Squid Game mirrors reality of every Korean individual

(MENAFN) Fans worldwide are saying goodbye to Squid Game, the Emmy-winning series that has dominated Netflix’s charts and become a powerful symbol of South Korea’s rise in global entertainment.

The show’s fictional narrative centers on financially desperate contestants competing in traditional Korean children’s games—with a deadly twist where losing means death.

Since its debut in 2021, Squid Game has captivated audiences with its vibrant visuals and stark critiques of capitalism and human nature. Now that the third and final season has been released, viewers around the globe are returning to their everyday lives.

For many South Koreans, however, the series has sparked deeper reflection on the society that inspired its grim themes.

One viewer commented on YouTube, “I feel like Squid Game 3 revealed the true feelings and raw inner thoughts of Korean people. It reflected reality so well like how in real life, at work, it’s just full of ruthless people ready to crush you. This show nailed it.”

The series was created amid a backdrop of fierce social competition and growing inequality in South Korea, where intense pressures have contributed to declining birth rates, and where passing the university entrance exam is often seen as the pivotal event in a person’s life.

The show’s diverse cast of characters—including a corporate employee, a migrant factory worker, and a cryptocurrency fraudster—mirror many people familiar to South Koreans.

Notably, the protagonist Seong Gi-hun’s story as a laid-off car factory worker who later leads a strike draws inspiration from a real event: the 2009 SsangYong Motor factory strike, one of South Korea’s largest labor clashes, remembered for violent confrontations between workers and riot police amid mass layoffs.

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