LOS ANGELES, USA – Squid Game, now on Season 2, with a third premiering in June this year, may still be riveting audiences with its deadly versions of children’s games. But for director Hwang Dong-hyuk and lead actor Lee Jung-jae, the hit series is also a serious social commentary.
Hwang and Lee, who both made history when they won Primetime Emmys in their respective categories for Season 1 in 2022, shared in a video press conference how the sophomore installment of their popular show, whose seven bingeable episodes are now streaming on Netflix, should also make viewers think of current realities.
Hwang returns to direct Lee, who became an international sensation as Seong Gi-hun, a struggling father who joins other debt-riddled folks in a contest of twisted, lethal versions of traditional Korean games.
“In Season 2, Gi-hun tries to find the masterminds behind all of this and that’s why he goes back into the game,” Hwang said. “But what I wanted to show, and the story that I wanted to tell through Seasons 2 and 3 are not about how these guys are the bad guys, and whether Gi-hun can stop them or not.”
“It’s really not about that,” he added. “It was more about wanting to ask ourselves and ask the question — do we, and by we, I mean most of us who are on the weaker side, have the willpower and strength to try to make the world a better place?”
Squid Game’s biting critique of modern society stems from Hwang’s financial struggles and experiences — he, his mother and his grandmother had to get loans to survive the Korean crisis in the late 1990s. He had to sell his laptop to pay the rent. He saw his friends and neighbors also get mired in debt.
The filmmaker became keenly aware of class disparities in his country and the world, wage stagnation, predatory lending, and exploitation that forces people to take great risks to escape financial burden.
Hwang shared: “To sort of expand that a little bit into greater scale, as human beings, do we have what it takes to change the course of the world? And can we truly let go of our greed, our desires, in order to create a better world together?”
“So, those were some of the questions that I wanted to pose; not so much about who or how are these people behind the games. Like, what they’re like. That was not too much of my focus.”
The 53-year-old Seoul native added: “If you look back at history, the world has never changed due to the people who are in power repenting. I do not think that we can ever expect that to ever happen.”
“And the vast majority, which are the ones that are under that control or under that dominance, which is us. It’s always up to those ordinary people, everyday Joe, you and I, to try to make a change and hope for a better future together. So, that’s the question I wanted to pose to all of us.”
The new season is set three years since Gi-hun, who was known as Player 456, won the game. With his prize of 45.6 billion South Korean won (around US $31 million), he assembles a team of mercenaries to fight and destroy the organization to prevent others from experiencing its cruel and exploitative games to entertain the rich.
“So, you already met the VIPs in Season 1,” Hwang said. “And these people are not representative of particular individual figures, but they’re the ones that have created the system, want to maintain the system, and those that benefit the most from the system.”
“Whether that’s about wealth or political influence, I created the VIPs wanting them to represent people who want the current system to be maintained.”
If Hwang wrote the first season based mostly on his personal financial crisis, this time he based his scripts on what he thinks are increasingly bleak prospects for the world.
“Season 1 came out during the pandemic,” he said. “And since then, the world is not becoming a better place. In fact, it’s truly headed for the worse.”
“As we all know, we are seeing worsening wealth gaps, issues with refugees around the world, climate change, and of course, with these tragic wars happening around the world, it’s leading to even more deaths that should not have taken place.”
“And the younger generation these days no longer want to create wealth or become wealthy through labor, but they are looking to make a quick buck or hit the jackpot by investing in things like cryptocurrency.”
He stressed the worldwide scope of these issues. “This is not something that’s just happening in Korea but all around the world. And so, these real world events have definitely influenced some of my creativity.”
The Seoul National University Communications graduate, who went on to get a master’s degree in film production at the University of Southern California, explained that there are “so many things that divide” people now.
“While creating Season 2, the one thing that I had most in mind was this current world, and how it makes all of us divide one another, separate us from the other group, create different sides, and become hostile to who you identify as being on the other side.”
“And there are so many things that divide us today, right? Whether it’s race, religion, language, the haves and the have-nots, the generational divisions.”
