I hate manipulation?
I've never seen the show, but when she said everyone had to play children's games, I immediately thought of factory. If you've ever worked production labor, you'll recall that your whole day is set up like kindergarten. You have to go to your assigned spot, the bell rings to tell you when to start, a bell rings to tell you to stop, and then you go with your group to lunch in the lunch room that looks just like the school one. You have to ask permission to use the bath room for godsake, and they hold your time card until you get back so if you take too long you get docked. Literally no difference from kindergarten.
In my personal view the fact that it is children's games also communicates the idea that the tasks these people have can easily be viewed as very easy by an outside observer. I don't know if this is a thing in Korean, but I know that several languages use terms like "child's play" to convey that a task is very simple. It heavily reminds me of the way rich people talk to poor people about how they can become rich asweell. It is always presented as very easy, you basically "just have to do it", even though those same rich people will make you believe they themselves worked very hard. It's an exercise in double think to convey that rich people are deserving of their money and everyone else deserves to not have any money.
Something you didn’t mention: I don’t know if it was intentional but the masked proctors struck me as representative of the police. They exist to enforce the rules, but more precisely to enforce those rules on the poor specifically, in service to the rich. In many ways they are there to separate and protect the rich from the poor. They only punish you if you break the rules but the rules are structured so that falling behind, being at the bottom, making small mistakes all have grave consequences.
I ask people a question sometimes to see how they respond and make them uncomfortable. Why is murder illegal? Its not because of ethics. That's circular reasoning and further, there's a great number of unethical laws. And laws that would be ethical but can't get passed. So ethics isn't a sufficient explanation. Murder is illegal because our laws are based on emergent expressions of underlying biologically (evolutionarily) derived behavioral norms. Every species on the planet evolves to delay physical conflict until no other options are present because fighting is very dangerous, even to "winners". Humans, like any species, has evolved ritualizations of competition (competition is formally defined as a mutually destructive relationship, one reason we need to stop listening to economists trying to talk up comp as a good thing). Capitalism is one such ritualization of competition. A market is akin to a territory under dispute. Or a mate two individuals are fighting over. Back to laws. Laws arrange the rules of the competition so that individuals are better able to succeed, yeah nothing new in this sentence. We all know this. But when the rules are enforcing a game based on success via monopolization of a certain resource (capital, in this case) it leaves the system open for invasion by individuals operating on a different currency (like say, your life). Murder is illegal because the rich can still be killed. They are seeking to enforce high costs on this invasive strategy, because ultimately every decision is a cost/benefit analysis. Only those with nothing to lose (low cost) are predicted to turn to this strategy. And this isn't just for the rich. We all have resources others don't, clearly at least we have internet access meaning some level of resource that someone less off might kill us to obtain. And so we all agree, subconsciously, that murder needs to be illegal. Not because ethics, but because of evolution and resource competition. And while the rich can buy armies, they're still susceptible to bullets and guillotines. Edit: before someone inevitably says it, no, I'm not saying it should be legal or that its "good". I'm making a descriptive observation. What would be good is equalizing the drivers of said behavior by equitably allocating resources. But that not how the system has evolved because no animal operates to optimize group fitness, rather individuals are out for themselves first. This is also evolutionary. Those of us seeking equity do so because we see that it also benefits us as individuals. "A rising tide lifts all boats". Not entirely accurate in all contexts, but in this, if the threat of death is in your face, being less rich but alive is the better outcome. This is why most democracies that exist only came about through threat of violence, or actual violence. And so this leads to a prediction. Wealth will continue to be hoarded. We've reached about the most leftist the planet will get under current circumstances, thus the rightward walk many nations are currently undergoing. As we get closer to a return to de facto feudalism, people become more violent. We have uprisings and some return of economic equality will be conceded. And this is the cycle that will continue.
And they have poor living quarters with strict schedules are are only referred to by number, much like the contestants. Really, they aren't much better off than the people they are watching.
@@evilbob840 So true. They are one of the ways the wealthy showrunners turn the working class against other working class, by elevating them above the others, just a bit.
Thank youuuu for understanding it was only an illusion of fairness and consent! Obvious as it was, so many still came back with "Il-Nam did nothing wrong actually" or the worst "it's anti-communist actually". I've heard others say they should've been more subtle with the anticapitalism, but Parasite went more subtle and, brilliant as it was, a huge number left thinking the poor were the eponymous parsites. Folks will go for every mental gymnastic possible to subvert or discredit a strong anticapitalist message, so making it crystal clear was necessary imo, and it obviously didn't hurt viewership. On top of strong anticapitalism and anti-imperialism, there's a more subtle critique of patriarchy in the story of Mi-Nyeo, as well as racism with Ali, so really covering all the bases on unjust hierarchy. Very worried about a season 2+ dilluting the message, and ofc the merchandising, but what a brilliant show. Wish folks would save their "its bad/mid actually" hot takes for after award season, because they deserve all the Emmys, and I want to see this South Korean niche continue to grow.
Sorry but these critics fail because they believe that rich and poor equals capitalism when no as there is many countries that are not captlisit and have a massive wealth gap and yet are not captlisits
Once again... because SQUID GAME was well thought out, at best the sequel can only hope to answer the open questions that linger in the air from season one. IMOHO it cannot surpass season one, it can only hope to be good at "fan service" as we get a much more complete story. Bread and Circuses. Ending the games demands courage and risk taking. In ancient Rome, if you bet on the gladiators, you were thought to be normal, slightly religious and ethical... because... not all the bouts were death matches. In the days of the Roman Republic, the games were like morality plays. Under the Empire, the opulent and ongoing games were used to prop up the state. It took decades after Constantine the Great and his religious conversion, for the games to be banned.
This reminds me of how Sae-Byeok was injured as a direct result of post game theatrics but no medical attention was offered even though it put her at a massive disadvantage. Supposedly each game was a new start for each player, like a reset. She was meant to be safe when she got to the finishline but in reality (like her journey from North to South) she wasn't. Also who blows up glass and doesn't expect injuries, a gross corporate neglect metaphor if I've ever seen one. (Or they were hoping someone would be blinded etc idk)
"Capitalism is ultimately a luck-based, nonsensical system that rewards the worst impulses of humanity and punished our best and yet it disguises itself as a fair competition." I love this.
@@ilijaan have you heard of Cuba? North Korea? Russia? Countries bound to communism and socialism are living IN POVERTY. Saying that Capitalism is evil is untrue vice versa with Socialism. The problem is when people abuse those powers
@@Error_-ct2vp Oh dear hear we go... Okay forst Xolopitili never said socialism Marxism communism or any of the alleged evil social economical isms were better. He simply said a negative statement about capitalism. I'm going to take it a step further and respond directly to your comment... The United States might be the only country in the world capable or nearly capable of pulling off some sort of socialist communist social economic and governing system. Weird thing for me to say right? Not really the problem is that the global economy and therefore each modern National economy requires trade. Out of the 100 plus countries in the world no country is big enough to have everything needed resource and climate wise. The US is probably the closest and Russia or China is probably the second closest with Brazil being third or fourth. No country has everything required to be self-sustaining and still maintain this modern lifestyle that we have grown accustomed to. So what does any of that that I just said have to do with anything? All of the countries that you mentioned were sanctioned or excommunicated from the greater part of the rest of the global economy. Russia attempted to create a secondary Communist global economy but got too busy trying to compete with US armaments while simultaneously building up multiple other nations and of course Joseph Stalin got it off to a terrible start with his purges. Funny thing about purging people capable of replacing you: you will also purge the people that you need for everything to work. Okay sorry back on topic the poster never said anything about any other form of social economic governance just that there was a problem with capitalism. Also the countries you mentioned were intentionally cut off from the rest of the global economy so they would fail. Haiti became a country after freeing itself from French colonial rule and immediately the United States refused to recognize or trade with it, blockaded other countries from trading with it, and the majority of the rest of the global economy did the same. I can't declare Haiti as being capitalist specifically but it certainly was not socialist, communist, or Marxist. It was a brand new nation with a brand new social economic governance that was essentially forced to fail using the same tactics that brought about the economies of the countries that you mentioned.
@@ilijaan I think you need to edit "white men" with "ruling class". The newly Capitalist Russia Federation is almost all "white" and yet the majority of citizens still suffers economically. I will however admit that generally speaking the "ruling class" is white men but not always.
Everything is so on point!! The fact that people still hold on to their false sense of security that the show is critiquing communism when we're experiencing EXACTLY THE SAME THINGS in a capitalist world is fucking beyond me. In an idealistic world, gi-hun would've been an exemplary father for his child, especially after the games (minus the trauma) because of his money. But we have to remember that hundreds of people paid their lives for that billions of won. He wouldn't have to choose between his family and avenging those who died if the system was not put in place by those in power.
The amount that Gi-Hun won equals to about $36 million USD. It's a substantial amount of money, yes, but I'm not sure if it's nearly enough to fund his crusade against the VIP backers of the Squid Game.
He's also mainly driven by preventing future deaths and tortures, because he didn't choose to go back until he saw some new guy being tricked into playing those games. It's not that he's a vengeful person or doesn't care about his daughter. He's a good, brave and emotional person who just cannot stand all that cruelty and injustice anymore. I don't blame him. His personality is very similar to a lot of revolutionary leaders in history who had to sacrifice their family duties for the greater good. Sometimes you just can't have it all. You have to make the hard decision and carry the guilt and regret either way.
while a total lack of media comprehension isn't uncommon in general (really isn't helping my misanthropy!), it seems to be ubiquitous in conservatives. go watch the kavernacle for more examples.
Exactly!!! I also felt like his choice to go back, to prevent any more deaths, was partly based on the thought 'my daughter could end up there'. You may think 'why would she end up there, her dad's a millionaire lol' but people don't always tell their family about their financial struggles, i.e. Sang-woo didn't tell his mum
I remember noting in the first episode how Gi-Hun apologised to the pickpocket when he ran into her, (before he realised he was pickpocketed) and helped her up, even as he was running from mobsters who might well kill him. That immediately said to me that this was someone who, whatever else they might be, really valued other people. And that remained solid throughout the entire show, right to the end, trying to save his old friend, and then even later, going back to fight the Squid Game in some way.
That scene when Gi Hun was pickpocketed and he helped her up was actually improvised, lol. You can even see the girl bowing slightly, trying not to laugh.
Something I wanted to point out that no one seems to talk about, is the use of Migrant workers in capitalistic countries and its racism, Here being represented by Ali, (the only confirmed non-east Asian character). Its showed through his backstory that he wasn't paid well at all despite coming to Korea to find more work and money, but we see him taken advantage of and mocked for being an outsider both in the game (From Sang-Woo stealing his marbles, and Nyeo calling him an alien) and in his real life when his boss would speak to him disrespectfully and not pay him (and in both cases they get away with this behavior because Ali is at the bottom of the social class, he is the foreigner to do the hard manual labor in a country that he isn't native to) . Finally when Ali has had enough of working without pay, he steals the money, as it's the only thing he can do but inadvertently hurts his boss. In a idealistic case, Ali's crimes would be understandable and the boss would see trouble for not paying his employees. But realistically, Korea (and most capitalistic countries) dont side with the migrant workers, even when they are in the right coming back to the Racism and social hierarchy where Ali is at the bottom. As such he was forced to chose between, playing the squid game and certainly unfairly going to jail
hell, i hadnt even thought of gi-hun's past striking as a revolutionary streak sparking up again at the end, i really like that reading! and man theres really a kind of comedy in how quickly the budget that was comparable to the winnings from the games to begin with spiralling into a billion dollar franchise almost overnight...
The other thing I don't see anyone discussing is the fact that Gi-hun has been a "loser" since he lost his job and went on strike. He saw himself as a leech. And then he has had to live for a year with the knowledge the only thing he is good at, was a death game. He turns back at least partly because it will give him the opportunity to do the thing he is good at, but this time for more than just monetary gain.
About the essential jobs: My employer faces huge trouble either getting new employees or keeping them within the company - because we're all fed up being treated as disposable and without any gratitude from the higher ups. What also doesn't help are sentences like "it will get better", "the market for is empty right now" ect pP. Misntof my co-workers just want a genuine "thank you" for running the boarding home with 65% of employees working. But no. Not even that is given to us.
I can totally relate to this but at the same time is not 100% because the company I work for is like a toxic partner, they do thank us and are nice to us while basically asking us to be available any time no matter if it is off working hours and saying "we employing more people is not for you to do less job but for us as a company to get more projects" while some of my coworkers work more than 5 projects and most often than not work overtime. I got soooo upset when I told my boss some coworkers were asking for some headphones for their video calls and he was like "what they can't even buy that themselves?" and in my mind I was like "it's not like your paying them tons and they need them in order to work your company's projects!!!!" but at the same time I see them lending money to coworkers who ask for it and trying to organize s get together for everyone... And I'm like "this is like a toxic relationship" you're seeing every bad thing but with a little appreciation are like "it could get better"
@@tullus.aufidius but then they’ll be call communists and beaten by their superiors because apparently workers sticking together to make sure they’re being treated like basic human beings makes them the worst people ever in the eyes of Capitalism
@@Crystal_Dylan there are ways to unionize safely. If you'd like to learn more about that, I would recommend contacting a branch of IWW. But if you are certain that your job/conditions cannot be improved or may be worsened by unionization, it's okay to not do it. Your safety comes first.
The point about the "labor shortage" is so true. Companies because of the pandemic started running on 'skeleton crews' (working with the bare minimum of people enough to keep a company working) so big companies realized they could just overwork and underpay the working class in the name of the "labor shortage" but not hire anyone to keep more money in their checks . The huge thing that bugs me about this is that companies make it seem like noone wants to work making the working class critize and turn on eachother (i.e. calling people lazy and bums) but pity the big companies and gain pity points which equals more business for them.
My friend and other people have been told by companies who have "were understaffed" signs that they're not hiring. I 100% believe the worker shortage is fake.
@@nectarina3891 That isn't even uncommon or impossible. I applied to 200 entry level jobs in the past 2 years due to various reasons, and I only got less than 6 interviews, if memory serves. Considering my background, I think a lot of other people were in a similar position as I was.
Watching the labour shortage unfold in my country was unbelievably cathartic after getting countless job rejections, for minimum wage labour as well as proper jobs. All I could think was: well, you rejected everyone, you made this mess yourselves.
I love seeing this new take on the ending of “Squid Game”. Seeing it as a already traumatized activist going back into the action is way more thought provoking. Him seeing his daughter would be nice, but lives are at stake here. That police plot line still gotta be fixed though.
Yeah I wish they did go that extra mile and do what Xiran said bc in the end, cops are just as bad. He only even investigated bc of his brother. If we do get a season too I hope they add that and in the end show the brother's downfall bc of how he cared for his brother rather than getting caught by cops.
