‘All my teeth are gone': Squid Game's creator on the toll of making the biggest show on Netflix
It is impossible to overstate the success of Squid Game. The brilliant, bloody South Korean drama – in which hundreds of financially desperate individuals compete, in a sequence of lethal challenges, for a multimillion-pound prize – grabbed the attention of viewers across the world with its bizarre combination of playground games and violent deaths.
Subtitled, made on a comparatively small budget and released with next to no fanfare in September 2021, the first series became a surprise hit and remains Netflix's most-watched show to date. The follow-up, which arrived on Boxing Day 2024, was instantly devoured by viewers all around the world.
The show's triumph, however, came at no small personal cost to Hwang Dong-hyuk, its 54-year-old creator, writer and director. After the first series, he revealed that the strain of getting Squid Game on to the screen had left him so stressed that his teeth had begun to come loose and, one by one, fall out.
So, on the eve of the third series (released on Netflix next month), I cannot resist asking Hwang how his remaining teeth are holding up. 'I lost two more,' he sighs. 'I'm still waiting for the implants.' How many teeth has he now lost in total? 'I guess 10 or 11.'
One of the reasons the pressure of making the smash-hit show falls so squarely on Hwang's shoulders is that he chooses to work alone, to prevent his singular vision from being diluted by committee. 'I don't think it's ever crossed my mind to ask for help in the process,' he tells me. 'I knew it was going to be very challenging, but I went into it thinking that it's just what has to be done.'
It hasn't been all bad news for Hwang, of course. Thanks to the monster success of Squid Game, he finds himself, in stark contrast to his childhood, comfortably well off. Alongside Parasite's Oscar-winning Bong Joon Ho and Oldboy's Park Chan-wook, he can also now consider himself one of Korea's most in-demand auteurs.
The new series will bring to an end the story of Seong Gi-hun, aka Player 456 (played by Lee Jung-jae), the idealist who outlasted 455 other contestants to triumph in the first Squid Game, but re-entered the death match in series two in an attempt to bring down the system from within. 'It's been quite a long journey, and a very challenging one, too,' Hwang tells me. 'So I'm very happy to be able to conclude it.'
The action picks up where the previous series left off, when a group of players (led by Gi-hun) launched an insurrection against the villainous Front Man and the others in control of proceedings. This being Squid Game, the players are of course defeated and those who have not died in the firefight are chucked back into the competition.
Having seen the first half of the new series, I can confirm that some of the games that feature in it are among the most brutal Hwang has yet devised, complete with highly charged face-offs between players and more than one moment that will make viewers gasp. There is also a brief but significant use of a Cliff Richard song.
It all promises to lead to a final showdown between Gi-hun and the Front Man, who is himself a former winner who stayed on to control the Squid Game on behalf of the sadistic international investors who bankroll the slaughter.
Hwang laughs when I ask him if Netflix had wanted him to extend Squid Game beyond a third series. 'I don't think they're going to say no if I say I want to do it, but so far, nobody has said, 'Please make more,'' he confirms. 'I don't have any more stories that I want to tell, but, as the saying goes, never say never.'
Hwang feels an affinity with his characters, having struggled for years to make ends meet. His father, a journalist, died of stomach cancer when Hwang was five, and throughout his childhood his mother would take odd jobs to support him, his brother and grandmother. He has described the family as being 'very poor for a very long time'. The idea that eventually led to Squid Game came to him in 2009, shortly after the financial crisis hit South Korea. But it took more than a decade – during which time he established himself as one of Korea's leading filmmakers, topping the domestic box office with Silenced (2011) and The Fortress (2017) – before Netflix finally took a punt on his series.
Hwang speaks good English, having studied at the University of Southern California and spent a few years living in Los Angeles; I suspect he has the linguistic skills, if not the confidence, to dispense with the interpreter. He laughs again when I ask if he feels closer to the optimism of Gi-hun or the cynicism of the Front Man when considering the state of humanity, before replying in rapid-fire Korean.