“We look at the political division, the left against the right, the conservatives against the progressive,” he added. “And things like these lead to such a division where it almost seems like there’s this line that absolutely cannot be crossed.”
“Almost as if the wall that was trying to be built between the States and Mexico, there is this line or a wall that can never be crossed it seems these days. And it seems that the world leaders are creating these walls and divisions.”
Hwang continued: “And it leads us to think that everyone who is on the other side who does not think as you do, or choose the things that you do, are an enemy that cannot ever be forgiven. You see that in the show, they have to go through a vote after each round and have to vote either O or X.”
“And that leads to the people in the games thinking, whatever you chose, I’m right; you’re wrong. I’m an angel; you’re absolute evil.”
“And so all throughout Season 2, really, I was focusing on that issue of, is there truly hope for us? Is there a future in a world where we are dividing everyone into sides and becoming hostile to one another?”
Rejected story
Starting around 2008, Hwang shopped around his idea for a movie script that would evolve into Squid Game.
Inspired by reading Japanese survival manga novels, he mined his own money hardship situation to pen a drama about a game that exploited financially desperate people. Korean production companies rejected the story.
So, for the next decade, Hwang concentrated on making several films, including the acclaimed Silenced, based on true events about students in a school for the deaf who were sexually abused.
When Netflix expanded to Asia, including Korea, Hwang submitted his old script to the streamer’s Seoul office. Netflix decided to make Hwang’s story into a series and the rest, as the cliché goes, is history.
Hwang admitted that although he speeded up his writing process this time around for Seasons 2 and 3, it turned out to be easier.
“It is true that I had to work on Seasons 2 and 3 in a shorter period of time. However, because it was building upon the universe that was already built in Season 1, it made it a lot easier in that sense. It took a lot less time,” he shared.
“Because that’s the really challenging part, having to create a universe that never was there, having to create the space, the wardrobe, the system, and all of the details.”
“I also had this thought in my mind, where I thought that anything longer than a three-year hiatus in between seasons is way too long,” he noted. “So, I wanted to do everything in my power to make sure that we gave the fans a next season within 2024.”
To motivate himself, Hwang set a self-imposed deadline to finish writing the next two seasons, the last one reportedly the final installment of the series.
“I tend to work better with a greater amount of energy, explosive energy, almost, when there’s a deadline and when I’m working against the clock. So, I gave myself this deadline in my head,” he explained.
“I just went all in with a huge amount of this concentrated energy. I was very thankful to say that it succeeded.”
Hwang emphasized that Squid Game is for adults only and said he was concerned that some children might be watching it.
“This series is created for the adults who have the ability to understand and interpret how the games are, and what you see as the storyline of the series is an allegory of what’s happening in today’s society,” he said.
“I’ve said this often before, but the games as well as what happens to the eliminated — being shot to their deaths — is an allegory which I used in order to tell the story and hold a mirror to today’s society about the limitless competition and how we treat the losers of those competitions.”
“How we just let them hit rock bottom without a safety net and what may happen to them if we continue down the path. And so again, this is made for adults and those who are able to understand that it is an allegory,” Hwang said.
Enough guidance needed
The director pointed out that adults should “provide enough guidance” if ever children watch the series.
“Now, kids these days, I know that they are sometimes exposed to some of the more provocative or eye-catching scenes in Squid Game through things like YouTube and other media outlets. That is something that I feel a deep concern about as I know other people feel that way, too.”
“And so, in Season 2, I truly hope that the adults will provide enough guidance for their children not to watch it. That would be the best way.”
He added: “But if it so happened that the children were exposed to any of the scenes, I hope that they (adults) will make it an opportunity to explain to them the context. What it means within society so that you can provide them with enough guidance. So that they don’t go about just looking at it out of context or copying any of the things that they see.”
As for the moneyed Squid Game organizers’ belief that everybody has a price, Hwang replied, “You can’t put a price on human life, right? But I believe that no matter what we believe in, or what we think, the world definitely tries to do just that.”
“People put a price on how much one’s labor costs and how much value you can put on an individual. And that leads to discrimination. And I am not so naïve that I believe that we can do completely away with any kind of discrimination in this world that we live in.”