I think most people criticising the ending are missing the point that if the show had portrayed gi-huns life and character flaws changing drastically for the better, it textually wouldve been a tacit approval and commendation of the games existing, which is specifically the opposite of the point of the show! it makes perfect sense that at the end of this arbirtarily brutal ordeal he is still the same flawed man with many of the same problems, just... more traumatised and impulsive now.
I actually loved the police detective subplot as it was. It served as a PoV exploring the behind-the-curtain portion of the games, and the fact that the cop failed in the end and his story was abruptly cut short with few answers mirrors what often happens to cops who try to go against the system of corruption. I definitely agree with Xiran that it would have been hammered home better if his messages had been sent successfully and left on read, but I truly don't think there's anything else to fix.
10:58 "He may be a fool but if enough fools stand up with him they can topple whoever they want." This has got to be one of the most inspiring things I've ever heard.
As someone from South Korea, I can confirm people who defect from the North often express wanting to go back simply because people in NK are friendlier because they are more used to looking out for each other in times of hardship, communities are tighter. Meanwhile the South is hella known for its extreme work culture and typical busy city life where people hardly care who you are. The pursuit of wealth really does things to people that is seen as normal now.
I am pretty certain I would choose a place where people hardly care about me than a dictatorship when one misplaced word may be equivalent to a death sentence.
@@giorgialadashvili4771 And I am pretty certain you have no idea what North Korea is actually like. I mean, neither do I, but then again, I don't pretend to, while unwittingly propagating anti-communist ideas by telling everybody how horrible NK must be (also I'm a Trotskyist, which long story short means I have more than my fair share of criticism for a place like North Korea, believe me). Shouldn't it tell you something that someone who actually is from South Korea tells us that people who have fled NK want to go back, once they see that capitalist hellhole? Shouldn't that tell you that MAYBE you've been fed lies by the capitalist propaganda machine? Because of course North Korea has to be the worst place on Earth, because GOMMUNISM BAD, it has to be lest we might start questioning the way things are under capitalism.
I love how you show that the U.S is actually the villain since U.S makes tons of ads trying to convince you that going to war is “protecting your country” when it’s actually telling you to destroy so many lives and tear the world apart. And I’m Vietnamese-American!
It's not a commentary on capitalism, it's about corruption of a system that is secretly controlled by a cabal who are orchestrating society's problems. The symbolism is there if you look hard enough. We even learn Il-nam is part of the banks - corrupt monetary system is the biggest problem, not capitalism.
@@DieNibelungenliad I know he said that, but something's cannot be said for reasons I'm not willing to get into. If I told you every industry and government in the world has been subverted by secret societies maybe you'll understand. Do you smell something fishy about the Alec Baldwin shooting? Go watch Paul Joseph Watson's video on Squid Game. Then research Predictive Programming. Maybe you'll follow the white rabbit and get red pilled
@@Clickathon dude the guy who made it LITERALLY SAID it was a commentary on capitalism. People will do anything to simp these days, including living in a fantasy world where everything is made to suit their worldviews.
You made me finally understand why his friend killed himself in the end. He knew that if they both agreed to quit they'd get no money. But if he died his friend could give back to his mother. It all makes so much sense now and helps humanize that character
Eh...I wouldn't say exactly. Jobs are determine by the consumer's, not employers. Bosses can't offer "better jobs" if no one is willing to pay the business for the products of that labor. So in times of economic depression or change, there can be a labour shortage if the current labour force does not have the skills to produce products desired by consumers. Doesn't mean there aren't people available to work, just maybe not the right kind of work.
@@slin2678 The issue is that those companies aren't losing money, instead they're strangling the income across the board except the highest branches of the company. An example, let's take a game company like Activision-Blizzard, it keeps firing large chunks of employees and the rehires some of them after their quarters, meanwhile they announce to the world highest profits ever and the CEO gets massive payouts for "good work". Despite being immensely succesful as a company the lower parts of the company have terrible working conditions and are overworked with no job security while all their work goes to funding already rich higher ups.
I still remember back in 2009, as six year old, looking at my mom and my grandma have a full on debate about the ssangyong strike and who was wrong/right about what. It seemed so far away, the concept of bankruptcy and tragedy. Now, as a high-school student getting ready for college, I grow more and more afraid of the future, and what it may bring. Squid Game only made this future worse initially, but looking back, it only prepared me further for a live outside of the safety net of my parents and their home. Dang, now I feel depressed. Time to drool over the cover of Zachary Ying and the Dragon I guess
[15:27] Weirdly enough I was arguing with some people earlier who said that Squid Game wasn't a critique of capitalism but the circumstances that led up to characters joining the game. Which honestly is like trying to argue that leaves aren't green but shamrock-coloured.
Not gonna lie, as soon as the word "sponsor" was mentioned even as a joke, I autopiloted to trying to skip roughly 60-90 seconds head only to realise you didn't actually put a sponsor in haha
On one side, Xiran sounds pretty convincing. On the other side, a dim tool wearing a beanie told me it was a critique of communism because capitalism is when good things happen and communism is when bad things happen, before he called the director an idiot who didn't understand the subtext of his own show. Good grief, its an economic system not a deity, people should be able to criticise the way its been going off the rails without being branded as heritics.
I've never seen someone compare the capitalistic system to a deity but that rings so true in my experience. It seems like the second you even float the idea that capitalism is not the greatest of economic systems and that we can think of something better, the way some people react you would assume I asked them to sacrifice their first born child to me.
@@MohamedRamadan-qi4hl No, what you describe sounds just like a military dictatorship or totalitarian state. And a lot of those would tell their opressed populace that they are all equal, when they clearly aren't. A capitalist dictator would say that everyone has equal opportunity to improve their lives, even if it is a blatant lie, not really different from a communist dictator telling the people under their boot that everyone in the country is treated equally and taken care of. Your criteria could both describe a marxist-leninist dictatorship or a South American Military Junta. Neither is what Adam Smith or Karl Marx had in mind when they wrote about their respective economic systems. Your description doesn't really take any economic system into account, the show however very clearly does. If you want to criticise an economic system, criticise the economic system. If you want to criticise authoritarianism, criticise authoritarianism.
@Li F Neoliberalism fucked everyone who isn't a boomer (and some of them too) over and now the developed countries have let their companies hand over production of most essential goods and most of their economic power to a totalitarian state and made it a superpower, because it was cheaper than paying people more. "The invisible hand of the free market will self-regulate" my ass. I'm starting to think capitalism is like a really agressive guard dog that you have to keep on a tight leash at all times or its gonna run off and start maiming people.
I grew up in a Maoist home. My laolao and laoye fought the Americans and said they were protecting the North Korean villagers against them. It's interesting to hear more perspectives on the war. I grew up with a lot of stories of the atrocities of American and also, Japanese soldiers. Despite being a CBC.
It's funny, western media has literally ALWAYS done its utmost to make North Korean soldiers seem like raving lunatics or scared lost children unsure of why they're fighting. It never presents them as having any spine, or any good reason for why they fight. I would love to see north and south Korean veterans interviewed together.
Honestly, the majority of Communist revolutions in Asian countries can be directly linked to Japan's actions during World War II, but after the war, America supported Japan because they were a "capitalist" nation and didn't punish them nearly as much as they did the Nazis even though Japan was the root cause of the majority of wars America fought for the next thirty years or so.
@Dylan Rodrigues Was? Well yes, it was, but also it is doing that right now too. PRC is giving massive loans to African countries in exchange for basically owning all their infrastructure that is built by Chinese companies. They are making a killing. Not only do they buy influence over those countries by making them indebted to PRC, the money they give goes straight back to their own companies, who then also profit from charging the locals for services. The money was a loan, with low interest, but still, with interest, so that is profit too. And they can spy on the country through their companies. The countries take the loans both because of bribes and because they also need to compete in the global economy somehow... Western countries might have done similar stuff before, but they are playing catch-up right now. (and the small countries still get fucked regardless of who is doing it)
“If enough fools stand up…” history is driven by loads of fools striving for impossible causes. Literally nothing happens without it. Great man theory be damned.
It was very ironic how the guards specifically emphasized that they were creating a fair game where everyone had an equal opportunity to win (to the point of making an example out of 'cheaters') when in fact they were setting up incredibly unfair games by withholding information and creating an unbalanced playing field where victory depended entirely on the cards you just happened to be dealt. In fact, they specifically had a guy do what all the self-help gurus tell you to do - take control of your own fate - and the fact that he took control directly caused his death because he went first in the bridge game. It's laughing in the face of the narrative that you too can be rich if you just try hard enough.
Not sure about you, OP, but, from what I've been seeing,I have a feeling most people mean "unequal" instead of "unfair." The hosts withheld info but this impacted all of the players, thus fair. However, the games are set up to be unequal as some may have prior experience that gives them a leg up, a la honeycomb, or just dumb luck of the draw, a la bridge. Everyone had equal opportunity to get the right number so it's still fair but designed to be unequal once the numbers have been selected.
@@slin2678 Not really, there was someone playing with them that not only knew everything about the games but also did not die when he lost. So basically it was not fair either because they were not playing by the same rules.
Another point to “the games are unfair,” consider the bridge game nearer to the end. One of the players had knowledge that he was using to benefit all four players, so they were still on equal ground. However, the VIPs got bored/offended/whatever that they weren’t fighting or narrowing down the player count, so they killed the lights. This is unfair to the survivability of the remaining four players. And it’s not about “re-instating equality,” because the glassmaker was helping them already; he wasn’t leveraging his knowledge to disadvantage anyone else behind him.
8:52 wait, people really thought that made no sense for Gi-hun's character? I thought that was really good characterization. The whole show demonstrated that trauma and threats make him try to escape, take the easiest option, and try to get everything to stop. "This fucking sucks, I need to stop" is a very Gi-hun thing to do.
That Vice documentary awhile back I saw about people straightening their teeth and "westernizing" their eyes just to become more hirable to employers sorta exposed to me how South Korea may actually have more going on below the surface than US news would have us know. Just sorta something that seems more relevant I'm recalling now.
If your perception of the world is as black and white as “communism = hell, capitalism = heaven, disagree and you’re the enemy”, then I quote Master Obi-Wan Kenobi: “Only a Sith deals in absolutes.”
@@evilbob840 True, but “deal” is the key word. Obi-Wan is trying to convey the idea that Anakin’s ideology is extremist absolutism of “I’m right, you’re wrong.” Obi-Wan’s perception of a true Jedi is one who is open minded enough *not* to “deal” in absolutism, but to try to see the good (or evil) in anyone simultaneously. I think the Clone Wars show actually did a good job with this.
Quoting Star Wars like some kind of pinnacle of philosophy is the definition of cringe. And you didn't even get it right. Obi Wan Kenobi wasn't right in that scene you're quoting. He was wrong. "Only a Sith deals in absolutes" is literally an absolute statement delivered by a non Sith. This was the final nail in the coffin of the Jedi, making their hypocricy and self-righteousness obvious to everyone. Everyone except you apparently.
@@snakeseyes-uroborodjinn5159 You seem very judgmental. “Definition of cringe”? That is very absolute, isn’t it? “Obvious to everyone but me”? You seem to be ignorant of how people can interpret things differently. Your narrow frame of mind is not the end-all, be-all judge on how others should think and perceive things. And what is obvious is only obvious in hindsight.
The fact that they installed a giant replica of the doll from the first game on the Sydney Harbour already kind of makes the popularity of the show lose its original intention and meaning. We're kind of losing sight of what the show was talking about, and it honestly feels like capitalism has basically swallowed what should be a thought provoking show.
It's also no coincidence that Gi-hun dyed his hair red after winning, on top of him being part of a labour strike and the overt anti-capitalist message of the show.
I (respectfully!) disagree. I read Gi-hun's hair change as a rejection of societal norms. It's unprofessional in a country where your job title is part of how you are addressed in everyday conversation even by people who don't work with you. And it's not something he would have ever done before Squid Game or the revelation about Il-nam. I think it is red just because it's an extreme colour and reflects his rage. I don't think his rejection of society is necessarily aligning himself with communism. That's just what I think though! I responded because I think the hair is super interesting and your comment made me think :)
i actually saw one of the people who worked on the show (not sure where to find it so take with a grain of salt) say that red/pink in the show was used to symbolize power (hence the masked soldiers' uniforms), and that gihun dyeing his hair red represented him gaining/taking back power!
I thought he dyed it to symbolise the blood of the other players who died. since he's now using the money that cost their lives, and he didn't want to forget it. but your theories are much cooler
iirc the director confirmed in an interview that it symbolises gihun's inner rage coming out. he also said it was something crazy gihun would never do normally, probably to represent the change in his character
Even though the director is clearly writing an anti capitalist story, the details are still subtle enough that it creates room for people to discuss and discover more things about the show and thus the overal theme. That's really cool. Thanks for the great video!
@@MohamedRamadan-qi4hl that’s probably because you don’t know what communism is. i suggest researching more on this topic (from actual progressive sources, not capitalist propaganda)
@@save_bandit Communism requires a all powerful government to safe guard and over see so to say the reforms and the revolution {if one has happened} after which that all powerful government is going to simply go away in favor of a true communist society all of this is according to marx as you see it doesn't happen like that
@@MohamedRamadan-qi4hl communism requires a government? lol a self-report right there. just google the thing man, it’s not that hard to learn new concepts.
There are many layers in Squid Game, I saw a video with Korean Language Professor Joowon Suh explained every detail about how some characters spoke or other details wich you can't understand if you don't speak korean. It was insightful, because I learned I have missed a LOT. This show is really well done.
12:00 THANK YOU!! I keep reminding everyone how Gangnam Style, although it was a meme, in its core was a product of korean mass investiment on the media industries. And so much good stuff has come out of it. Movies, tv series, even K-Pop started to become even more popular after gangnam style. It was definetely a game-changer for korean entertainment. And a lot of people forget about the part that it was a parody of a wealthy neighbourhood
The most terrifying and offensive example of Netflix parodying itself that I've seen is their youtube community post of Gi-hoon and Il-nam smiling at each other in the marble game with the caption "It's Friyayyyy" 🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃 Oh No 🙃🙃🙃
The marble game is a really good game for showing the different win conditions that the players just didn’t think of. As far as I’m aware they didn’t set a rule to say you need to have any of your own marbles by the end of the game, and so just swapping was a totally viable option.
I couldn’t help but think about the Japanese show “Alice in Borderland” which is a similar concept except the games all (usually) have a trick to win that the protagonist needs to figure out before the time runs out. I kept thinking about ways for everyone to make it through the games. For the Marbles one, I kept thinking that it’s just about how many marbles are “won” by each player, so if you win 10 marbles and then subsequently lose to your partner you both “won” a game, just one after the other. I dunno, crazy to think about.