'You know, I used to be very optimistic,' he says. 'I had a lot of trust, empathy and compassion; that is why Gi-hun is my protagonist. But I have to say, while creating Squid Game and looking around the world, seeing what's happening, it's true that I've become more pessimistic. I began to ask myself, 'Can we stop climate change? Are we, as a species, going to one day agree to reduce CO2 emissions and turn to green energy? Are we willing to make that sacrifice?' And I found the answer to be, 'No', because we are very selfish, right? We are only focused on our own gains, our own wealth, and we are going to drive ourselves into ruin.'
He adds: 'I do feel I'm quite like Gi-hun, and in season three, you will see him continue his struggle not to lose hope. And I think for me as well, every day, I am also struggling, on my own, not to lose hope in humanity.'
One prominent theme that runs through the second and third series of Squid Game is the limitations of democracy. At the end of each round, the players are given the opportunity to bring the games to an end – a majority vote would stop the bloodshed – but the greedy and avaricious invariably triumph, terrorising the rest into continuing.
Is Hwang suggesting that democracy is a flawed system? 'I think that when it comes to representative democracy, there's really no way other than to follow the majority vote,' he says. 'But I continue to ask the more fundamental question, 'Is the majority vote always the right choice?' Especially for countries where the party or the person who is chosen as a result of the majority vote gets to hold onto power for so many years.'
A single election result, he suggests, 'can affect too many things', ultimately 'creating even harsher divisions among people'. That is especially true in Korea, the leadership of which Hwang characterises as an 'imperial presidency' that 'dominates everything for years'. There was unprecedented chaos last December when the country's president, Yoon Suk Yeol, declared martial law and, after a huge public outcry, was removed from office.
We are speaking in April, shortly after Donald Trump's 'liberation day', on which the US president upended the global economic order by levying tariffs in his quest to Make America Great Again.
Trump is the epitome of a divisive politician: I ask if Hwang sees him as a Front Man type, who has orchestrated his own global version of Squid Game, in which everybody is out for themselves? Once more, he laughs.
'It's not right for me to make that direct comparison with the current president in power,' he says. Besides, 'I have to visit the United States quite often and you know how they are getting trickier issuing their visas... So why don't we return to this subject after [Trump] has left office?' That is not a 'no'.
It's hard not to see in Squid Game's dystopian scenario a critique of late-stage capitalism – the heavily indebted masses are forced to descend to unimaginable depths in pursuit of money, while billionaires look on and laugh at their misfortune. It is not without a certain irony, then, that the show itself has become such a commercial juggernaut, spawning a spin-off reality show, merchandise lines and live experiences.
Hwang sees no contradiction there. 'Squid Game is not a textbook, right? It's not a government-financed public announcement,' he argues. 'We went into it wanting to create something that would do well commercially and make people want to subscribe to Netflix, and it is a product of that. Its content happens to be critical of the current things that we see in society. Regarding Netflix's commercialisation of the IP, I do not object to it. I have no negative emotions about that. I want to make it clear that the message of the show is not a full-force rejection of capitalism itself.'
Nevertheless, he adds, 'it is time for us to put a halt to the excessive chase for further growth. Look at what we have neglected along the way, and also look at how there is no systemic or institutional safety net for those who become losers of the limitless competition in today's capitalist society.'
As for what Hwang is planning next, he says, 'I'm just exhausted with all my teeth being gone, so I'm really focusing on trying to recover my body and my mind.' He will admit, however, that he has both a new film and a television series in the works – and, although he is reluctant to reveal too many details, it sounds as though he is not yet ready to leave behind the brutality that defined Squid Game.
'The film is about events in the near future. It's based on the conflict between the younger generation and the older generation,' he says. 'The premise is that, as the environment becomes worse and worse, we have to get rid of half of humanity.'
It hardly sounds like light entertainment. When I ask if Hwang has ever considered writing something more uplifting, he directs me towards Miss Granny (2014), his lighthearted domestic hit (available now on Netflix), which sees a woman in her 70s magically finding herself back in the body of a 20-year-old. 'For my future projects and the things that I'm tossing around right now, there is still going to be romance, fun and comedy,' he insists, 'no matter how bleak the theme may be.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
27 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Ghibli's midlife crisis: as beloved Japanese studio turns 40 will the magic fade?
