Guest Column: How Squid Game Creator Hwang Don-Hook Created a Story That Knows No Borders

Life has always been difficult, a race from birth to death that you can only hope for is full of moments of transcendence and joy, a brief period of time where you try to establish some meaning as you go. But for many, life is like a spectacle of extreme competition, where the punishment for losing is far more serious than being kicked off the island or voting at home. The society we created together has become tragically flawed, and yet it is also an inevitable construction.

These were some of the ideas that came to my mind when I came up with the idea. squid game As a feature film for over ten years. Why do you write about poverty, struggle, despair and capitalism? Well, because I know this story very well; I remember I only had $5 in my bank account at the time of writing squid game And I’m selling a laptop that I wrote a script on for $700 so I can live for a few months. Although I haven’t written about it directly. squid game, which I completed was much more understandable. I wanted to write a story that was an allegory of a modern capitalist society, populated by characters we all know in real life. At the time, the response from those who could have made the film was that it was highly unrealistic. An image of global elites who, for their own sick entertainment, lure hundreds of citizens desperate to compete in a series of deadly games for a chance to live without financial burdens or hardship? In 2008, I think it was a stretch. In 2022, some may not be surprised if they discover squid game It was inspired by real events.

Formed as an original series for Netflix, the story of property and possessions, which I was fortunate to present with the help of my irreplaceable colleagues and co-workers, takes on a whole new twist. The pandemic has accelerated many things, from business paradigms to our collective understanding of weakness. But he made at least one thing clear: for those without extravagant resources, life can be a lottery. ფაქThe fact that squid game It was no longer unreal in this new era that there was no longer an absurdity that somehow caused pain as a person.

I live in South Korea where society is also very competitive and stressful. We have 50 million people in a small country that North Korea separated from the Asian mainland, so we developed an island mentality. It often seems to us that our collective consciousness is preparing for the next crisis. To some extent, this is the motivator. It helps us ask more about what we have to do. As a narrator, everything shows a reserve of creative anger, but also an invasive decision, a search for fun to translate what happened to us and continues to happen to us.

I designed squid game The world to reflect our nightmare reality. I wanted the faces on the screen to be representative to convey the message that 90% of people living in this impoverished society can be left behind and fall to the bottom at any time. As bad as it is, society is not something we can escape. We’re all here together. We are all in the same ocean together, though not always in the same boat. My only hope is for the viewer to step away from what we created and ask themselves, “Should we live in a world like this? Can we do something about it? “

I’m speechless about how much squid game He played the chord. It was a worldwide phenomenon, attracting more than 1.65 billion hours of viewers in the 28 days since its debut in September and becoming the most popular Netflix TV show of all time. It also proved that the subtitle limit might not be an issue for long, becoming the first non-English language series to earn Producers Guild and Screen Actors Guild nominations and continuing to lead the way at the international level. Films like Alfonso Cuarონისn Pomegranate and Bong Joon Ho Parasite.

Everything tells me that the story we are telling here has no boundaries. It is a universal and coincidental story of working-class individuals, subordinates whose roots you want because they face impossible circumstances. Not only that, but it makes my heart warm to see how much we love America and our actors from all over the world, including Lee Jung-jae, Park Hee-soo, Jung Ho-yon, Anupam Tripati, and Oo Yang-soo. . It was also very gratifying to see the actor community award and honor Jung-jae and Ho-yon at the SAG Awards in February. As much as I pride myself on the fact that these topics are making waves around the world, I am happy to see these talents standing out and deserving of your attention.

That’s what I learned most from this experience. The support we received for this previously “unrealistic” project gives me hope that stories from around the world will continue to find their place and connect with audiences through our shared experiences as human beings. squid game I helped tear down the walls of the rest of the world on TV shows, and as per the legacy, I couldn’t ask for anything deeper.

The story first appeared in a separate June issue of The Hollywood Reporter. Click here to subscribe to the magazine.