I watched this show with Chinese subtitles (which were probably more accurate than English), and if I remember correctly they said that you needed to have ten more marbles than your partner, so this trick wouldn't have worked but that's just me nitpicking XD
I've actually liked gihun from the start bc I saw myself in him, or rather what can become of me. I relate to his feelings of trying his best but still failing miserably. And having an addiction is not a choice, the system literally sets us up for failure. Most people don't become addicted to something(like gambling or even smoking, doing drugs) because it's fun. It's some form of a coping mechanism. I, for example, started smoking because of extreme stress I experienced, and though I'm not addicted yet, I might become. Still, it provides some sort of stress relief, even if it might destroy my health later. So I was actually kinda annoyed when people were shitting on Gihun. I don't understand making a villain out of Sangwoo either. Although he became a bad person, scamming people for money and all that, he also was set up by the system. He knew how it worked and followed it bc he thought it was the only way. And the expectations from friends and family must've been hard for him too. He needed to be succesful and so he fell in the trap of capitalism. And what he did to Ali was really sad, but most of us would've done the same in this kind of scenario. It's obvious Sangwoo isn't rotten to the core because after the first game he even gave Ali money for the bus without wanting anything in return. Edit: also love the vid. 🙏 I really appreciate you pointing out that north korea isn't necessarily a villain too. And that communism isn't what most people think it is.
Although the children's games might be a representation of lost inocence and "infantilitation" of the players, I read in an interview that the director loves Battle royale and staff, but figuring out the rules could be distracting so he went straight to something simple for the challenges, children's games.
I grew up in Korea in the 90s and 2000s and I remember being terrified of these loan sharks as a child. These loan sharks are so foul I've heard stories of them even harassing children of parents with debt. When my alcoholic father started to have money problems I started to have nightmare of loan sharks doing horrible things to my family because of how notorious they were in Korea. As a child I didn't understand all the money part but I did understand my silly dad owed people money and someone might come and harm him or our family. I related a lot to Gi-Hoon's little daughter and cried my eyes out watching Squid Game. Thank you for doing such a thorough research on the source materials.
I'm from the US (California) and only heard of the Korean war in eighth grade when I saw the (very moving) memorial in DC. It's the only war out of the 6 US involved wars where the draft was used that I didn't know anything about. Watching this show and seeing the responses to it actually got me to learn more about the history between the US and Korea. Between the war memorial and now this show, I can say that art can be both a passive reflection of society and an active influence over those that see it. Change is happening and more is on the way.
You guys should review "Silenced," a Korean film released in 2011 directed by the same director who created Squid Game. Where it is based on true events that took place at Gwangju Inhwa School for the hearing-impaired, where young deaf students were the victims of repeated sexual assaults by faculty members over a period of five years in the early 2000s. It is a very emotional film, I highly would recommend it.
There was actually an interview with a girl and her mother who escaped North Korea. It was so rough living as a pauper in SK, that the daughter was planning to return to NK. So that silence about which was better wasn't just hype. South Korea and Japan are both horrible for/to the poor, at pretty much the extreme of capitalism and corporate tyranny, so you see this theme a lot in Korean and Japanese media.
Can we appreciate the moment of serene calm Xiran has for the first few seconds of each video, before they destroy us with facts and logic. This is the energy we need. 🙌🏼
YES to what you said about Gi-hun! As a screenwriter myself, I've tried to tell people how his charachter is so well written and how his actions throughout the series is both a natural development whithin the circumstanes and still very much true to everything we know about this charachter, but most people I've talked to are just determined to hate him.
Ngl, as someone who just got out of college and is living in his parent’s home with only a vague plan for the future, I related to Gi Hun hard and really liked his character from the beginning, thinking “wow what a relatable protagonist” And then he mentioned that he was part of an intense labor strike, to which I thought “Damn, I’ll never be that cool” 😂
What i like about squid game is that it’s not actually dystopian it’s a reflection of now and what people now experience and would go through to get a hint of success in capitalism
It's good to specify that it was not US soldiers doing the massacres, but the US-backed South Korean government of Syngman Rhee. Ultimately the result is the same with all these anti-Communist crackdowns in South Korea leading to the same deaths and trauma, but yeah. The Cold War was a pretty crappy time to live in, honestly. Each side considering the other an existential threat made any tactic seem worthwhile. The US had a lot of allies like Syngman Rhee in the "He's a bastard but he's our bastard" policy and they were all considered worth it if they looked sufficiently anti-Communist.
and to be clear the massacres and brutal repression of labor movements continued under Rhee's successors Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan, with tacit US approval of the Gwangju massacre in 1980 as the most egregious example.
This is standard US procedure. Phase 1: Use media and pressure on private entities to funnel money into anti-left politics in foreign nation. Phase 2: "US Aid" to foreign government bribing support from "Pro-American" (read, anti-left) local politician in building policy friendly to US capitalist interests. Phase 3: Covertly funnel resources (money, weapons, etc as situation escalates) to local right-wing movements (if leftist gov) or political entities (like police; if rightist gov needing to suppress left movements). This phase is where US was at with SK. As the multitude of South American nations. This is the US backed coup phase. Phase 4: Open invasion to remove a nations government and installation of pro-US "democracy"; the hard imperialism phase. We rarely get to this phase as phase 3 is typically successful. This is what US did in Korea. Its related to US activity in Vietnam. Its the pattern is all of US involvement in South America. Its the US backed massacres in Indonesia. Its the aim of gov entities like US Aid, and even multinational western outfits like the IMF and OAS. And its desperately important than western leftists understand all this, esp in the US, as these tactics are now in open use by the US gov against its own citizens; see the entire Trump administration. The stoking of right-wing militia groups to violence against leftists places US gov firmly in phase 3 against its own citizens. You know, the phase that typically does the job.
@@cjohnson3836 Your point about South America is so right for Brazil! US implemented those phases at my country in the 60's. At that time we had some excellent political studies and some Marxist groups even more developed that Europe. Of course we never had any risk of becoming communist at that time, but we had a president that wanted to make great reforms and a super strong labor force since the 30's It was too much to USA, so they started their interventions phase after phase untill the military coup in 1964. During all the military years we turned into a US puppet with privatizations and terrible consequences to our own economy/society just to favor the big multinational groups... Fight and blood was used to recover our democracy and we finally managed to have a leftist govern again in 2003 untill around 2016. Then, unironically, we had a parliamentary coup, that favored the capital (again) but this time, with the neoliberalism ruined worldwide, we ended up with a far-right and a openly Trump supporter president :( The country is a mess with everything going down but we still have a mass of enraged white people that support capitalism and claim that "squid game criticized communism"... Another "funny" point is that here they even changed the name of "Squid game". It's called "Round 6" because the Portuguese word for "Squid" is "Lula", the nickname of a leftist president that they don't wanna mention...
@@nonsense_vacilona Lula is an amazing leader. North American leftist movements have much to learn from the Southern counterparts. The exploitation of the south goes back to the colonial period. Bolivar, through mutual friendship with Prussian scientist von Humboldt, pleaded for aid from the Jefferson administration. Jefferson refused, not wanting to have a western hemisphere competitor to the young USA. How different would history be if, in those early moments, they could have set the seeds for some measure Pan-American unity?
@@cjohnson3836 Yeah, we could have some achievements worldwide if we managed to reach some integration back then. Sadly, our worker's movement slowed down recently and even the Mercosul couldn't grow fully befere the power shift here... Right now Brazil is isolated since our president is a international joke, but Lula may be able to come back in 2022 elections, so maybe in the future we can hope for a new left movement gaining force here and, if we're lucky, reaching other countries in America. You are in USA, right? Hope your minorities are also being reorganized after Trump left his seat...
That they choose to have one chinese VIP is a huge thing! Before this, no korean series would show china in any negative view. Also funny how fast it got banned and how popular it is to get it illegally in china.
I never did like how in the US we're taught to view capitalism as a perfect system where the only people that suffer are those that deserve it. No country is purely capitalistic, least of all our own, and I'd love to see how people get on without school, roads, medicine, trash pick-up, a functioning electric grid, subsidized farms, and human rights. You need to take the best parts from each system and do your best to mitigate the worst parts, not blindly worship one system and ignore all its flaws.
You were taught that? Where? I grew being taught to find a trade and to find your way. A blacksmith, gunsmith, welder and engineer is useful and needed anywhere and everywhere.
@@trollge419 in the US it's very normal for the school system to brainwash kids into believing the country is perfect the way it is and teachers have been fired for saying otherwise. We literally pledge to the freaking flag, for some reason we are obsessed with worshipping capitalism and the poorest of the poor will continue worshipping it
@@mumenRhyder Not to mention American culture revolves around consumption. The message given to Americans after 9/11 by the president? Go shopping and support your country in "the fight against terrorism".
I don’t know what you are smoking, but the US teaches that Capitalism while not the best, it is way better then communism, and socialism. I keep seeing comments that we are brainwashed, but look at history. Ever time communism was tried it became a dictatorship not within decades but within years. If Cuba was so great why are people fleeing it. Yes, capitalism has its issues but going to a systems that fails over and over at cost of millions of lives maybe we should look for a alternative.
Wow, I finished the show recently, and i have read 2 articles on US sites about "Things/References you missed in Squid Game" and neither of them mentioned Gi-Hun's strike inspiration, the critique of capitalism or anything like that, like wow. Thank you so much for this video.
Something that got me early on was when the manager responded to someone saying that they were killing people by saying that "No, they were eliminated.", they really wanted to sanitize it.
I love how you brought in historical and cultural context to the analysis. You're the first reviewer I've watched who has done so and it's really important to understanding the story.
First time I watched this show, it was blatantly obvious to me that the wealthy Western and Chinese VIPs being entertained by the suffering of Koreans fighting each other was clearly a reference to the Korean war. Also the insistence that everyone has a fair and equal chance seemed like a critique of the "American dream" mentality more so than communism, although I wouldn't be surprised if the creators were also thinking about the pseudo-communist regime in North Korea at the same time. It's possible to be referring to more than one thing simultaneously.
Would you be so kind and explain to me where exactly the show critiques communism, because I don’t understand your perspective at all. I am willing to rewatch any scene you refer me to :)
17:09 I can't believe you left out the fact that it's not just simply the Indonesian gov, it's the ministry of justice and human rights, which makes it 10 times funnier ... and sadder
I admire your bravery. It's really hard to be REALLY critical about capitalism in the internet in the middle of this wild anti-comunism/cultural imperialism era we live in. Perfect video, you're not alone ♥️ big hug from Brazil
This South Korean survival drama has a problem that all countries face in common Every country has a problem of inequality and debt. All countries have the same practical problems. I liked that the hero did not appear like other foreign movies and dramas It was good that there was no national propaganda in this drama
What about office workers with a strict dress code, and uniformed students all living in a capitalist society where food is scarce and rationed due to war or something?
@@MohamedRamadan-qi4hl I already know about the Great Leap Forward. If you care to enlighten me, please deliver your concise points with cited examples for each. It is your argument, after all. Burden of proof goes to you.
Oh god bless you for calling out the spoilers, I wasn't thinking and just clicked on your video 'cause I love all your content. I haven't watched the show yet, you totally saved my hide here. But I'll be back when my partner and I watch it!
Haven't watched this show and I'm not interested, but you could talk about anything and I would listen lol I loved how you explained the tricky system that makes us believe we have a choice when we don't. Reminds me of something my history teacher said to me one time when talking about democracy in Latam: is this really a choice of the people when the options are only big corrupt corporations and small candidates that we know do not stand a chance? Can we really say that we make a choice when there is records of candidates paying poor citizens and using the names of death people to vote for them? If we try to stop them, we are killed, so how can we talk about freedom in that context? It's awful, understanding that there are powerful people above us bending things as they wish, but at the same time we cannot give up because if nobody stands for them first then this will continue. Great video as always Xiran!
Thank you for making this! My mental health is not in the right place to watch this show right now but I really appreciated hearing your dissection of the themes! Wow, this IS an important show!
I waited so long to watch this youtube video 😭😆. First I waited for the hype to die down just enough to enjoy the show, and then I waited until I finished the whole season. I'm only just seeing this commentary and I'm so thankful for your analysis. It's great food for thought and gives sort of an introduction to other subjects I hadn't considered before!
Hi there! It's the Korean again. The song that the girl sings in Red Light green light is not really red light green light. The real Korean is: 무궁화 꽃이 피었습니다 Which I would translate to: The rose of Sharon has blossomed. Very weird for red light green light I know.
my concern with exploring the police more is that the way the director's spoken about the South Korean police (when discussing possible routes for a season 2), he seemed to think that the biggest problem with them is that they're slow to respond. Despite the fact the show explicitly shows their collaboration with capital in crushing the workers' movement in the strike, it portrays the police picking up the homeless guy at the end as him being safe (rather than escaping the immediate threat, but still very much being in danger), and portrays all of Jun-Ho's murders and violence as entirely justified despite the fact he already kills someone before he knows the full horrors of the games with that in mind, I feel like if they do go in that direction in the next season it may end up being rather more copaganda-y than it should
Thank you ! I watched the show very early and felt so frustrated seeing everyone joke about the games and trying to recreate them. I felt like they missed every single point made. Thank you for explaining them back and pointing quite a few I didn't get. We should be angry at the system displayed, not dream of playing the game.
FINALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLY!!!!!!!!!!!! Someone clearly understand the story. DEAR GOD I've seen so many people get the message wrong and be pissed at the ending because it's not a happy ending. Like every single point I want to talk about in terms of the theme of the show is explained here. Now I can rest in relief. The latter bit about the US engagement in Korean politic is a bit overblown but I'll take all the win I can get at this point.
I absolutely LOVED the ending. The writers nailed every choice to make sure the message came accross and that it stayed true to Gi-hun and the rest of the character's motivations. Gi-hun teaming up with the old man, refusing to win, wanting to end the game, Sang-woo seeing no option but killing himself, Gi-hun choosing not to use the money until he got some answers, and in the end wanting to take them down. The writers didn't give us the fantastical ending we wanted, but the truest and most thought provoking ending we needed.
'It's both hopeful and hopeless' 👏🏽 great review, alot of other reviews I've seen talk of the TV, story elements (sensationalism) without the context and overarching themes and critical analysis. Thank you for the links you provided 🙏🏽
I can't help but see the similarities between Squid Game and Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor. It's really interesting to see where they are similar and different. It probably has cultural significance, but I'm not as aware as I'd like to be about cultures other than mine, I just enjoy leaning, and seeing what I can observe through media.
very interesting. I didn't know that gihun's backstory was actually a real life event. every time I watch your video I feel like my intelligence goes up by 10%. I've always wanted to leave a comment but I'm scared cause of my english (even though it's decent) and also smort people scare me. with that, thank you for another amazing video
"There is no such thing as a labour shortage" THANK YOU. I've been working in education and labour policy for years, it's insane how constantly the lie of "Labour Shortages" gets repeated. A "labour shortage" literally just means workers starting to gain negotiating power over employers. It literally CANNOT exist, except in reference to what a central authority thinks "Labour" should be earning.
