The Real-Life Stories That Inspired Squid Game – When Hwang Dong-hyuk’s Squid Game came out in 2021, it wasn’t just a hit; it became a cultural phenomenon around the world. Seeing grownups with a lot of debt killed while playing schoolyard games was both horrifying and fascinating to watch. The show was so raw and brutally honest about desperation that a disturbing question arose after its meteoric rise: Was Squid Game based on a genuine story?
No, the quick and simple answer is no. There is no proof of a secret tournament where the world’s richest individuals watch poor people fight to the death for a huge financial reward. Hwang’s creative and twisted mind came up with the masked guards, the complicated island complex, and the huge doll with laser eyes.
But if you call the show pure fiction, you will miss its deep and scary purpose. Squid Game is not an exact reenactment of an actual incident, but it is very, very true at its core. It is a brilliant allegory based on the creator’s own hardships and a scathing assessment of the problems that plague modern South Korea and, by extension, the world.
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The Creator’s Desperation: A Story from My Life
The life of Hwang Dong-hyuk, the writer and director of Squid Game, is the most direct source of inspiration for the show. He came up with the story in 2008, when things were very bad for him and the world financially. The collapse of Lehman Brothers shook the international economy, and Hwang himself was in a bad financial situation. He lived with his mother and grandmother and had trouble getting film ideas off the ground. At one point, he had to sell his laptop for only $675 in cash.
He went to Korean comic book cafes (manhwabangs) to escape his problems
There, he read survival novels and Japanese manga like Battle Royale and Liar Game. This is where the idea for Squid Game started to come together, surrounded by stories of high-stakes competition and mental torture. He thought about what it would be like if he or people like him had to compete in a contest like that for their lives in order to get out of their financial jail.
Hwang said in an interview, “I was having a lot of trouble with money because my mother quit the job she had.” “I was working on a movie, but we couldn’t get the money we needed.” I couldn’t work for about a year because of this. “I had to borrow money to get by.”
The emotional center of the series is this person’s experience with debt and hopelessness.
Hwang’s own feelings of being at rock bottom are shown in the main character, Seong Gi-hun (Player 456). Gi-hun’s gambling addiction, his bad connection with his daughter, and his inability to pay for his mother’s medical care are more than just narrative points; they are exaggerated versions of the genuine worries that come with being in a lot of debt. The story isn’t about an actual game, but it does talk about the very real experience of being stuck with no way out.
The “Hell Joseon” is a mirror of society.
Squid Game is a harsh look at modern South Korean culture that goes beyond Hwang’s own tale. “Hell Joseon” is a common joke among South Korean teens that compares their country to the strict caste system of the Joseon era, saying it is a horrible, dismal place. It shows a deep-seated anger at the huge gaps in wealth, the cutthroat rivalry, and the lack of social mobility.
One of the highest rates of household debt in the industrialized world is in South Korea. The pressure to do well is immense, starting in childhood and extending through a cutthroat school system and a job market that doesn’t forgive mistakes. For a lot of people, getting into a lot of debt for a house, school, or business is not a choice but a need. When these businesses collapse, the results are terrible. They make people feel like they are too far behind to ever catch up, just like the characters in Squid Game.
This is the truth about society that makes the show’s premise so scary
The vote in the second episode is the most disturbing part of the series, not a violent death. Most players vote to halt the competition and go home after seeing the first game’s bloodbath. But when they go back to their sad, debt-ridden existence, practically all of them choose to go back to the fatal arena on their own. This choice of story is a strong criticism of a society where the harsh realities of daily existence might feel worse than a fight to the death. The game gives you an opportunity to get away, even if it’s very small. The real world doesn’t give you that chance.
The Corruption of Innocence
The choice of games for kids is another great example of how to tell a tale using allegory. “Red Light, Green Light,” marbles, and tug-of-war are all games that are designed to show innocence, fairness, and simple happiness. They show a moment before the adult world got complicated and nasty.
Hwang uses these traditional activities as horrific weapons of death to make a strong point about how current, late-stage capitalism has twisted the idea of fair play. The playground turns into a war zone. People use simple rules to get a deadly edge. Betrayal breaks up teamwork. The series indicates that the society we live in has turned the ordinary parts of life into a zero-sum game where one person’s success must come at the expense of another’s failure or, in this case, their lives.
The Dalgona sweets game, in which participants have to cut a form out of a honeycomb biscuit without it breaking, is a great example. It’s a game of chance (whatever shape you get) and delicate skill. It’s a very clear metaphor for the risky pathways people have to take to stay financially stable, where one wrong move or a little poor luck may lead to disaster.
The Truth for Everyone
The concepts of Squid Game came from real-life situations in Korea, yet they resonated with people all across the world because these problems aren’t just in South Korea. Universal worries include worrying about the economy, the growing gap between the very rich and the very poor, and the sensation that you are a powerless pawn in a system that is set up for you to lose. People all over the world could see their own worries in Gi-hun’s desperation and Sang-woo’s fall from grace.
Is Squid Game a real story?
No. But its strength comes from the fact that it is accurate in both an emotional and social way. It is a made-up story that shows how horrible it is to be in economic misery. The hooded guys with firearms aren’t the scariest demons in the series; the invisible forces of debt and inequality that made 456 individuals choose a bloody arena over the world they left behind are. The real tale of Squid Game is about a world where, for too many people, making that option could seem like the only sensible thing to do.
Read also : Finding out what real-life and fictional events inspired Squid Game