“People are different. There are differences in terms of what kind of talents we have, what we are capable of. However, it becomes a problem when those differences lead to discrimination.”
He stressed: “And especially to an unacceptable level where those that have fewer abilities or those that have abilities that are deemed of less value in society are driven to the rock bottom of society without any kind of system to look after them.”
“That is something that we have to stop. If we fail to do that, I don’t think that we will ever see a society with a healthy social system.”
“And so, we need to move in a way where we accept the differences of individuals but make sure that it does not lead to discrimination. Unfortunately, that is what the world is currently doing.”
Emotional challenge
Lee Jung-jae, who became the first Asian to win the Emmy for Best Actor in a Drama Series in a non-English language, talked about his role’s different emotional challenges in Season 2.
“Emotionally, Gi-hun has changed quite a bit and he’s gone through a transitional period in terms of the emotional arc,” he said. “Because of that emotional change, in Season 1, the types of emotions that Gi-hun feels when he meets the other players are very different from what he feels when he meets other participants in Season 2.”
“However, in Season 2, I realized that I was on set reacting to others’ emotions first and paying more attention to that, so I thought that was the biggest difference this time around.”
The 52-year-old actor cited what else is different in the second installmemt, production-wise.
“I would say that the first would be scale — it has gotten a lot greater. Whether in terms of the games or in terms of the number, there are more characters that are involved. I would also say that the games are one of the biggest changes, as well as the characters,” Lee shared.
“Except for Gi-hun, all of the characters that play the games are new. And so, you’re gonna be able to see more characters that you end up rooting for, who are all different from Season 1. Lastly, I would say that the fact the players are put to a vote after each round, that would have to be the biggest difference.”
Lee also thinks there are more “intense feelings” involved.
“Personally, even more so than the tension that comes from just the games themselves, I felt more intense feelings of suspense and tension from these votes because you cannot but wonder, what’s gonna happen? Are the games gonna go on? Who’s gonna vote O or X? It’s all about the voting here,” he said.
Sad goodbyes
On his favorite memories of shooting the series, Lee said it’s bittersweet to part ways with the cast every time characters get killed.
“Getting to act with all of these interesting and fun characters. That was my favorite experience. I enjoyed it very much,” said Lee.
“And because it’s Squid Game, with every round of games, there are those that get eliminated. And once a character or an actor is eliminated, that day, we all get together for a group dinner.”
“We tell them, you did a good job, goodbye. And so, the days were at times inevitably filled with these sad goodbyes.”
He shared: “And the more episodes we shot, and the more shoot days went by, I accumulated the sense of loneliness, in a truer sense, and I felt very alone. That was an experience that I had because with each episode and as the shoot days go by, there are less and less characters on set. That’s a very unique experience as an actor on the set of Squid Game.”
Hwang quipped, though, that killing characters actually makes him “happier.”
“On the contrary, that was the happiest moment for me, to kill people. Because I had a hard time working with hundreds of people, extras, on set, and that was crazy. So, after I killed some, I felt less burden. So, that was the happiest moment,” Hwang said with a laugh.
“Every game, I kill people, I got happier, happier, happier. At the end of the game, I was the happiest person (laughs). Goodbye. I was crying, but inside, I was smiling.”
Asked if he has a better understanding of his character, a divorced father who changes his mind about moving to the US to be reunited with his daughter, and instead returns to try to stop the games and save the other players, Lee believes in Gi-hun’s goodness.
“I believe that one of the things that the audiences really loved about Gi-hun was his goodness of heart. The way he is so willing to help others,” said Lee.
“He may not be the strongest person in the room or the smartest person in the room, but with what little he can contribute, he wants to use that to help others.”
“I thought that was what a lot of the people loved about Gi-hun.,” he added. “So, with any chance I got to express that about the character, I tried to do my best in doing so.”
After Season 3, we may not have seen the last of the brutal games. There are unconfirmed reports of an English version being planned, with filmmaker David Fincher possibly involved. – Rappler.com