Goddamn, some of you have been drinking that Red Scare propaganda juice 😒I wasn't "shilling" for North Korea, I was pointing out that the current situation of the Koreas is not as simple as "North Korea is poor because communism makes a country poor and South Korea is prosperous because capitalism makes a country prosperous." At no point did I say North Korea is BETTER, only that Squid Game's message is that a capitalist society may seem glamorous, but it comes with its own dark problems that need to be addressed. Speaking up against capitalism does NOT equal calling for an instantaneous installation of communism. It's not one or the other. We don't have to live like this. We can call for more worker's rights, job benefits, social security, universal health coverage and more without having things suddenly turning into gulags and mass famines. And we SHOULD speak up and protest. It's 2021 and the drastic income inequalities all over the world are right there for you to see, and yet you want to keep going like "oh well, this is the best it gets"? Please.
PS. If you like my steamed bun earrings, I got them from the indie store Studio Thebe! studiothebe.bigcartel.com/ Support indie businesses! 🥺✊
I would want them but uh
I don’t even have my ears pierced
Ahhhh Xiran I'm so proud of you! I'm so happy about your recent book success, and am always so happy to see your new vids. Keep it up my dude 💖💖💖
Mmmm, yum
Hey Xiran, are you ever going to cover Kung Fu Panda 2 & 3 on your Channel? As well as Wish Dragon?
I have that dress~
Makes me think about how the moment a glassmaker started using his skills to help everyone, the VIPs "evened things out" again. As though a factory worker using his practical knowledge is somehow an "advantage" from their cushy perspective.
Exactly! Everyone has their own unique skills. The Deok-Su's tug of war team won from strength, but nothing was changed in that. I don't believe that was even about equality. The VIPs were upset, so the rules were changed to please them
It's definitely a commentary on how the elite figuratively move the goalposts in their favor.
@@leamonty2992 Nothing was fair in the game.
@@arcturionblade1077 Like with covid? But lefties seem to love that tho
@@mrmr4622 Do you mean fuckin studies and research and science discovering NEW things about a NEW disease to try and keep us all safe? Yes - we do love that lol And we hate capitalism ✌🏾
What's even more wild about the "labour shortage" is some politicians decided the solution was making it legal for 14 year olds to work past midnight. They're so entrenched in the current system they'll try to exploit child labour before trying to make anything better.
they were like hmm should we pay people good wages? or exploit children. Exploit children it is.
Even people who like capitalism in theory have to recognize that its current crop of advocates suck in practice.
Next thing they're gonna ban abortion and limit contraception, so poor families will end up having more and more poor children who will have no choice but to work, just to survive and feed their younger siblings......
Oh wait, that's already happening. Women (who are rich enough) are already travelling to different states and countries to get abortion. And 14-year-olds around the world are already working to feed their younger siblings.
Great. Who needs to read dystopia novels when we're already living in it.
One the one hand, we could pay people a decent wage so they are willing to work for us.
One the other hand, child labor.
i've said it before i'll say it again; cyberpunk fiction is better than our current reality.
we are just as dystopic as all but the most extreme cyberpunk fiction but we lack the technological advancements and the escape from poverty through unorthodox means. in Shadowrun or Cyberpunk even someone with absolutely no advantages in life (someone to teach hacking/magic/engerneering/other-black-market-skill or spirits or a hook up for tech/drugs/whatever) could just hurt or kill some people (who probably deserve it even!) for money then use a deepdive VR system to escape hell until they need to pay for food again, and someone with some small advantage could probably do something far less violent for the same escape. in real life there is no easy escape and stepping too far out of line will get you thrown in jail or put into a worse financial situation than when you started.
I vividly remember showing this to my mom after finishing the series, and when we got to episode three, she cried out: “But that’s not fair! They all got different shapes.” I explained to her the differing shapes were a metaphor for capitalism, hence episode titles like “A Fair World.” While every player is given a different shape, each one varying in levels of difficulty, they are expected to complete the same task in the same amount of time.
Fairness is fundamentally unachievable, because humans arent born equal, and I dont mean rich or poor, black or white, I mean everyone has different physical and mental capacities thus we're all unequal.
@@mrmr4622 A true equality may be unattainable, but we can, and should, take that into account and give assistance to people who need it to make life more equitable.
@@logic_error ah, equity, of course this word would come up.. You mean that equity that openly discriminates against Asians trying to get into university? The equity that says you need to hire a woman based on quota even if she might be less qualified for the job? Yeah, all of that sounds very fair. What's next, gonna hire a blind guy as a surgeon?
@@mrmr4622 First of all you don't seem to know what the word means. Secondly, if a blind guy somehow finishes medschool and passes his exams to the point he's able to become a surgeon, then absolutely I'd want to hire him.
@@mrmr4622 $50 says this is the only context in which you give a shit about the plight of Asians
FINALLY someone who actually researched Korean history and current contexts. The Western perspectives and lenses were getting really exhausting but they were all that dominated UA-cam and other analyses of Squid Game. I've also been really annoyed by how everyone kept losing the point by making videos on "how to beat the squid game" (no you can't, the system is rigged) or make moral judgements of the players debating "who deserves to win the most".
You also captured the false democracy of the games, the casual cruelty by justifying violence thru their coerced "consent", and finally Korea's colonial and authoritarian history. This is just brilliant.
Sorry but the series did show democracy right 51 percent get to inforce there descions on the other 49 percent
@@MohamedRamadan-qi4hl it's a false democracy because it was a forced decision. Ultimately most of the players came back because they had no other choice. And something tells me the ones that didn't go back died.
@@rachael4345 iirc the front man instructed his goons to just keep tabs on those who leave. But yeah, things look pretty grim nonetheless
@@rachael4345 Somewhat an illusion of choice then? The people don't really have a choice because of lifestyle and/or environmental factors
I feel the same way. It's been frustrating to see all these takes on the show that don't really account for context and don't seem to realize that Gi-Hun's victory was completely hollow, a fact that the character knows.
You know, I found it weird that the Old man/Ilnam said he has a friend in Yeouido (when Gihun met him outside the convenience store). Thats because Yeouido is like South Korea's version of Manhattan, aka the financial district.
OH SNAP THE FORESHADOWING
Financial district + the HQs of several broadcasting stations and, you know, the NATIONAL ASSEMBLY. So yeah, having a friend in Yeouido is having an important friend one way or another. Very good point you make
MINDBLOWN
Agreed, at the point about people raging against Gi-hun wanting to end the game there. He's saying no to being a puppet, even at that point it's not too late to say "screw your fun at my expense". In a show about themes and allegory, viewers need to understand that they are the VIPs.
You may not benefit financially from it, but you gain entertainment from the character's suffering. If Gi-hun had actually forfeited with Sang Woo, like the VIPs you too would be denied the satisfaction of an ending. His rebellion would've been successful.
I-
Really good point. Seems like we forgot that despite the messages, we forgot about the story as entertainment too.
Not really. We know that they're not really being hurt and that it's all for show. All the actors went home to their nice homes at the end of the day, if they were truly suffering, than yes, but these people are being paid to read lines off a script for money. Let's not mix fiction and reality here.
Vips are integrated into the show as a direct cause of the characters suffering. The audience is merely watching actors on a screen pretend to be hurt. By your logic, the director and the writer would be more like VIPS because they're "making" these characters suffer. Unlike VIPS also, no one has a say on who dies or not, these actions already happened long before the audience came into the picture and we're merely watching a scripted replay. The VIPS are bad people because they're playing with actual human lives in the context of the story, the audience is paying 8.99 a month to watch people being paid to fake everything and go home safely afterwards, knowing that these people aren't actually going to be effected physically. There's a stark difference. We know they're ok. The VIPS don't and don't care. If Squid Game was a reality TV show, then yes, we'd be more equated to VIPS, but as things are, it's not a reality TV show and we are not. This is kinda flawed take.
@@MahouShoujo-Studios That's a good point that even translates to the show! We say it's okay because it's not real. In the same way, how real are the contestants to the entitled VIPs? They're also just watching people die theough a screen.
@@applzd We're saying it's not real because ALL of the actors are ok, getting paid, and having a good time off set. These people were actors before in different shows and movies, and are all still alive. No one actually died while filming Squid Game.
The VIPS want people to die because it's entertaining. They couldn't care less, regardless of how real it is. Basically, all of the deaths were faked and no one got hurt, and WE as the audience know that no one actually died. The VIPS don't care who actually dies or not. This is fiction to us, and fiction is entertaining. These people aren't dead, and that's why it's entertaining, no one is actually effected. If this, again, was reality TV, then yes, it would be more comparable. But fiction has no affect on reality, hence why it's called fiction. Do we "cry" when these "characters" die? Yes, because we're invested. Are we suprised to see these actors alive in other places, however? No, because we know these people didn't actually die. Heck, the VIPS themselves are also actors and aren't actually rooting for people to get hurt because it's not real.
Was I sad when Will Smith died in I Am Legend? Yes. Was I suprised to see him in the Aladdin remake, however? No, because I can separate fiction from reality. That's the reason why we get entertainment from fiction: we know no one is getting hurt. It's like saying that we're murderers for playing call of duty, or that we're evil for watching game of thrones when the entire point is that none of this is real, so we don't have to worry about morality issues. That's usually why we tell little kids that horror movies aren't real. At the end of the day, all of these actors are doing even better than we are in life.
Thank you so much for elaborating on how the "consent" in the game is actually not real consent. Having watched this show and the hype around it, I find not nearly enough people understood this part.
@@sarahwheat7094 how could someone miss such an obvious message one of the characters LITERALLY says something along the lines of "its not much better out there than it is in here"
Have you ever heard of The Coconut Analogy?
That's what happens when people are so immersed in a capitalist world view that they can't see past it.
Yeah I feel like if they're not already looking at it from a mildly leftist perspective, it flies over lots of people's heads despite how painfully obvious it was in showing how miserable they were (gihun's mom in the hospital with outrageous bills and practically about to die without care because they can't afford it, ali's boss hoarding money while he can't do much since he's so otherized by Korean society, etc)
@@sarahwheat7094 I think that might only be partially true mat pat did a video that explains it better that I could but the Guard said something along the lines of any players who complete the games gets a cash reward in the main character was allowed to bring something from the previous game
I’ve found it very interesting how wealthy people have interpreted the show. They see the characters as “greedy” rather than desperate because these people have never experienced this desperation. They think it’s a story about human greed rather than a critique on capitalism.
its the same mental gymnastics they went thru when parasite came out lol these ppl are so out of touch its fucking crazy
Exept it is there stupidity that got them there
@@MohamedRamadan-qi4hl Except it isn't, the entire system is shit.
@@MohamedRamadan-qi4hl Sometimes it's their stupidity, sometimes it's bad luck, sometimes its a combination of various factors, regardless they all suffer the same.
@@shadenox8164 people made billions in that system despite being mid class or even lower
Sang-Woo's actions always makes perfect sense in context of his character.
He's the smart character, whos always think ahead and know what to do, have every situations planned out.
He figured out how to beat the hide and seek doll by hiding behind players
He was the 1st to evoke the rule to vote and stop the game, then decided to go against it because he knows there's nothing for him out in the real world, in here he has a chance.
He doesn't disclosed the information he gets in the honey comb game because he wants as much people eliminated as possible for a bigger prize, also if his entire team knows about the game will make it suspicious and mark a target on their back.
Outside in the real world, he's kind and gives Ali money & helps because he has nothing to loose anymore, when given the chance, he still hesitate, teach Ali how to play, stalling till the last moment until the pressure caves in that forces him to betrayed Ali's.
He refused Gi-Hun's proposal to pause the game because they both made a promise to take care of the other's mom if one of them walks out of there alives. He knows the type of person Gi-Hun is, he even tells Gi-Hun that, he knows Gi-Hun will held up his ends of the promise no matter what, so in the end, his goal has already been acomplished, it's just the matter of who walks out alive. When he can't beat Gi-Hun and Gi-Hun refused to kill him, he did the only thing that was logical, refused to let either one of them walk out empty handed after all they've gone through, ensureing his mother get the money at all cost.
He still is a horible person but it's not by his nature, it's by the twisted environment that forces him to become. Ultimately, he just wants his mother to be taken care off and in the end, when there's only him and his childhood friend left, he has already won the game.
Agreed. I see Sang-Woo as the Shane character from The Walking Dead. Also the unscrupulous and ruthless best friend who has different idealogiies from our main hero character and betrays him but in the end, still kinda sorta wins because his family is still taken care by the survivor.
I'm confused how you can write all that but still say he is a horrible person.
@@InBedwithaBL Because nothing i said justified his actions.
At the end of the day he still let his friends go in blind in the candy games and almost got them killed.
He still refused to help others that is not important for his goal.
He still choosed to cheat and betrayed Ali after knowing his story, knowing how must Ali trusted him.
He still pushed that guy off the glass and killed Kang Sae-byeok with his own hands.
The motive doesn't justified the horible actions.
Sang Woo was also a white collar criminal. He was already prepared to exploit others fro his own benefit.
@@lordheadass8310 none of those were cheating though.
He just played the game to survive just like every other character.
all other main characters did that were not by the books as well to survive.
the editing was to make him look more devious, but his actions were in line with just about every other character.
your candy game statement rang true, also he wasn't 100% the girl he just met wasn't lying.
If he didn't trick Ali (not against the rules) he would die.
if he didn't push the man (not against the rules) he would die.
in the context of the situation he was in, nothing was abnormally horrid. ya know?
Americans aren't well-educated about non-capitalist systems on purpose.
I've spoken with teachers and college professors who are...discouraged...from discussing those topics in any sort of depth.
Americans are so brainwashed to the propaganda that's been shoved down our throats, that if you even bring up the idea of Universal Health Care your an insane communist who wants gulags and famine to them immediately. It's disappointing.
@Mckenzie Hyde and replace the system with what? Marxism?
Well my friend whos father served in wars of the 90's in Bosnia is pretty adamant that Communism is a no go.
@@MohamedRamadan-qi4hl You make it sound like we only have two kinds of systems. That is extremely narrowminded. Why should we bow down to the oppression of either a capitalist or communist regime, when we could ask for something better? These talks and even conflicts on ideologies & economic systems have existed for a very long time, so isn't it the least bit suspicious that a hypothetical third option hasn't become mainstream? That sounds like a status quo problem that needs to be fixed.
