So let’s talk more about how Squid Game director 황동혁 wanted the series to be an allegory about capitalism, and specifically, competition in capitalism.
So the Squid Games itself is a competition. 6 games to get that giant pot of wealth and compete against each other, yes. But even amongst the players themselves and the supervisors themselves, there is also competition.
Even outside of those 6 games there were many other competitions happening, in Squid Game.
For example, the side by side of loan sharks using body parts as collateral, and the supervisors in the Squid Game selling off people’s body parts for profit. This is a conversation about in capitalism how your life is literally on the line.
Amongst the players themselves even within the 6 games, there were layers upon layers of competition in that. Ageism example. Player 001 was considered not a lucrative player because of his age. And there was also this looking down on young players as having no experience.
There was clearly sexism. For example, women were chosen last to be on teams, and we actually found out that those factors that people believed were important, were really irrelevant when it came to the games.
There was also massive amounts of ableism if you think about who was being chosen to be on what team because of their physical build. And also think about who was and was not even in that room represented.
Competition and capitalism are inherently linked. Not only that, but those are the foundation of the idea there is a top, there is some sort of ideal to which you must aspire. And in order to get there, capitalism mandates that you trample on others.
Squid Game isn’t showing anything more brutal and vicious than what capitalism already is.
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