Squid Squash

To create a TV show centred round a dystopian game show that kills off most of its main characters, all you need is green tracksuits, hot pink jumpsuits, black face masks, a giant girl doll, honeycomb biscuits, repeating staircases and blood. Lots of it. Full of iconic moments, Squid Game is claustrophobic, gruesome, dark and evil, but it somehow squeezes in hope. I’m still not sure how.

Squid Game, 2021.

Never before have green tracksuits been so fashionable and for those that are locked in a Squid Game-like room (with cascading bunk beds) and don’t know anything about the show, it’s essentially a game where nearly every contestant dies. The winner gets all the money they could ever dream of. Wrapped around this game is a lot of old fashioned violence. Graphic, bloody, gruesome violence. Of course, this show is not just about violence because in parallel it’s a commentary on privilege, the under-class and exploitation. The main character (played by actor Lee Jung-jae) is facing a personal ‘cliff’ and struggles to maintain a grip on his place in society and with his young daughter. Support characters (played by actors Hoyeon Jung, Gong Yoo, Lee Yoo-Mi, Jim Joo-ryeong and others) are also fighting their demons and one by one your favourite character meets their doom. I don’t think l’m telling you any secrets here, for those that haven’t watched Squid Game.

Squid Games, 2021.

Call me superficial but what really hooked me into Squid Game was the aesthetics, the design. Art director Chae Kyoung-Sun physically built sets to create more realistic scenes. The horror of survival at all costs. With limited CGI, scenes have a grit and act as a foil to the abstract reality of the game sequences and general life inside the game headquarters. Part bubble gum pop game show aesthetic, part Memphis and a lot 80’s saturation, Squid Game is a designers joy. Of course Hwang Dong-hyuk , whom wrote and directed the 9 episodes, deserves full credit for having this vision and somehow getting this series made. With echoes of Escher and a little Clockwork Orange, I spent as much time marvelling the images as l did tracking the storyline. With a gaming quality, this show is perfect for the intimacy of the small screen. And like Spanish architect, Ricardo Bofilli’s work, colour and form establish a stage-like arena for the characters to play for their life.

Architecture of Spanish architect, Ricardo Bofill.

Full credit needs to be given to Korean TV culture. This is a fantastically risky show on a whole lot of levels. Let’s support the film and TV industry to produce more risk taking stories like this one.

S.W