The date was September 17, 2021, well over a year into the global COVID-19 pandemic. We were getting fat sitting on our couches, logging into Zoom meetings and betting on Korean baseball games when Netflix released Squid Game, created by Hwang Dong-hyuk.
It was a show that delved into the inequities in society and rawness of human nature. But what endeared most to the series were the games…that didn’t result in just an L but with death.
Red Light, Green Light is a simple game. Move when the light is green. Stop when the light is red. If a player moves when the light is red, he/she gets sniped breathlessly by a giant robot.
Sugar Honeycombs is part puzzle, part homemaking. One must carve out a particular shape without breaking apart the honeycomb. If not, death.
Tug of War doesn’t need an explanation. The only difference in this version is that, instead of mud in the middle, there is a drop-down that even Wile E. Coyote would be impressed by.
Marbles is a zero-sum game – get the marbles of the other person. The curveball, though, was that players chose who to pair with, thinking that they would be helping each other to accomplish a task. Instead, one would be directly responsible for killing the other.
Hopscotch always brought back nostalgic memories. Drawing colored chalk on the sidewalk, using a variety of objects to use as the laggers and jumping from one square to another. In Squid Game, the players had to jump from square to square to get to the other side. Except some squares break and cause a death descent. Oh, and there’s a time limit and the last person has the advantage of seeing 15 others go first.
The final game is a popular kid’s game in Korea. There’s a square, a triangle and two circles on the ground. The players cannot touch the lines while trying to invade the other’s space.
Squid Game was a global sensation and grossed over $900 million. It inspired Halloween garb, a real-life game show and another Korean series called The 8 Show. After a three-year hiatus, the show will be returning with Season 2 in December and Season 3 sometime in 2025.
The premise of Season 2 is that Player 456 looks for the people who created the game and put an end to it. For that, though, he needs to re-enter the festivities.
I can’t wait to see what games are concocted.