Other systems can and do exist, but it takes quite a lot of support to get them implemented... while also fighting the existing systems. FYI, I can already name 4 main types of systems: traditional, market, command, and mixed. The world isn't as black and white as you make it seem.
@@TrueMentorGuidingMoonlight sorry but I found the absolute hatred that is displayed against capitalism to be against your own argument because you are portraying competive free market as some absolutel evil despite the fact that countries with the highest quality of living are captlisit including the Nordic model
It's also extremely important that you pointed out both the fact that the game hosts constantly withheld vital information, and even changed game parameters in the middle of the glass tile game when one of the players discovered an exploit. The rich are literally rigging the game to have the outcome they want, and this applies to the real world, too.
And they say it's for fairness, but it would have only been unfair if the glassworker kept his knowledge to himself. Then having the glass explode afterward and mortally wound Sae-byeok made it even clearer that fairness didn't exist.
There's also Ali, who shows how capitalism exploits those living at the margins of society, in particular immigrants from developing countries. They are also trapped in their situations because they are not originally from this country, and don't have the knowledge, means, resources, and sometimes even language to stand up for themselves and their rights. They may not want to rock the boat because they feel like they have been given an opportunity in their new country and don't want that to be taken away. And if they do stand up for themselves, they are lied to and continue to be taken advantage of.
edit: and also from a narrative standpoint, he was the first of the main characters to be killed.
I think I read somewhere too that Ali specifically represents undocumented immigrants, who often end up being forced to take abuse from the companies they work for because legally, they can't fight back nor make a formal complaint. This also makes sense why he trusted Sangwoo so much, Sangwoo helped him with no questions asked (giving money for a bus, letting him use his phone, halving the corn) and was pretty humble about it.
As an immigrant in EU in search of a job I concur. My situation could be much worse; I'm lucky to be a skilled specialist with higher education, nevertheless I feel the disparity quite keenly.
I have said those things to many westerners who complained about Ali’s “racist portrayal” and they just told me I didn’t know what I was talking about when I literally come from an Asian country famous for exploiting migrant workers in the same way lol. Americans especially are too obsessed with the idea of a perfect minority representation.
He’s also Indian, which also adds onto his oppression in an East Asian country, particular Korea here. Like colorism, Xenophobia, classism, etc.
@@smlj42069 Your racism is coming out and the way you’re saying “Americans”, as if your people aren’t the most racist on the planet is hilarious. 💀😭 Delusional af and dumb af.
'There is no such a thing as labor shortage, only bossess unwilling to give better jobs'
HONESTLY. This might be really your best video so far only because it's so damn relevant for everyone around the globe right now. I too believe that things are changing and I HOPE not for the worse. We gotta stick together and see who the real villains are.
Honestly no one was talking abt the significance of the factory protest and how it severely impacted the Korean working class (hence justified gi hun's ptsd & lack of motivation to work). Initially I was not into gi-hun's story arch until this revelation abt his ptsd. I'm glad you opened my eyes about the history and reality of working class in Korea.
Yes I can say after seeing his flash back changed how I perceived the character
@@ancho3995 Gi-hun got laid off in 2011, two years after the strike. He was not part of the core group of strikers.
The strike impacted a few thousand workers. How did it "severely impact" the working class?? SsangYong Motors was going out of business. In the same year, five automobile companies in the US went out of business. In fact, 90% of the auto companies went bankrupt. The only reason they're still in business is the government bailed them out. The economic crash of 2008 that started in the US had a global impact.
@@CodyCha the few thousands of korean workers that got laid off are part of the working class. It shows how little power/agency and social security the working class have when businesses and the economy go south. The companies got bailed out but the workers are treated like thugs/outlaws, they are left to fend for themselves.
@@coffeemug3009 it's called life. In an economic downturn, you get laid off as an employee. Businesses go bankrupt. If a company is bailed out, employees will still have jobs.
Xiran: “Watch the show before watching this video”
Me: *Not caring about spoilers because spoilers don’t affect me*
I'm too scared to watch the show (I'm bad with gore and stuff) so I'm not caring about spoilers
Same here
@@mattybrunolucaszeneresalas9072 I was actually surprised by how much it managed to surprise me.
Same - I’m the sort who looks at the last page of a book before reading it lol
Also yeah I hate that it has so much death in it so I probably won’t watch
The single most powerful moment in the show, for me, was in the finale episode when Il-nam and Gi-hun are watching the homeless man lying unconscious on the street and taking bets on whether or not someone will help him. Because in that moment, unwittingly, Gi-hun had become a sort of VIP alongside Il-nam, playing a little miniature Squid Game of their own with a "player" of one- the homeless man. All Gi-hun had to do was walk out of there, go down and help the man himself. It would be easy for him to do now. But with a few short words, he got sucked into seeing the man as a game piece instead of a person, even as he yelled at Il-nam for the doing the exact same thing to himself and the other players of the Squid Game. It's a harrowing and poetic reminder just how EASY it is to get lulled into the traps of capitalism and just general numbness to the harm it causes.
I was struck at the way that the players seemed to be diverse (about half-and-half male/female, people of differing ages and backgrounds) but the finalists became more and more dominated by young male South Koreans based on the supposedly fair game choices.
Wtf are you on about xD its set in Korea so guess what, moat of them are Korean. Plus its stated a lot of times that the males had a lot of advantages in some of those games. Tug of war? The brawls at night come on dude use your brain.
If I recall correctly it wasn't really 50/50, they were mostly male.
Also, of course it got dominated by South Koreans, the only non-Korean player is Ali.
@@Thaumaturge2251 That's literally what they're talking about, the games weren't fair.
@@Thaumaturge2251 Yikes, you were so close to realizing the comment's intent, and yet so far.
of course young people are going to win out, that is just life, even without that the elders wouldve died naturally, and when squid game gives little room for wits unlike life, what can you do?
I loved the way show handled the inherent misogyny. Never saw anyone comment on that. Gi-hun notoriously a few times says that maybe there will be "girl games" and having women in team will be useful, but it's never that way. Even more, some of the games were likely never played by most girls and in a quite few of them men obviously have the upper hand. Average woman would have no way to win against an average man in this game. I don't think game was built with a way for a woman to win it in mind - just like our patriachal society. Women can compete, but factually there's little chance they will win in the given system.
This!!
+
^ This.
That's another way that I noticed it wasn't really fair though they kept claiming it was supposed to be. That and how they incited them to riot and take out the weaker players the night before the rope game. A lot of women, elderly, or younger people would probably be seen as the weak.
We also see through the women in the show (but especially Minyeo) the only/best ways women can survive. She uses her body to try to gain favour with the strongest player. She begs and attempts to gain pity. The one time people actually sympathise with her is when she says she has a baby. Of course people try to disprove even that because they don't like her and her being a mother with genuine love for her child would somehow come in the way of that. And it would work normally but...since she's older she's seen as a "crazy" woman. Annoying. I guarantee people would have adored her if she was the same except a younger woman. She's doing exactly what other characters are doing, hey maybe even less destructive to those around he just to stay and survive.
The alternative is becoming numb and detached. People call you badass and strong for those qualities that are traditionally male but also something that lively stems from deeply traumatic experiences.
the white actors performances may be painful, but watch the vip scenes and an interview with Bezos, Gates, Zuckerberg whatever side by side and it becomes kinda genius
Completely agree!
I loved how clunky and obvious it was. It do be like that.
They even make 69 jokes. Exactly like Musk, aka the smartest person in any room.
You’re only naming the newly minted super rich. But yeah.
There was an interesting theory going around, that perhaps SOME of the VIPs are the winners of the games in other countries, that had come into being after 1988. The prize money they got upon being the sole survivor gives them all a nest egg that they live on. If they also were gamblers before they entered THEIR version of the games, this partially explains their behavior. After being rewarded by "the system" they came to believe in the system. The Front Man's speech is not a fluke. He returns in Season Two. We may see his "back story" and also those of the VIPs then!!! Clearly, upon winning, as individuals... they would want to believe their triumphs were inevitable and that they deserved to be part of the elite. Not all gladiators in Ancient Rome ended up seeing life the way Spartacus did. The lucky few became very wealthy...
IS THERE ACTUALLY ANYONE WHO THINKS SQUID GAME IS ABOUT COMMUNISM??? it's very very clearly criticism of late stage capitalism.
@@calitaliarepublic6753 conservatives really only have one response to critique of our economic systens
Anything that critiques any political system is automatically about communism to most americans
i feel like communism has become this term people just throw around without understanding what it is
Yup, because they don't want to admit that late stage capitalism has replicated many of the same things they feared from communism. Everyone gets the same food and clothes? Look at all the monopolies and food swamps where a handful of corporations control all supplies and everything else is too expensive. Overlords control things with surveillance and brute force? Bosses watch you constantly and you cannot speak freely at your workplace lest you be fired and unable to find another job.
I swear some people genuinely think capitalism is God's gift to the world rather than an economic system with flaws like any other, and they're so wrapped up in it that they've let those flaws fester and consume us all.
Ben Shapiro put out his own video yesterday (I think), so yeah. Many people on the right are competing for the gold medal in Mental Gymnastics.
I think contestants are forced to play childrens games as a commentary about how much of our lives is determined by those early years. You weren't that good from math in grade school? Well, good luck with finding any good paying occupation later in life. Were you not competetive during playground games? Well, good luck with trying to be competetive with your coworkers for higher wages and positions. Our brains seek the pleasure of our younger days, and if those pleasures don't align with what the society thinks is valuable... you will most likely have miserable life.
As explained, children's games have simple rules that are very easy to learn even if you're unfamiliar, and they are very fair for the most part.
That's my take on why it's kids games. It could just as well be because the old man very clearly loves thinking back on his days as a kid where he'd play such games.
I read in an interview that the director also choose easy children's games so the audience would not be distracted trying to figure out the rules
Black Comet, yes, this hit me hard. I'm disabled and neuro diverse, and let's just say that the education system has made it impossible for me to be hired, as I have no grades to my name at all. This is also not even reflective of my abilities as I am not stupid but no one will hear my explanation of why its wrong because they're so sure that it's right. Did I mention I hate manipulation?
I've never seen the show, but when she said everyone had to play children's games, I immediately thought of factory. If you've ever worked production labor, you'll recall that your whole day is set up like kindergarten. You have to go to your assigned spot, the bell rings to tell you when to start, a bell rings to tell you to stop, and then you go with your group to lunch in the lunch room that looks just like the school one. You have to ask permission to use the bath room for godsake, and they hold your time card until you get back so if you take too long you get docked. Literally no difference from kindergarten.
In my personal view the fact that it is children's games also communicates the idea that the tasks these people have can easily be viewed as very easy by an outside observer. I don't know if this is a thing in Korean, but I know that several languages use terms like "child's play" to convey that a task is very simple.
It heavily reminds me of the way rich people talk to poor people about how they can become rich asweell. It is always presented as very easy, you basically "just have to do it", even though those same rich people will make you believe they themselves worked very hard. It's an exercise in double think to convey that rich people are deserving of their money and everyone else deserves to not have any money.
Something you didn’t mention: I don’t know if it was intentional but the masked proctors struck me as representative of the police. They exist to enforce the rules, but more precisely to enforce those rules on the poor specifically, in service to the rich. In many ways they are there to separate and protect the rich from the poor. They only punish you if you break the rules but the rules are structured so that falling behind, being at the bottom, making small mistakes all have grave consequences.
so true
I ask people a question sometimes to see how they respond and make them uncomfortable. Why is murder illegal? Its not because of ethics. That's circular reasoning and further, there's a great number of unethical laws. And laws that would be ethical but can't get passed. So ethics isn't a sufficient explanation. Murder is illegal because our laws are based on emergent expressions of underlying biologically (evolutionarily) derived behavioral norms. Every species on the planet evolves to delay physical conflict until no other options are present because fighting is very dangerous, even to "winners". Humans, like any species, has evolved ritualizations of competition (competition is formally defined as a mutually destructive relationship, one reason we need to stop listening to economists trying to talk up comp as a good thing). Capitalism is one such ritualization of competition. A market is akin to a territory under dispute. Or a mate two individuals are fighting over. Back to laws. Laws arrange the rules of the competition so that individuals are better able to succeed, yeah nothing new in this sentence. We all know this. But when the rules are enforcing a game based on success via monopolization of a certain resource (capital, in this case) it leaves the system open for invasion by individuals operating on a different currency (like say, your life). Murder is illegal because the rich can still be killed. They are seeking to enforce high costs on this invasive strategy, because ultimately every decision is a cost/benefit analysis. Only those with nothing to lose (low cost) are predicted to turn to this strategy. And this isn't just for the rich. We all have resources others don't, clearly at least we have internet access meaning some level of resource that someone less off might kill us to obtain. And so we all agree, subconsciously, that murder needs to be illegal. Not because ethics, but because of evolution and resource competition. And while the rich can buy armies, they're still susceptible to bullets and guillotines.
Edit: before someone inevitably says it, no, I'm not saying it should be legal or that its "good". I'm making a descriptive observation. What would be good is equalizing the drivers of said behavior by equitably allocating resources. But that not how the system has evolved because no animal operates to optimize group fitness, rather individuals are out for themselves first. This is also evolutionary. Those of us seeking equity do so because we see that it also benefits us as individuals. "A rising tide lifts all boats". Not entirely accurate in all contexts, but in this, if the threat of death is in your face, being less rich but alive is the better outcome. This is why most democracies that exist only came about through threat of violence, or actual violence. And so this leads to a prediction. Wealth will continue to be hoarded. We've reached about the most leftist the planet will get under current circumstances, thus the rightward walk many nations are currently undergoing. As we get closer to a return to de facto feudalism, people become more violent. We have uprisings and some return of economic equality will be conceded. And this is the cycle that will continue.
Fudge you do this to me 😭
And they have poor living quarters with strict schedules are are only referred to by number, much like the contestants. Really, they aren't much better off than the people they are watching.
@@evilbob840 So true. They are one of the ways the wealthy showrunners turn the working class against other working class, by elevating them above the others, just a bit.
Thank youuuu for understanding it was only an illusion of fairness and consent! Obvious as it was, so many still came back with "Il-Nam did nothing wrong actually" or the worst "it's anti-communist actually". I've heard others say they should've been more subtle with the anticapitalism, but Parasite went more subtle and, brilliant as it was, a huge number left thinking the poor were the eponymous parsites. Folks will go for every mental gymnastic possible to subvert or discredit a strong anticapitalist message, so making it crystal clear was necessary imo, and it obviously didn't hurt viewership.
On top of strong anticapitalism and anti-imperialism, there's a more subtle critique of patriarchy in the story of Mi-Nyeo, as well as racism with Ali, so really covering all the bases on unjust hierarchy. Very worried about a season 2+ dilluting the message, and ofc the merchandising, but what a brilliant show. Wish folks would save their "its bad/mid actually" hot takes for after award season, because they deserve all the Emmys, and I want to see this South Korean niche continue to grow.
