South Korean director and screenwriter Hwang Dong-hyuk's series Squid Game has become the most popular release in Netflix history.
This was reported in the press service of the streaming platform.
In just 17 days, the project gathered 111 million viewers and topped the top in 90 countries of the world.
The tape also became the first Netflix series to reach more than 100 million viewers in its first month after its release.
The previous record was held by the Bridgerton series.
The melodrama set in England at the beginning of the 19th century attracted 82 million viewers in the first 28 days of the show.
The plot of the Squid Game is built around a survival tournament, in which 456 heroes who are experiencing financial difficulties take part.
They are offered to pass a competition of six children's games.
The winner will receive 45.6 billion won (2.75 billion rubles), but the stake in the game is life.
The main character of the series, Song Ki Hoon, player # 456, decides to participate in order to pay off debts and maintain a relationship with his daughter.
The Squid Game was another step towards the establishment of South Korean cinema on the world stage, interest in which increased in 2020, after the triumphant victory of the film Parasite at the Oscars.
Hwang Dong-hyuk's tape became the first South Korean TV series to top the international Netflix charts.
Rotten Tomatoes has a freshness rating of 91% based on 45 reviews.
IMDB users rated the series 8.2 out of 10.
The excitement surrounding the Squid Game continues to gain traction outside of the film industry.
So, according to Variety, the demand for white slip-on sneakers, in which players are tested, has grown by 7,800% since the show launched.
The #squidgame hashtag on TikTok has 37 million views: users learn to cook honeycombs, build conspiracy theories based on the series, and express their views on the ending and plot twists.
© Netflix
The “Squid Game” did not leave indifferent journalists either, many of whom view this project as a statement on the topic of socio-economic inequality.
Thus, The Guardian observers note the relevance of Hwang Dong-hyuk's work to the realities of South Korea, where unemployment has seriously increased in recent years, and the level of debt burden of the population has exceeded 100% of GDP.
The publication quotes the head of the think tank Real Good Economic Research Institute Lee In Chol, who believes that the Korean setting was not chosen by the filmmakers by chance.
“The total debt of ordinary people in South Korea is 5% higher than its GDP,” the expert says.
- Per person, this means that if he spends at least a whole year saving all his money, he will still not be able to pay off the debt.
Plus, the number of people with debt problems is growing exponentially. "
Variety's Daniel Daddario credits the show's sensitivity to Korean culture as well as its thought-provoking moral overtones among the show's undoubted advantages.
According to the expert, The Squid Game goes beyond the banal critical commentary in the spirit of the Hunger Games, as it forces the viewer to weigh the pros and cons in order to correlate themselves not only with the heroes, but also with the villains.
“But with the literal perception of the events of this show, during which so many lives were ruined and so much fake blood was spent to reveal the theme of kindness through its characters, its success ceases to be something amazing.
To its audience, which revels in the death of fictional characters, the series says that it is doing a good deed.
Enjoying the ongoing cruelty, reproaching the system that generates such cruelty, and rooting for its destruction, the viewer gets a double pleasure: he enjoys the spectacle and at the same time rises above it.
This is the most difficult aspect of the Squid Game, he emphasizes.
© Netflix
However, not all film critics are of this opinion. According to Mike Hale of The New York Times, although the series is an entertaining, dynamic show, it is not surprising with its plot, and also openly manipulates the viewer in order to achieve the necessary dramatic effect.
“What is the story of The Squid Game? Turning your attention away from filing and action, you will find an absolutely traditional, through and through predictable melodrama about the unity of brothers and sisters (unfortunately -
RT
). The main group of participants in the game seems to be tailored according to the patterns of Hollywood war films: a strong and quiet leader, a gloomy outsider, an aggressive robber, a good-natured old man and a quivering naive soul that acts as a surrogate for the viewer. There are about half a dozen of them, and the advancement of these characters in the plot occurs without surprises. They die in exactly the order you might expect: depending on their importance to the plot, ”says Hale.
The main reason for the negative reviews was the ending of the series, which, according to Eric Kane of Forbes, casts a shadow even on the successful first episodes.
The expert criticizes some of the plot twists, especially condemning the writers for how unexpectedly and meaninglessly the story of police officer Hwang Chun Ho ends.
“The first six episodes of Squid Games were excellent in almost every respect, but the last three were neither here nor there.
Yes, there were some wonderful moments in them - the final game was so tense, I didn't know what to expect - but as far as the final acts are concerned, "The Squid Game" sagged noticeably.
There was no total failure, but the series, which at first showed such high hopes, received a weak ending - that's for sure, ”the expert believes.