Netflix’s hit series Squid game is already on track to being one of Netflix’s most viral series ever. This k-drama has become everyone’s newest obsession once Netflix recently dropped this nine-part series on the streaming platform. 

This certain title was probably chosen as per creator Hwang Dong-hyuk’s desire in order to make the series protrude as a well defined Korean story. Besides, he was influenced by other survival game stories reportedly such as The Hunger Games, Kaiji and Battle Royale and created a similar story around his own culture.  

The series puts a dark and twisted turn on classic children’s games. Both in Korean and international, every episode has a profound layer of meaning than their origins may describe. The first season finishes with the official Squid game that is explained in the show’s opening scene. Yet the innocent games turned into brutal deadly games that fill the episodes in between. 

The very first scene of the series defines a flashback where a group of children from an unstated village in the past plays a game of Squid (ojingeo). In this game, players are split into two teams- the attackers and the defenders- they are tasked with knocking off their rivals from moving along the squid diagram drawn in the field. 

The bright red and green colour costume of Squid Game brings to mind a feeling of happiness of childhood that is shattered by the cruel reality. The other significant part of that rhythmic discordance is the game that turns pure child’s game into a death-dealing gladiator parade repeatedly. 

However, the tone of the Squid Game series is nerve-wracking and excruciating by design. This story picks on the life and death of its characters persistently although viewers know that almost all of them will die by the time the story ends.