Sorry but these critics fail because they believe that rich and poor equals capitalism when no as there is many countries that are not captlisit and have a massive wealth gap and yet are not captlisits
Once again... because SQUID GAME was well thought out, at best the sequel can only hope to answer the open questions that linger in the air from season one. IMOHO it cannot surpass season one, it can only hope to be good at "fan service" as we get a much more complete story. Bread and Circuses. Ending the games demands courage and risk taking. In ancient Rome, if you bet on the gladiators, you were thought to be normal, slightly religious and ethical... because... not all the bouts were death matches. In the days of the Roman Republic, the games were like morality plays. Under the Empire, the opulent and ongoing games were used to prop up the state. It took decades after Constantine the Great and his religious conversion, for the games to be banned.
This reminds me of how Sae-Byeok was injured as a direct result of post game theatrics but no medical attention was offered even though it put her at a massive disadvantage. Supposedly each game was a new start for each player, like a reset. She was meant to be safe when she got to the finishline but in reality (like her journey from North to South) she wasn't. Also who blows up glass and doesn't expect injuries, a gross corporate neglect metaphor if I've ever seen one. (Or they were hoping someone would be blinded etc idk)
Out of topic but the fact one of their Patreon supporters named themselves "do-it-out-of-spite" made me chuckle a little
They are my favorite patreon
@@scaraheim2624 It's kinda like leblehblebleh from LavenderTown xdd
I'm pretty sure I've seen them in another youtuber Patreon shoutout
"Capitalism is ultimately a luck-based, nonsensical system that rewards the worst impulses of
humanity and punished our best and yet it disguises itself as a fair competition." I love this.
@@ilijaan have you heard of Cuba? North Korea? Russia? Countries bound to communism and socialism are living IN POVERTY. Saying that Capitalism is evil is untrue vice versa with Socialism. The problem is when people abuse those powers
@@Error_-ct2vp WRONG!
@@Error_-ct2vp Oh dear hear we go... Okay forst Xolopitili never said socialism Marxism communism or any of the alleged evil social economical isms were better. He simply said a negative statement about capitalism.
I'm going to take it a step further and respond directly to your comment... The United States might be the only country in the world capable or nearly capable of pulling off some sort of socialist communist social economic and governing system. Weird thing for me to say right?
Not really the problem is that the global economy and therefore each modern National economy requires trade. Out of the 100 plus countries in the world no country is big enough to have everything needed resource and climate wise. The US is probably the closest and Russia or China is probably the second closest with Brazil being third or fourth. No country has everything required to be self-sustaining and still maintain this modern lifestyle that we have grown accustomed to.
So what does any of that that I just said have to do with anything? All of the countries that you mentioned were sanctioned or excommunicated from the greater part of the rest of the global economy. Russia attempted to create a secondary Communist global economy but got too busy trying to compete with US armaments while simultaneously building up multiple other nations and of course Joseph Stalin got it off to a terrible start with his purges. Funny thing about purging people capable of replacing you: you will also purge the people that you need for everything to work.
Okay sorry back on topic the poster never said anything about any other form of social economic governance just that there was a problem with capitalism. Also the countries you mentioned were intentionally cut off from the rest of the global economy so they would fail.
Haiti became a country after freeing itself from French colonial rule and immediately the United States refused to recognize or trade with it, blockaded other countries from trading with it, and the majority of the rest of the global economy did the same.
I can't declare Haiti as being capitalist specifically but it certainly was not socialist, communist, or Marxist. It was a brand new nation with a brand new social economic governance that was essentially forced to fail using the same tactics that brought about the economies of the countries that you mentioned.
@@ilijaan I think you need to edit "white men" with "ruling class". The newly Capitalist Russia Federation is almost all "white" and yet the majority of citizens still suffers economically.
I will however admit that generally speaking the "ruling class" is white men but not always.
@@ilijaan what are you talking about
Everything is so on point!! The fact that people still hold on to their false sense of security that the show is critiquing communism when we're experiencing EXACTLY THE SAME THINGS in a capitalist world is fucking beyond me. In an idealistic world, gi-hun would've been an exemplary father for his child, especially after the games (minus the trauma) because of his money. But we have to remember that hundreds of people paid their lives for that billions of won. He wouldn't have to choose between his family and avenging those who died if the system was not put in place by those in power.
The amount that Gi-Hun won equals to about $36 million USD. It's a substantial amount of money, yes, but I'm not sure if it's nearly enough to fund his crusade against the VIP backers of the Squid Game.
He's also mainly driven by preventing future deaths and tortures, because he didn't choose to go back until he saw some new guy being tricked into playing those games. It's not that he's a vengeful person or doesn't care about his daughter. He's a good, brave and emotional person who just cannot stand all that cruelty and injustice anymore. I don't blame him. His personality is very similar to a lot of revolutionary leaders in history who had to sacrifice their family duties for the greater good.
Sometimes you just can't have it all. You have to make the hard decision and carry the guilt and regret either way.
while a total lack of media comprehension isn't uncommon in general (really isn't helping my misanthropy!), it seems to be ubiquitous in conservatives. go watch the kavernacle for more examples.
Exactly!!! I also felt like his choice to go back, to prevent any more deaths, was partly based on the thought 'my daughter could end up there'.
You may think 'why would she end up there, her dad's a millionaire lol' but people don't always tell their family about their financial struggles, i.e. Sang-woo didn't tell his mum
Idealistic world? Whate kind of utopianist are you?
I remember noting in the first episode how Gi-Hun apologised to the pickpocket when he ran into her, (before he realised he was pickpocketed) and helped her up, even as he was running from mobsters who might well kill him. That immediately said to me that this was someone who, whatever else they might be, really valued other people. And that remained solid throughout the entire show, right to the end, trying to save his old friend, and then even later, going back to fight the Squid Game in some way.
I'm glad someone else noticed that.
Yes!! I loved that he never lost hope in humanity and this part of his nature despite all that he was put through.
That scene when Gi Hun was pickpocketed and he helped her up was actually improvised, lol. You can even see the girl bowing slightly, trying not to laugh.
Something I wanted to point out that no one seems to talk about, is the use of Migrant workers in capitalistic countries and its racism, Here being represented by Ali, (the only confirmed non-east Asian character). Its showed through his backstory that he wasn't paid well at all despite coming to Korea to find more work and money, but we see him taken advantage of and mocked for being an outsider both in the game (From Sang-Woo stealing his marbles, and Nyeo calling him an alien) and in his real life when his boss would speak to him disrespectfully and not pay him (and in both cases they get away with this behavior because Ali is at the bottom of the social class, he is the foreigner to do the hard manual labor in a country that he isn't native to) . Finally when Ali has had enough of working without pay, he steals the money, as it's the only thing he can do but inadvertently hurts his boss. In a idealistic case, Ali's crimes would be understandable and the boss would see trouble for not paying his employees. But realistically, Korea (and most capitalistic countries) dont side with the migrant workers, even when they are in the right coming back to the Racism and social hierarchy where Ali is at the bottom. As such he was forced to chose between, playing the squid game and certainly unfairly going to jail
hell, i hadnt even thought of gi-hun's past striking as a revolutionary streak sparking up again at the end, i really like that reading! and man theres really a kind of comedy in how quickly the budget that was comparable to the winnings from the games to begin with spiralling into a billion dollar franchise almost overnight...
Me either
The other thing I don't see anyone discussing is the fact that Gi-hun has been a "loser" since he lost his job and went on strike. He saw himself as a leech. And then he has had to live for a year with the knowledge the only thing he is good at, was a death game. He turns back at least partly because it will give him the opportunity to do the thing he is good at, but this time for more than just monetary gain.
About the essential jobs:
My employer faces huge trouble either getting new employees or keeping them within the company - because we're all fed up being treated as disposable and without any gratitude from the higher ups. What also doesn't help are sentences like "it will get better", "the market for is empty right now" ect pP.
Misntof my co-workers just want a genuine "thank you" for running the boarding home with 65% of employees working. But no. Not even that is given to us.
I can totally relate to this but at the same time is not 100% because the company I work for is like a toxic partner, they do thank us and are nice to us while basically asking us to be available any time no matter if it is off working hours and saying "we employing more people is not for you to do less job but for us as a company to get more projects" while some of my coworkers work more than 5 projects and most often than not work overtime. I got soooo upset when I told my boss some coworkers were asking for some headphones for their video calls and he was like "what they can't even buy that themselves?" and in my mind I was like "it's not like your paying them tons and they need them in order to work your company's projects!!!!" but at the same time I see them lending money to coworkers who ask for it and trying to organize s get together for everyone... And I'm like "this is like a toxic relationship" you're seeing every bad thing but with a little appreciation are like "it could get better"
unionize
@@tullus.aufidius but then they’ll be call communists and beaten by their superiors because apparently workers sticking together to make sure they’re being treated like basic human beings makes them the worst people ever in the eyes of Capitalism
@@Crystal_Dylan there are ways to unionize safely. If you'd like to learn more about that, I would recommend contacting a branch of IWW. But if you are certain that your job/conditions cannot be improved or may be worsened by unionization, it's okay to not do it. Your safety comes first.
@@tullus.aufidius sure, then you have Australia where the unions are the devil because they condemned the protests that happened here.
The point about the "labor shortage" is so true. Companies because of the pandemic started running on 'skeleton crews' (working with the bare minimum of people enough to keep a company working) so big companies realized they could just overwork and underpay the working class in the name of the "labor shortage" but not hire anyone to keep more money in their checks . The huge thing that bugs me about this is that companies make it seem like noone wants to work making the working class critize and turn on eachother (i.e. calling people lazy and bums) but pity the big companies and gain pity points which equals more business for them.
My friend and other people have been told by companies who have "were understaffed" signs that they're not hiring. I 100% believe the worker shortage is fake.
@@mumenRhyder I saw an article where a man applied to 60 entry level jobs that were "urgently hiring" He got 2 interviews.
@@nectarina3891 That isn't even uncommon or impossible. I applied to 200 entry level jobs in the past 2 years due to various reasons, and I only got less than 6 interviews, if memory serves. Considering my background, I think a lot of other people were in a similar position as I was.
Watching the labour shortage unfold in my country was unbelievably cathartic after getting countless job rejections, for minimum wage labour as well as proper jobs. All I could think was: well, you rejected everyone, you made this mess yourselves.
I love seeing this new take on the ending of “Squid Game”. Seeing it as a already traumatized activist going back into the action is way more thought provoking. Him seeing his daughter would be nice, but lives are at stake here. That police plot line still gotta be fixed though.
Yeah I wish they did go that extra mile and do what Xiran said bc in the end, cops are just as bad. He only even investigated bc of his brother. If we do get a season too I hope they add that and in the end show the brother's downfall bc of how he cared for his brother rather than getting caught by cops.
I think most people criticising the ending are missing the point that if the show had portrayed gi-huns life and character flaws changing drastically for the better, it textually wouldve been a tacit approval and commendation of the games existing, which is specifically the opposite of the point of the show! it makes perfect sense that at the end of this arbirtarily brutal ordeal he is still the same flawed man with many of the same problems, just... more traumatised and impulsive now.
I actually loved the police detective subplot as it was. It served as a PoV exploring the behind-the-curtain portion of the games, and the fact that the cop failed in the end and his story was abruptly cut short with few answers mirrors what often happens to cops who try to go against the system of corruption. I definitely agree with Xiran that it would have been hammered home better if his messages had been sent successfully and left on read, but I truly don't think there's anything else to fix.
10:58 "He may be a fool but if enough fools stand up with him they can topple whoever they want." This has got to be one of the most inspiring things I've ever heard.
As someone from South Korea, I can confirm people who defect from the North often express wanting to go back simply because people in NK are friendlier because they are more used to looking out for each other in times of hardship, communities are tighter. Meanwhile the South is hella known for its extreme work culture and typical busy city life where people hardly care who you are. The pursuit of wealth really does things to people that is seen as normal now.
I am pretty certain I would choose a place where people hardly care about me than a dictatorship when one misplaced word may be equivalent to a death sentence.
@@giorgialadashvili4771 And I am pretty certain you have no idea what North Korea is actually like. I mean, neither do I, but then again, I don't pretend to, while unwittingly propagating anti-communist ideas by telling everybody how horrible NK must be (also I'm a Trotskyist, which long story short means I have more than my fair share of criticism for a place like North Korea, believe me). Shouldn't it tell you something that someone who actually is from South Korea tells us that people who have fled NK want to go back, once they see that capitalist hellhole? Shouldn't that tell you that MAYBE you've been fed lies by the capitalist propaganda machine? Because of course North Korea has to be the worst place on Earth, because GOMMUNISM BAD, it has to be lest we might start questioning the way things are under capitalism.
@@wawawuu1514 Damn, actual pro-North Korean propaganda. If North Korea is such a paradise, why aren't you moving you there?
@@giorgialadashvili4771
They literally just said they have a lot of criticism towards NK, why would they even move there?
certainly understandable issue
I love how you show that the U.S is actually the villain since U.S makes tons of ads trying to convince you that going to war is “protecting your country” when it’s actually telling you to destroy so many lives and tear the world apart. And I’m Vietnamese-American!
It sucks so much how capitalist and Western systems are trying to dilute this message as much as possible.
It's not a commentary on capitalism, it's about corruption of a system that is secretly controlled by a cabal who are orchestrating society's problems. The symbolism is there if you look hard enough. We even learn Il-nam is part of the banks - corrupt monetary system is the biggest problem, not capitalism.
@@Clickathon bruh, the director said that its a commentary on capitalism.
@@DieNibelungenliad I know he said that, but something's cannot be said for reasons I'm not willing to get into. If I told you every industry and government in the world has been subverted by secret societies maybe you'll understand. Do you smell something fishy about the Alec Baldwin shooting? Go watch Paul Joseph Watson's video on Squid Game. Then research Predictive Programming. Maybe you'll follow the white rabbit and get red pilled
@@Clickathon dude the guy who made it LITERALLY SAID it was a commentary on capitalism.
People will do anything to simp these days, including living in a fantasy world where everything is made to suit their worldviews.
@@SolarFlareAmerica read above
You made me finally understand why his friend killed himself in the end. He knew that if they both agreed to quit they'd get no money. But if he died his friend could give back to his mother. It all makes so much sense now and helps humanize that character
"There's no such thing as a labour shortage, only bosses unwilling to offer better jobs."
^^^^^^ALL OF THIS^^^^^^
She got it exactly right.
Eh...I wouldn't say exactly. Jobs are determine by the consumer's, not employers. Bosses can't offer "better jobs" if no one is willing to pay the business for the products of that labor. So in times of economic depression or change, there can be a labour shortage if the current labour force does not have the skills to produce products desired by consumers. Doesn't mean there aren't people available to work, just maybe not the right kind of work.
