Squid Game Review

 

[This review has a lot of spoilers, read at your own cost!]

From the moment I saw the trailer here, I had no patience until it was released and grew curious about this drama, so as soon as It was released I started watching it. This is not the typical genre of k-drama that I watched, but it's worthwhile! There's not much dull moments and episode will keep you interested on the next one. The concept is really good and the story was well delivered. . Here are some of the aspects we can ponder about this k-drama.

THE FUNNIEST SCENE:

The part where the Ki-hoon licks the honeycomb to remove the "umbrella" pattern whole, and the moment the other players also licked their honeycomb pieces were so, so funny!

THE DARKEST SCENE:

That night right before Game 3 where most players started killing each other- the part where the lights were blinking and the bed were collapsing is so scary and made this scene so powerful and dark!!!

THE MOST HEARTBREAKING SCENE:

1)The part where Ji-yeong gives way for Sae-byeok.(The actress who acted for Sae-byeok had cried even after the shooting of that scene)

2)The part where Ali was betrayed by Sangwoo.

3)The part where the old man was shot dead.

THE MOST INTENSE GAME:

The glass bridge game, this is so intense!!! I liked how there's this guy who strategized on looking for the light reflection through the glass, the part where they also closed the light so that this strategy would fail is a nice plot!

The part where this mathematician calculated for the probability of surviving the game is also a nice plot! It's quite a wise move for him to step continuously on the glasses. I just wished, someone tried stepping on the next two glasses at the same time. The main lead was lucky this time! This was his only luck so far in the series.

COMMENTS ON THE ENDING:

*I was not expecting the glass injury for Sae-byeok, I mean why do they need to break the glasses anyway?

*I think, the squid game itself lacks exposure. Also, I was not expecting Sangwoo to kill himself in the end, I was expecting him to stab Gi-hun.

COMMENTS ON THE MAIN CHARACTER:

Ki-hoon's character is commendable, he is not a perfect character, he is a gambler and there is also an instance where he cheated against Il Nam on Game 5 (the marble game). But he consistently values life on the series, he paired with Il Nam after realizing that the old man might die if no one partners with him. He sincerely grieved for Sae-byeok when Sangwoo stabbed her. He also did not stabbed Sangwoo, even when he had the chance to.

THE MORAL OF THE STORY:

The story has a lot of things to say about the society and humanity's misery. As most of the reviews have mentioned, this series shows how the rich puts the life of some of the poor at stake for fun. And at the same time, most of the poor are poor enough to end up deciding to put their life at stake for money. Another thing is that, being too rich is not always a blessing, sometimes it leads to weird desires like something that is brutal and evil. Being too poor is obviously not a blessing too, as it would put your life at stake because you have no money to spare. Somehow, this show talks about the two extremes of the society, the richest and the poorest state. And I realized that if you are a person that falls on the middle (not rich enough to keep working, not poor enough to get what you needed in life) then you can be happy.

Value life over money. The thing I commend the most with the main character is that he values life on most situations. This series must also be teaching us to not be someone who we are not for the sake of money or success. I think, most people turned from dignified to non-dignified persons as they do their best to seek money and success in life. This is a foolish move since this is the same as forgetting who you really are as a human. Like what Sae-byeok said to Ki-hoon, "you are not that type of person", so if someone out there is tempted to do something really bad against their competitor, please don't, because that's not who you are, you can play fair, and we can succeed altogether.

Another lesson would be to 'Trust at your own cost'. There are people you can trust (like Ki-hoon, Ali, Sae-byeok and Ji-yeong), there are people you can't trust (like Deok-su), and there are also people who seem to be trustworthy but can't be trusted (like Sangwoo, Il Nam). We need to carefully discern which people should be trusted or not.