‘Squid Game’ enters its final era

by Lucia Caporalini

Hit South Korean series ‘Squid Game’, created by writer and director Hwang Dong-hyuk, entered its final era on Friday as season three (its last) was released on Netflix. 

The show once again follows its protagonist, Seong Gi-hun (played by Lee Jung-jae), as he tries to destroy from within the organisation forcing him and other 455 players to fight each other to death in order to win the final money prize – and end their financial hardships.

Season two ended with a (failed) rebellion against the system and the reveal that Player 001 (Lee Byung-hun) was actually the Front Man, the person responsible for the management of the game.

In the final season, the surviving players on the mysterious island are doomed to kill each other in new disturbing, gruesome ways to win the game, as alliances and friendships are shattered by greed – and children’s games.

‘Eight or nine teeth’

Sequels are not a common occurrence in South Korean television. 

Most of the country’s shows are usually fully developed over the course of one season, so ‘Squid Game’’s three installments are an anomaly. 

So what convinced creator Hwang Dong-hyuk to make the exception?

“Money,” he said to the BBC while filming season two. 

“Even though the first series was such a huge global success, honestly I didn’t make much,” he added at the time. 

“So doing the second series will help compensate me for the success of the first one too. And I didn’t fully finish the story,” he explained. 

But the process has revealed itself to be more taxing than originally expected. 

Hwang disclosed that he had lost “eight or nine” teeth from the stress of filming season one, and it seems season three once again took a toll on his health. 

“I thought I was going to be okay, but this time I had to pull out two more teeth as well,” he told Entertainment Weekly. 

Seasons two and three were filmed back-to-back. 

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The show’s protagonist, Lee Jung-jae, also confirmed how stressful the process was. 

“It was non-stop filming for about a year and two months. So it was draining, physically,” he told the Guardian.

Seeing all those people dying in horrible ways, although fictitiously, must not have been easy either.

“I hope people don’t become desensitised. All these characters have very tragic backstories. I hope people will focus on that and mourn their deaths.”

No happy endings

‘Squid Game’ has been praised since the release of its first season for its crude portrayal of human nature – especially when it has to confront itself with betrayal, danger, and death.

“Within this world, writer and director Hwang Dong-hyuk sets up compelling dilemmas – would you betray your friend to escape death? – and lets them play out in agonising stretches,” the Guardian wrote after the release of season one.

Season three focuses on this theme again, but with a renewed taste for barbarity: “The tone is going to be more dark and bleak,” Hwang tells the Guardian now. 

“The world, as I observe it, has less hope. I wanted to explore questions like, ‘What is the very last resort of humankind? And do we have the will to give future generations something better?’”

“After watching all three seasons, I hope we can ask ourselves, ‘How much humanity do I have left in me?’,” he explained. 

And for anyone hoping for a happy ending, Hwang said he will not grant that wish.

“People like a happy ending. I’m like that too. But some stories, by nature, can’t have one,” he told the Guardian.

“If you try to force one, the essence is compromised. If a story is holding up a mirror to something, then it’s not always a happy ending. Squid Game is no exception.”

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