I reading these comments, they scare me. I don’t think any of these took an economic course,
@@slin2678 The issue is that those companies aren't losing money, instead they're strangling the income across the board except the highest branches of the company. An example, let's take a game company like Activision-Blizzard, it keeps firing large chunks of employees and the rehires some of them after their quarters, meanwhile they announce to the world highest profits ever and the CEO gets massive payouts for "good work". Despite being immensely succesful as a company the lower parts of the company have terrible working conditions and are overworked with no job security while all their work goes to funding already rich higher ups.
@@MrSophire Which comments?
I still remember back in 2009, as six year old, looking at my mom and my grandma have a full on debate about the ssangyong strike and who was wrong/right about what. It seemed so far away, the concept of bankruptcy and tragedy. Now, as a high-school student getting ready for college, I grow more and more afraid of the future, and what it may bring. Squid Game only made this future worse initially, but looking back, it only prepared me further for a live outside of the safety net of my parents and their home.
Dang, now I feel depressed.
Time to drool over the cover of Zachary Ying and the Dragon I guess
[15:27] Weirdly enough I was arguing with some people earlier who said that Squid Game wasn't a critique of capitalism but the circumstances that led up to characters joining the game.
Which honestly is like trying to argue that leaves aren't green but shamrock-coloured.
Not gonna lie, as soon as the word "sponsor" was mentioned even as a joke, I autopiloted to trying to skip roughly 60-90 seconds head only to realise you didn't actually put a sponsor in haha
On one side, Xiran sounds pretty convincing. On the other side, a dim tool wearing a beanie told me it was a critique of communism because capitalism is when good things happen and communism is when bad things happen, before he called the director an idiot who didn't understand the subtext of his own show.
Good grief, its an economic system not a deity, people should be able to criticise the way its been going off the rails without being branded as heritics.
I've never seen someone compare the capitalistic system to a deity but that rings so true in my experience.
It seems like the second you even float the idea that capitalism is not the greatest of economic systems and that we can think of something better, the way some people react you would assume I asked them to sacrifice their first born child to me.
Heretic!!!
Sorry but a centralized armed command that is constantly oppressive but tells you that you all are equal is not communist?
@@MohamedRamadan-qi4hl
No, what you describe sounds just like a military dictatorship or totalitarian state.
And a lot of those would tell their opressed populace that they are all equal, when they clearly aren't. A capitalist dictator would say that everyone has equal opportunity to improve their lives, even if it is a blatant lie, not really different from a communist dictator telling the people under their boot that everyone in the country is treated equally and taken care of.
Your criteria could both describe a marxist-leninist dictatorship or a South American Military Junta. Neither is what Adam Smith or Karl Marx had in mind when they wrote about their respective economic systems.
Your description doesn't really take any economic system into account, the show however very clearly does. If you want to criticise an economic system, criticise the economic system. If you want to criticise authoritarianism, criticise authoritarianism.
@Li F
Neoliberalism fucked everyone who isn't a boomer (and some of them too) over and now the developed countries have let their companies hand over production of most essential goods and most of their economic power to a totalitarian state and made it a superpower, because it was cheaper than paying people more.
"The invisible hand of the free market will self-regulate" my ass. I'm starting to think capitalism is like a really agressive guard dog that you have to keep on a tight leash at all times or its gonna run off and start maiming people.
I grew up in a Maoist home. My laolao and laoye fought the Americans and said they were protecting the North Korean villagers against them. It's interesting to hear more perspectives on the war. I grew up with a lot of stories of the atrocities of American and also, Japanese soldiers. Despite being a CBC.
It's funny, western media has literally ALWAYS done its utmost to make North Korean soldiers seem like raving lunatics or scared lost children unsure of why they're fighting. It never presents them as having any spine, or any good reason for why they fight.
I would love to see north and south Korean veterans interviewed together.
@Dylan Rodrigues very true.
Honestly, the majority of Communist revolutions in Asian countries can be directly linked to Japan's actions during World War II, but after the war, America supported Japan because they were a "capitalist" nation and didn't punish them nearly as much as they did the Nazis even though Japan was the root cause of the majority of wars America fought for the next thirty years or so.
@Dylan Rodrigues Was?
Well yes, it was, but also it is doing that right now too.
PRC is giving massive loans to African countries in exchange for basically owning all their infrastructure that is built by Chinese companies.
They are making a killing.
Not only do they buy influence over those countries by making them indebted to PRC, the money they give goes straight back to their own companies, who then also profit from charging the locals for services.
The money was a loan, with low interest, but still, with interest, so that is profit too.
And they can spy on the country through their companies.
The countries take the loans both because of bribes and because they also need to compete in the global economy somehow...
Western countries might have done similar stuff before, but they are playing catch-up right now.
(and the small countries still get fucked regardless of who is doing it)
“If enough fools stand up…” history is driven by loads of fools striving for impossible causes. Literally nothing happens without it. Great man theory be damned.
It was very ironic how the guards specifically emphasized that they were creating a fair game where everyone had an equal opportunity to win (to the point of making an example out of 'cheaters') when in fact they were setting up incredibly unfair games by withholding information and creating an unbalanced playing field where victory depended entirely on the cards you just happened to be dealt. In fact, they specifically had a guy do what all the self-help gurus tell you to do - take control of your own fate - and the fact that he took control directly caused his death because he went first in the bridge game. It's laughing in the face of the narrative that you too can be rich if you just try hard enough.
Not sure about you, OP, but, from what I've been seeing,I have a feeling most people mean "unequal" instead of "unfair." The hosts withheld info but this impacted all of the players, thus fair. However, the games are set up to be unequal as some may have prior experience that gives them a leg up, a la honeycomb, or just dumb luck of the draw, a la bridge. Everyone had equal opportunity to get the right number so it's still fair but designed to be unequal once the numbers have been selected.
@@slin2678 equality, equity and fairness are three different things. A lot of people forget about the latter two.
I thought that commentary on self-help was absolutely genius on the show's part...lol
@@slin2678 Not really, there was someone playing with them that not only knew everything about the games but also did not die when he lost. So basically it was not fair either because they were not playing by the same rules.
Another point to “the games are unfair,” consider the bridge game nearer to the end. One of the players had knowledge that he was using to benefit all four players, so they were still on equal ground. However, the VIPs got bored/offended/whatever that they weren’t fighting or narrowing down the player count, so they killed the lights. This is unfair to the survivability of the remaining four players. And it’s not about “re-instating equality,” because the glassmaker was helping them already; he wasn’t leveraging his knowledge to disadvantage anyone else behind him.
8:52 wait, people really thought that made no sense for Gi-hun's character? I thought that was really good characterization. The whole show demonstrated that trauma and threats make him try to escape, take the easiest option, and try to get everything to stop. "This fucking sucks, I need to stop" is a very Gi-hun thing to do.
That Vice documentary awhile back I saw about people straightening their teeth and "westernizing" their eyes just to become more hirable to employers sorta exposed to me how South Korea may actually have more going on below the surface than US news would have us know. Just sorta something that seems more relevant I'm recalling now.
If your perception of the world is as black and white as “communism = hell, capitalism = heaven, disagree and you’re the enemy”, then I quote Master Obi-Wan Kenobi:
“Only a Sith deals in absolutes.”
This explains many peoples’ mindsets really good dude
Ironically, "only a Sith deals in absolutes," is an absolute delivered by a non-Sith.
@@evilbob840 True, but “deal” is the key word. Obi-Wan is trying to convey the idea that Anakin’s ideology is extremist absolutism of “I’m right, you’re wrong.” Obi-Wan’s perception of a true Jedi is one who is open minded enough *not* to “deal” in absolutism, but to try to see the good (or evil) in anyone simultaneously. I think the Clone Wars show actually did a good job with this.
Quoting Star Wars like some kind of pinnacle of philosophy is the definition of cringe. And you didn't even get it right. Obi Wan Kenobi wasn't right in that scene you're quoting. He was wrong. "Only a Sith deals in absolutes" is literally an absolute statement delivered by a non Sith. This was the final nail in the coffin of the Jedi, making their hypocricy and self-righteousness obvious to everyone.
Everyone except you apparently.
@@snakeseyes-uroborodjinn5159 You seem very judgmental. “Definition of cringe”? That is very absolute, isn’t it? “Obvious to everyone but me”? You seem to be ignorant of how people can interpret things differently. Your narrow frame of mind is not the end-all, be-all judge on how others should think and perceive things. And what is obvious is only obvious in hindsight.
The fact that they installed a giant replica of the doll from the first game on the Sydney Harbour already kind of makes the popularity of the show lose its original intention and meaning. We're kind of losing sight of what the show was talking about, and it honestly feels like capitalism has basically swallowed what should be a thought provoking show.
It's also no coincidence that Gi-hun dyed his hair red after winning, on top of him being part of a labour strike and the overt anti-capitalist message of the show.
I (respectfully!) disagree. I read Gi-hun's hair change as a rejection of societal norms. It's unprofessional in a country where your job title is part of how you are addressed in everyday conversation even by people who don't work with you. And it's not something he would have ever done before Squid Game or the revelation about Il-nam. I think it is red just because it's an extreme colour and reflects his rage. I don't think his rejection of society is necessarily aligning himself with communism. That's just what I think though! I responded because I think the hair is super interesting and your comment made me think :)
i actually saw one of the people who worked on the show (not sure where to find it so take with a grain of salt) say that red/pink in the show was used to symbolize power (hence the masked soldiers' uniforms), and that gihun dyeing his hair red represented him gaining/taking back power!
I thought he dyed it to symbolise the blood of the other players who died. since he's now using the money that cost their lives, and he didn't want to forget it.
but your theories are much cooler
iirc the director confirmed in an interview that it symbolises gihun's inner rage coming out. he also said it was something crazy gihun would never do normally, probably to represent the change in his character
damn all these analyses are 🔥🔥
i just thought he had awful taste 😭
"the plot" is so accurate I would just beam anytime she walked out and when she wasn't on the screen I would sit and wait for her to appear
Shame the character was awful tho.
I'm having deja vu. I've seen this thread before...
@@Thaumaturge2251 NO? She was amazing wdym
@@Thaumaturge2251 why do you believe her character was terrible? Genuinely asking, not trying to fight
Even though the director is clearly writing an anti capitalist story, the details are still subtle enough that it creates room for people to discuss and discover more things about the show and thus the overal theme. That's really cool. Thanks for the great video!
The entire game looked really communist to me
@@MohamedRamadan-qi4hl that’s probably because you don’t know what communism is. i suggest researching more on this topic (from actual progressive sources, not capitalist propaganda)
@@save_bandit Communism requires a all powerful government to safe guard and over see so to say the reforms and the revolution {if one has happened} after which that all powerful government is going to simply go away in favor of a true communist society all of this is according to marx as you see it doesn't happen like that
@@MohamedRamadan-qi4hl communism requires a government? lol a self-report right there. just google the thing man, it’s not that hard to learn new concepts.
@@MohamedRamadan-qi4hl here ua-cam.com/video/ysZC0JOYYWw/v-deo.html
There are many layers in Squid Game, I saw a video with Korean Language Professor Joowon Suh explained every detail about how some characters spoke or other details wich you can't understand if you don't speak korean. It was insightful, because I learned I have missed a LOT.
This show is really well done.
12:00 THANK YOU!! I keep reminding everyone how Gangnam Style, although it was a meme, in its core was a product of korean mass investiment on the media industries. And so much good stuff has come out of it. Movies, tv series, even K-Pop started to become even more popular after gangnam style. It was definetely a game-changer for korean entertainment.
And a lot of people forget about the part that it was a parody of a wealthy neighbourhood
The most terrifying and offensive example of Netflix parodying itself that I've seen is their youtube community post of Gi-hoon and Il-nam smiling at each other in the marble game with the caption "It's Friyayyyy" 🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃 Oh No 🙃🙃🙃
The marble game is a really good game for showing the different win conditions that the players just didn’t think of. As far as I’m aware they didn’t set a rule to say you need to have any of your own marbles by the end of the game, and so just swapping was a totally viable option.
I couldn’t help but think about the Japanese show “Alice in Borderland” which is a similar concept except the games all (usually) have a trick to win that the protagonist needs to figure out before the time runs out. I kept thinking about ways for everyone to make it through the games. For the Marbles one, I kept thinking that it’s just about how many marbles are “won” by each player, so if you win 10 marbles and then subsequently lose to your partner you both “won” a game, just one after the other. I dunno, crazy to think about.
I watched this show with Chinese subtitles (which were probably more accurate than English), and if I remember correctly they said that you needed to have ten more marbles than your partner, so this trick wouldn't have worked but that's just me nitpicking XD
@@ycp4194 aw damn it, they outsmarted the outsmarting :(
@@cee_ves XDDD
I've actually liked gihun from the start bc I saw myself in him, or rather what can become of me. I relate to his feelings of trying his best but still failing miserably. And having an addiction is not a choice, the system literally sets us up for failure. Most people don't become addicted to something(like gambling or even smoking, doing drugs) because it's fun. It's some form of a coping mechanism. I, for example, started smoking because of extreme stress I experienced, and though I'm not addicted yet, I might become. Still, it provides some sort of stress relief, even if it might destroy my health later. So I was actually kinda annoyed when people were shitting on Gihun.
I don't understand making a villain out of Sangwoo either. Although he became a bad person, scamming people for money and all that, he also was set up by the system. He knew how it worked and followed it bc he thought it was the only way. And the expectations from friends and family must've been hard for him too. He needed to be succesful and so he fell in the trap of capitalism. And what he did to Ali was really sad, but most of us would've done the same in this kind of scenario. It's obvious Sangwoo isn't rotten to the core because after the first game he even gave Ali money for the bus without wanting anything in return.
Edit: also love the vid. 🙏 I really appreciate you pointing out that north korea isn't necessarily a villain too. And that communism isn't what most people think it is.
Xiran: Have you ever dreamed of joing the one percent? How far would you go? Would you die for it? Kill for it?
Me: This is a weird first date.
Did you mean percent?
Although the children's games might be a representation of lost inocence and "infantilitation" of the players, I read in an interview that the director loves Battle royale and staff, but figuring out the rules could be distracting so he went straight to something simple for the challenges, children's games.
I grew up in Korea in the 90s and 2000s and I remember being terrified of these loan sharks as a child. These loan sharks are so foul I've heard stories of them even harassing children of parents with debt. When my alcoholic father started to have money problems I started to have nightmare of loan sharks doing horrible things to my family because of how notorious they were in Korea. As a child I didn't understand all the money part but I did understand my silly dad owed people money and someone might come and harm him or our family. I related a lot to Gi-Hoon's little daughter and cried my eyes out watching Squid Game. Thank you for doing such a thorough research on the source materials.
