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Bloody interesting – Squid Game is the best thing on Netflix this year

Every so often Netflix launches a movie or series that really captures its audience and last week that happened with the launch of Squid Game.

The nine-part series follows a group of people who participate in a series of children’s games for a cash prize of 45.6 billion Won. While that sounds simple enough, if you lose one of these games, you die.

The contestants in the games are made up of people who are in soul-crushing debt or have committed acts of fraud before being approached by a mysterious company to participate in the Squid Games.

The series is incredibly violent as showcased during the first episode Red Light, Green Light, but underneath the blood and violence,there is a fantastic story being told.

The series is directed, produced and written by Hwang Dong-hyuk who has reportedly been working on the show for over a decade according to this piece from NME, and it really shows.

Everything about Squid Game feels deliberate and well thought out from the uniforms featured throughout the series down to the dialogue and performances from the cast. We get to see a slice of life for both the guards, the contestants and some others that if we mentioned would spoil the show.

The main character, Gi-hun played by Greg Chun, is the focus of much of the series and his character arch is so subtly executed you won’t even notice his growth. Other standout performances include Anupam Tripathi as Ali and Vivian Lu as Sae-byeok whose performances had us openly weeping.

What we appreciate about Squid Game is that it doesn’t shy away from violence. Were some shows would cut away from a gunshot to the head, Squid Game forces you to watch as blood splatters across other contestants. Is it needless, gratuitous violence? Not at all, but it can be shocking which adds to the overall sense of dread the series creates.

This is backed up by a wonderful soundtrack and a visual style that is equal parts children’s playground and violent dystopian monarchy. Even the simple act of contestants walking through a colourful M.C Esher-esque staircase caused us to break out in a cold sweat. There are many great things about Squid Game but it really is a masterclass in visual storytelling.

Before we round up we want to take a moment to talk about the dubbed version of this. We’ve now watched Squid Game twice, once with the dub and once with subtitles and both are rather good. While some of the voice actors for the dub aren’t great, the dialogue appears to be interpreted rather than directly translated which just makes the experience better if you don’t want to have to constantly read.

If you aren’t a fan of violence and gore, Squid Game will be a hard watch but if you can power through those scenes there is a fantastic story being told that pays off in a major way before the credits roll.

Squid Game is currently placed number four in South Africa’s top viewed content on Netflix and you really should give it a watch. We weren’t expecting a South Korean horror / drama / thriller to be the best thing we’ve watched all year but we’re so thankful we gave it a watch and we highly recommend you watch it as well.

And yes, we would love a second season please Netflix.

This story has been updated. Rama Vallury was incorrectly listed as the actor who portrays Ali. Anupam Tripathi portrays the character on-screen while Vallury voices the actor for the English dub. We apologise for the mistake.

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