Disney, Pixar … Ghibli. For its legions of admirers, the Japanese studiohasn't just held its own against the American powerhouses, it has surpassed them with the impossible beauty of its hand-drawn animation and its commentary on the ambivalence of the human condition. Although he would refuse to acknowledge it, much of Studio Ghibli's success is down to one man: Hayao Miyazaki, a master animator whose presence towers over the studio's output. Making a feature-length anime the old-fashioned way may require a large and multitalented cast, but Miyazaki is the thread running through Ghibli's creative genius. Now, as the studio marks its 40th anniversary, it faces an uncertain future, amid renewed speculation that its figurehead auteur really has wielded his pencil for the last time. Roland Kelts, a visiting professor at the school of culture, media and society at Waseda University, said Ghibli had failed to anticipate a time when Miyazaki, who is 84, would no longer be at the helm, even after the succession question grew more urgent following the death in 2018 of co-founder Isao Takahata. Instead, the studio shifted its focus to commercial activities. 'The studio failed to produce heirs to Miyazaki and Takahata, and now it's a merchandising monster,' says Kelts, author of Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the US. In 2013, Miyazaki announced that he would no longer make feature-length films, citing the difficulty of living up to his own impossibly high standards. But four years later, Ghibli said its co-founder had had a change of heart and would make 'his final film, considering his age'. The result was The Boy and the Heron, winner of the 2024 Academy Award for best animated film. While Ghibli performs alchemy on the screen, there is nothing it can do to shapeshift itself clear of the march of mortality: Miyazaki's main colour designer, Yasuda Michiyo, whose work appeared in most of his films, died two years before Takahata, while another co-founder, producer Toshio Suzuki, is 76. As a result, the studio is finally looking ahead to a future without its leading creative light, notwithstanding persistent rumours that Miyazaki is not quite done yet. 'Miyazaki is 84 and may not have time to make another movie,' says Kelts. The studio was formally established by Miyazaki, Suzuki and Takahata in 1985 – a year after it released the post-apocalyptic Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. It has since become a cultural phenomenon, winning an Oscar in 2003 for Spirited Away, and a second Oscar in 2024 for The Boy and the Heron. Told through the prism of the fantastical, and featuring characters and themes that defy the pigeonholing that underpins much of Hollywood's output, Studio Ghibli's films are widely considered masterpieces of their genre, earning two Oscars and the devotion of millions of fans across the world. Watching a Ghibli movie is like reading literature, says Miyuki Yonemura, a professor at Japan's Senshu University who studies cultural theories on animation. 'That's why some children have watched My Neighbour Totoro 40 times,' she says. 'Audiences discover something new every time.' In some ways, Ghibli shares certain values with Disney, says Susan Napier, a professor of Japanese studies at Tufts University in the US, believes. 'Both are family oriented, insist on high production standards and have distinctive worldviews. 'But what is striking about Ghibli is how for the last 40 years the studio has reflected and maintained a set of values and aesthetics that are clearly drawn from its founders and not from a corporate playbook,' adds Napier, author of Miyazakiworld: a Life in Art. Miyazaki has made no secret of his progressive politics, informed by his experience living through conflict and postwar austerity, and has publicly criticised attempts by conservative politicians to revise Japan's war-renouncing constitution. His films address the themes of war and the environment, but stop short of distilling the narrative into a simple battle of good versus evil. The Boy and the Heron, for example, opens with Mahito Maki, the 12-year-old protagonist, losing his mother in the US's aerial bombardment of Tokyo in March 1945, in which an estimated 100,000 people died. However, Ghibli's