I'm from the US (California) and only heard of the Korean war in eighth grade when I saw the (very moving) memorial in DC. It's the only war out of the 6 US involved wars where the draft was used that I didn't know anything about. Watching this show and seeing the responses to it actually got me to learn more about the history between the US and Korea. Between the war memorial and now this show, I can say that art can be both a passive reflection of society and an active influence over those that see it. Change is happening and more is on the way.
You guys should review "Silenced," a Korean film released in 2011 directed by the same director who created Squid Game. Where it is based on true events that took place at Gwangju Inhwa School for the hearing-impaired, where young deaf students were the victims of repeated sexual assaults by faculty members over a period of five years in the early 2000s. It is a very emotional film, I highly would recommend it.
It also starred Gong Yoo who was the guy who played ddakji with Gi-hun in the beginning.
There was actually an interview with a girl and her mother who escaped North Korea. It was so rough living as a pauper in SK, that the daughter was planning to return to NK. So that silence about which was better wasn't just hype.
South Korea and Japan are both horrible for/to the poor, at pretty much the extreme of capitalism and corporate tyranny, so you see this theme a lot in Korean and Japanese media.
Can we appreciate the moment of serene calm Xiran has for the first few seconds of each video, before they destroy us with facts and logic. This is the energy we need. 🙌🏼
Theyre they/them
@@idek6300 thank you!!!! Edited!!
That head turn is fierce
YES to what you said about Gi-hun! As a screenwriter myself, I've tried to tell people how his charachter is so well written and how his actions throughout the series is both a natural development whithin the circumstanes and still very much true to everything we know about this charachter, but most people I've talked to are just determined to hate him.
Ngl, as someone who just got out of college and is living in his parent’s home with only a vague plan for the future, I related to Gi Hun hard and really liked his character from the beginning, thinking “wow what a relatable protagonist”
And then he mentioned that he was part of an intense labor strike, to which I thought “Damn, I’ll never be that cool” 😂
What i like about squid game is that it’s not actually dystopian it’s a reflection of now and what people now experience and would go through to get a hint of success in capitalism
Gohan: "That's not a choice, it's an ultimatum."
69 VIP: "You and I both know I don't know what that means."
It's good to specify that it was not US soldiers doing the massacres, but the US-backed South Korean government of Syngman Rhee. Ultimately the result is the same with all these anti-Communist crackdowns in South Korea leading to the same deaths and trauma, but yeah.
The Cold War was a pretty crappy time to live in, honestly. Each side considering the other an existential threat made any tactic seem worthwhile. The US had a lot of allies like Syngman Rhee in the "He's a bastard but he's our bastard" policy and they were all considered worth it if they looked sufficiently anti-Communist.
and to be clear the massacres and brutal repression of labor movements continued under Rhee's successors Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan, with tacit US approval of the Gwangju massacre in 1980 as the most egregious example.
This is standard US procedure. Phase 1: Use media and pressure on private entities to funnel money into anti-left politics in foreign nation. Phase 2: "US Aid" to foreign government bribing support from "Pro-American" (read, anti-left) local politician in building policy friendly to US capitalist interests. Phase 3: Covertly funnel resources (money, weapons, etc as situation escalates) to local right-wing movements (if leftist gov) or political entities (like police; if rightist gov needing to suppress left movements). This phase is where US was at with SK. As the multitude of South American nations. This is the US backed coup phase. Phase 4: Open invasion to remove a nations government and installation of pro-US "democracy"; the hard imperialism phase. We rarely get to this phase as phase 3 is typically successful. This is what US did in Korea. Its related to US activity in Vietnam. Its the pattern is all of US involvement in South America. Its the US backed massacres in Indonesia. Its the aim of gov entities like US Aid, and even multinational western outfits like the IMF and OAS. And its desperately important than western leftists understand all this, esp in the US, as these tactics are now in open use by the US gov against its own citizens; see the entire Trump administration. The stoking of right-wing militia groups to violence against leftists places US gov firmly in phase 3 against its own citizens. You know, the phase that typically does the job.
@@cjohnson3836 Your point about South America is so right for Brazil!
US implemented those phases at my country in the 60's.
At that time we had some excellent political studies and some Marxist groups even more developed that Europe. Of course we never had any risk of becoming communist at that time, but we had a president that wanted to make great reforms and a super strong labor force since the 30's
It was too much to USA, so they started their interventions phase after phase untill the military coup in 1964.
During all the military years we turned into a US puppet with privatizations and terrible consequences to our own economy/society just to favor the big multinational groups...
Fight and blood was used to recover our democracy and we finally managed to have a leftist govern again in 2003 untill around 2016.
Then, unironically, we had a parliamentary coup, that favored the capital (again) but this time, with the neoliberalism ruined worldwide, we ended up with a far-right and a openly Trump supporter president :(
The country is a mess with everything going down but we still have a mass of enraged white people that support capitalism and claim that "squid game criticized communism"...
Another "funny" point is that here they even changed the name of "Squid game". It's called "Round 6" because the Portuguese word for "Squid" is "Lula", the nickname of a leftist president that they don't wanna mention...
@@nonsense_vacilona Lula is an amazing leader. North American leftist movements have much to learn from the Southern counterparts. The exploitation of the south goes back to the colonial period. Bolivar, through mutual friendship with Prussian scientist von Humboldt, pleaded for aid from the Jefferson administration. Jefferson refused, not wanting to have a western hemisphere competitor to the young USA. How different would history be if, in those early moments, they could have set the seeds for some measure Pan-American unity?
@@cjohnson3836 Yeah, we could have some achievements worldwide if we managed to reach some integration back then.
Sadly, our worker's movement slowed down recently and even the Mercosul couldn't grow fully befere the power shift here...
Right now Brazil is isolated since our president is a international joke, but Lula may be able to come back in 2022 elections, so maybe in the future we can hope for a new left movement gaining force here and, if we're lucky, reaching other countries in America.
You are in USA, right?
Hope your minorities are also being reorganized after Trump left his seat...
The show makes you uncomfortable and that's the point. You shouldn't be comfortable with what's happening in the world.
That they choose to have one chinese VIP is a huge thing! Before this, no korean series would show china in any negative view. Also funny how fast it got banned and how popular it is to get it illegally in china.
I never did like how in the US we're taught to view capitalism as a perfect system where the only people that suffer are those that deserve it. No country is purely capitalistic, least of all our own, and I'd love to see how people get on without school, roads, medicine, trash pick-up, a functioning electric grid, subsidized farms, and human rights. You need to take the best parts from each system and do your best to mitigate the worst parts, not blindly worship one system and ignore all its flaws.
Agree 1000%
You were taught that? Where? I grew being taught to find a trade and to find your way. A blacksmith, gunsmith, welder and engineer is useful and needed anywhere and everywhere.
@@trollge419 in the US it's very normal for the school system to brainwash kids into believing the country is perfect the way it is and teachers have been fired for saying otherwise. We literally pledge to the freaking flag, for some reason we are obsessed with worshipping capitalism and the poorest of the poor will continue worshipping it
@@mumenRhyder Not to mention American culture revolves around consumption. The message given to Americans after 9/11 by the president? Go shopping and support your country in "the fight against terrorism".
I don’t know what you are smoking, but the US teaches that Capitalism while not the best, it is way better then communism, and socialism. I keep seeing comments that we are brainwashed, but look at history. Ever time communism was tried it became a dictatorship not within decades but within years. If Cuba was so great why are people fleeing it. Yes, capitalism has its issues but going to a systems that fails over and over at cost of millions of lives maybe we should look for a alternative.
Wow, I finished the show recently, and i have read 2 articles on US sites about "Things/References you missed in Squid Game" and neither of them mentioned Gi-Hun's strike inspiration, the critique of capitalism or anything like that, like wow.
Thank you so much for this video.
You spoke every thought I have about this show more eloquently than I ever could!
Something that got me early on was when the manager responded to someone saying that they were killing people by saying that "No, they were eliminated.", they really wanted to sanitize it.
I love how you brought in historical and cultural context to the analysis. You're the first reviewer I've watched who has done so and it's really important to understanding the story.
First time I watched this show, it was blatantly obvious to me that the wealthy Western and Chinese VIPs being entertained by the suffering of Koreans fighting each other was clearly a reference to the Korean war. Also the insistence that everyone has a fair and equal chance seemed like a critique of the "American dream" mentality more so than communism, although I wouldn't be surprised if the creators were also thinking about the pseudo-communist regime in North Korea at the same time. It's possible to be referring to more than one thing simultaneously.
Would you be so kind and explain to me where exactly the show critiques communism, because I don’t understand your perspective at all. I am willing to rewatch any scene you refer me to :)
I don't think there is any possible interpretation that the creator was thinking about North Korea on that part.
@@NaFran49 I am patiently waiting for an answer here
17:09 I can't believe you left out the fact that it's not just simply the Indonesian gov, it's the ministry of justice and human rights, which makes it 10 times funnier ... and sadder
I admire your bravery. It's really hard to be REALLY critical about capitalism in the internet in the middle of this wild anti-comunism/cultural imperialism era we live in. Perfect video, you're not alone ♥️ big hug from Brazil
It's getting easier nowadays. Socialism is becoming more popular amongst the youth, unfortunately.
This South Korean survival drama has a problem that all countries face in common
Every country has a problem of inequality and debt. All countries have the same practical problems. I liked that the hero did not appear like other foreign movies and dramas
It was good that there was no national propaganda in this drama
I’m so glad you’re covering this!
"Communism is when people are forced to wear the same uniform and eat rations"
-Mao Josef Marx, Big Book of Communism, 1979
Big Book of Communism 😅. Love it
That is exactly what happened in many communist countries
What about office workers with a strict dress code, and uniformed students all living in a capitalist society where food is scarce and rationed due to war or something?
@@TrueMentorGuidingMoonlight read about the the great leab forward or the holdomor to get why communist countries have this image
@@MohamedRamadan-qi4hl I already know about the Great Leap Forward. If you care to enlighten me, please deliver your concise points with cited examples for each. It is your argument, after all. Burden of proof goes to you.
Oh god bless you for calling out the spoilers, I wasn't thinking and just clicked on your video 'cause I love all your content.
I haven't watched the show yet, you totally saved my hide here. But I'll be back when my partner and I watch it!
Haven't watched this show and I'm not interested, but you could talk about anything and I would listen lol
I loved how you explained the tricky system that makes us believe we have a choice when we don't. Reminds me of something my history teacher said to me one time when talking about democracy in Latam: is this really a choice of the people when the options are only big corrupt corporations and small candidates that we know do not stand a chance? Can we really say that we make a choice when there is records of candidates paying poor citizens and using the names of death people to vote for them? If we try to stop them, we are killed, so how can we talk about freedom in that context?
It's awful, understanding that there are powerful people above us bending things as they wish, but at the same time we cannot give up because if nobody stands for them first then this will continue.
Great video as always Xiran!
Thank you for making this! My mental health is not in the right place to watch this show right now but I really appreciated hearing your dissection of the themes! Wow, this IS an important show!
I'm in the same boat! Keep going friend, you've got this ♥️
@@definitelynotashark1799 thank you friend! 💜 Appreciate the kind words
I waited so long to watch this youtube video 😭😆. First I waited for the hype to die down just enough to enjoy the show, and then I waited until I finished the whole season. I'm only just seeing this commentary and I'm so thankful for your analysis. It's great food for thought and gives sort of an introduction to other subjects I hadn't considered before!
I think that the cop's messages were indeed sent, we were just not shown it. It's a "loose" end that can be potentially tied up in the next season.
Hi there! It's the Korean again.
The song that the girl sings in Red Light green light is not really red light green light.
The real Korean is:
무궁화 꽃이 피었습니다
Which I would translate to:
The rose of Sharon has blossomed.
Very weird for red light green light I know.
my concern with exploring the police more is that the way the director's spoken about the South Korean police (when discussing possible routes for a season 2), he seemed to think that the biggest problem with them is that they're slow to respond. Despite the fact the show explicitly shows their collaboration with capital in crushing the workers' movement in the strike, it portrays the police picking up the homeless guy at the end as him being safe (rather than escaping the immediate threat, but still very much being in danger), and portrays all of Jun-Ho's murders and violence as entirely justified despite the fact he already kills someone before he knows the full horrors of the games
with that in mind, I feel like if they do go in that direction in the next season it may end up being rather more copaganda-y than it should
Thank you ! I watched the show very early and felt so frustrated seeing everyone joke about the games and trying to recreate them. I felt like they missed every single point made. Thank you for explaining them back and pointing quite a few I didn't get. We should be angry at the system displayed, not dream of playing the game.
FINALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLY!!!!!!!!!!!!
Someone clearly understand the story. DEAR GOD I've seen so many people get the message wrong and be pissed at the ending because it's not a happy ending. Like every single point I want to talk about in terms of the theme of the show is explained here. Now I can rest in relief.
The latter bit about the US engagement in Korean politic is a bit overblown but I'll take all the win I can get at this point.
I absolutely LOVED the ending. The writers nailed every choice to make sure the message came accross and that it stayed true to Gi-hun and the rest of the character's motivations.
Gi-hun teaming up with the old man, refusing to win, wanting to end the game, Sang-woo seeing no option but killing himself, Gi-hun choosing not to use the money until he got some answers, and in the end wanting to take them down. The writers didn't give us the fantastical ending we wanted, but the truest and most thought provoking ending we needed.
'It's both hopeful and hopeless' 👏🏽 great review, alot of other reviews I've seen talk of the TV, story elements (sensationalism) without the context and overarching themes and critical analysis.
Thank you for the links you provided 🙏🏽
I can't help but see the similarities between Squid Game and Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor. It's really interesting to see where they are similar and different. It probably has cultural significance, but I'm not as aware as I'd like to be about cultures other than mine, I just enjoy leaning, and seeing what I can observe through media.
That's right, squid Games is a copy of Kaiji in maaaany aspects, that's a shame that this isn't talked about enough.
6:54AM here in Italy, what a great day to start the day with this video 💯
very interesting. I didn't know that gihun's backstory was actually a real life event.
every time I watch your video I feel like my intelligence goes up by 10%. I've always wanted to leave a comment but I'm scared cause of my english (even though it's decent) and also smort people scare me.
with that, thank you for another amazing video
"There is no such thing as a labour shortage"
THANK YOU.
I've been working in education and labour policy for years, it's insane how constantly the lie of "Labour Shortages" gets repeated.
A "labour shortage" literally just means workers starting to gain negotiating power over employers. It literally CANNOT exist, except in reference to what a central authority thinks "Labour" should be earning.
Your analysis is so different from everything I’ve seen on this topic and I really appreciate it