decades of independence ended in 2023 when the studio was acquired by Nippon TV – a move that the studio conceded came amid uncertainty over its future leadership. Speculation that Miyazaki's eldest son, Goro, was heir apparent has dampened since the latter voiced doubt about his ability to run the studio alone, and amid reports that artistic differences had contributed to 'strained' relations between father and son. Now it will be up to Nippon TV to develop a pool of directors to gradually replace the old guard, including those with expertise in computer animation, considered anathema to Ghibli's fierce commitment to hand-drawn frames. Ghibli has at least overcome its squeamishness towards broadening its commercial brief. The Ghibli Museum has been a huge success since it opened in western Tokyo in 2001, while visitors flock to Ghibli Park in central Japan, whose launch in 2022 was seen as an acknowledgment by the studio that it needed to build a brand that went beyond film-making. Now Ghibli merchandise is ubiquitous, from My Neighbour Totoro T-shirts and cuddly character toys to high-end leather handbags inspired by Spirited Away and Levi's branded Princess Mononoke jackets. Totoro, Miyazaki's 1988 film set in 1950s rural Japan, was turned into a play by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2022. Last year a stage adaptation of Spirited Away received a four-star review in the Guardian. While computer-generated animation and AI make the painstaking, aesthetically stunning animation that Ghibli is renowned harder than it was a generation ago, Napier is not convinced the octogenarian auteur is ready to retire. 'I can't imagine someone like Miyazaki, with his intellectual and artistic vivacity, simply being content to sit around, so who knows?' Agence France-Presse contributed reporting
Reuters
2 hours ago
- Reuters
Japan scraps US meeting after Washington demands more defense spending -FT
WASHINGTON, June 20 (Reuters) - Japan has canceled a regular high-level meeting with its key ally the United States after the Trump administration demanded it spend more on defense, the Financial Times reported on Friday. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had been expected to meet their Japanese counterparts in Washington on July 1 for annual 2+2 security talks. But Tokyo scrapped the meeting after the U.S. side asked Japan to boost defense spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP, higher than an earlier request of 3 per cent, the paper cited unnamed sources familiar with the matter, including two officials in Tokyo, as saying. A U.S. official who did not want to be identified confirmed Japan had "postponed" the talks but said the decision was made several weeks ago. The source did not cite a reason. A non-government source familiar with the issue said he had also heard Japan had pulled out of the meeting, but not the reason for it doing so. U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said she had no comment on the FT report when asked about it at regular briefing, and the Pentagon also had no immediate comment. Japan's embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment. The Financial Times said the new higher spending demand was made in recent weeks by Elbridge Colby, the third-most senior Pentagon official, who has also recently upset another key U.S. ally in the Indo-Pacific by launching a review of a project to provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines. In March, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said that other nations do not decide Japan's defense budget after Colby called in his nomination hearing to be under secretary of defense for policy for Tokyo to spend more to counter China. Japan and other U.S. allies have been engaged in difficult trade talks with the United States over U.S. President Donald Trump's worldwide tariff offensive. The FT said the decision to cancel the July 1 meeting was also related to Japan's July 20 Upper House elections, at which the ruling Liberal Democratic Party is expected to suffer a loss of seats. It comes ahead of a meeting of the U.S.-led NATO alliance in Europe next week, at which Trump is expected to press his demand that European allies boost their defense spending to 5 percent of GDP.
BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
BTS is back - but K-pop has changed
"I missed them so much," says Stephanie Prado, a die-hard BTS fan who has been desperately waiting for the group to reunite after a two-and-a-half-year love for the boy band inspired her to move from Brazil to South Korea - so it was no surprise that she turned up last Friday for "BTS Festa", a big party held every year near Seoul on the group's time she has spent waiting, has moved "both slowly and really quickly", Stephanie says, waving an ARMY bomb, the official lightstick used by BTS fans, who call themselves the her is a huge sculpture of the lightstick, a must-have in the K-pop year's event is special because a reunion is finally around the corner. The countdown peaked last week, when four of the seven members, RM, V, Jimin and Jung Kook, completed their military service. And the wait ends on Saturday when the last of them, Suga, is discharged."I hope they rest now," Stephanie says, before adding, "but of course I also want albums, concerts, everything".The 18 months in the military that are mandatory for all South Korean men forced the world's most successful boy band in recent years to hit pause in 2022. Now they are returning, some say, to a K-pop industry that is quite different to the one they knew: faced with stalled album sales, shaken by scandals and increasingly scrutinised over the excessive pressure its puts on absence of a leading band, industry watchers say, was deeply felt."Without BTS, a core pillar was missing," says Kim Young-dae, music critic and author of BTS: The Review. "There have been concerns recently that K-pop is losing momentum. True or not, BTS could change that perception." The ARMY awaits There are no plans yet for all seven members to appear together, but that didn't stop the ARMY from gathering early on a humid morning in long, restless queue stretched to the subway station an hour before the gates for the BTS Festa opened. The snippets of English, Chinese, Japanese and Spanish alongside Korean, threw off a local walking past who asked, "Why are there so many foreigners here?" Inside were more queues - some people were hopping with excitement and others were sobbing after entering the so-called voice zone, a phone booth where you could listen to BTS members' messages. About half of the fans the BBC spoke to teared up talking about how much they missed BTS."It felt like the 18 months lasted forever," said Vuyo Matiwane, a South African who had been visiting BTS-themed venues in Seoul, like their favourite restaurant. "I was crying at every location - it was so emotional."And then she watched the livestream of them being discharged, which was "overwhelming".Being surrounded by all things BTS made a trip half-way across the world worth it, says Fara Ala, who travelled from the Netherlands: "Breathing the same air, drinking the same water, eating the same food as BTS - that's enough for ARMY. If you ask other ARMY, they'd say the same." South Korean military service is a major test for male celebrities, many of whom have to enlist at the peak of their success. In the past, it has proved fatal for some is believed to have staggered it so that all seven members were missing from action for no more than six months. J-Hope, who was discharged last October, has since wrapped up a solo world tour. But the so-called curse can be hard to break. For one, the loyalty of fans could wane as new groups debut almost every week, competing for their attention. Returning idols also face a tough transition because a military stint and a touch of maturity could dampen the essence of K-pop appeal: youthful if anyone can break the curse, it's BTS, Mr Kim of them announced solo projects in the past two and half years, he explains, without hurting their popularity as a group: "It feels like their military hiatus passed by naturally. Their return feels smooth." The shift in K-pop Still, the industry beyond the ARMY can pose a BTS was on a break, the other K-pop sensation, Blackpink, has not dropped an album since September 2022, opting instead for solo releases. These were the leaders of K-pop's third they have been succeeded by fourth and fifth generations that have brought fresh style to the genre. The newer acts - which debuted after 2018 - lack a standout name like BTS because K-pop has become more diverse than ever. The result is a range of very popular and experimental groups. "Most people my age like fourth generation idols these days," says a 13-year-old fan of girl group IVE."Some still like third generation groups, but for teens, BTS kind of feels like they belong to an older generation. A lot of new idols debuted while BTS was away, and they have become popular."But the biggest challenge to BTS's superstar status is what some see as a slowdown in from concerts remains strong, but album sales - a key market metric - have been declining since a peak in 2023. The slump coincides with when BTS and Blackpink were not releasing Korean pop culture critic Park Hee Ah agrees that K-pop went through "some difficult times" while BTS was have also been several controversies, such as the headline-making dispute between hit girl group NewJeans and their agency, allegations of mistreatment by all-powerful agencies and harassment of stars by fans and trolls."Album sales started to drop, and some problems - like questions about companies doing the right thing - came up," Ms Park said. Because of all of this, she adds, we did see more "deeper problems in the K-pop industry". That's also why so many are looking forward to BTS's return, hoping it will bring renewed energy - and maybe even a path forward for the industry."Their return will help people focus on Korea's music scene again," Ms Park says, adding that a BTS reunion is great not just for their fans but also for Korean soft eyes are now on the band's next song. "I will quickly make an album and return to the stage," RM, the group's leader, said on the day he was a new group album may not come until early next year because J-Hope still has domestic concerts scheduled, and Jin is set to hold concerts for fans across the world over the next few months. It's also possible Suga, who landed in controversy after he was caught drunk-driving a scooter last year, may want to lie low for a little millions of fans like Stephanie though, simply knowing BTS is back together is enough - for now."It'll feel like nothing ever changed. The kings are back."
