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00:00Korean thriller Squid Game is a massive overnight hit,
00:09Netflix's biggest show of all time, but why?
00:12On top of its gameplay gore and gripping can't look away death game plot,
00:17it's also a critique of capitalism and inequality,
00:20and fiction in this particular sub-genre is in.
00:30The series follows Sun Geun, a deeply indebted gambler who's so hard up for money
00:35he agrees to play a series of deadly children's games for a prize of 45.6 billion won,
00:41or about 38.3 million US dollars.
00:44In this plot about forcing the financially desperate to gamble their lives
00:48for a shot at riches, Squid Game literalizes the traps that capitalism sets
00:53to keep citizens obeying its cutthroat rules, even as they're deprived of security,
00:58respect, and their own bodies.
01:00Squid Game comes in the wake of a number of movies and TV shows
01:04that use potent, gripping metaphors to dissect capitalism,
01:07like the train in Snowpiercer or the upstairs-downstairs dynamics
01:11of the house in Parasite, both directed by Bong Joon-ho,
01:14to the up-and-down spaces of Rian Johnson's Knives Out or Jordan Peele's Us,
01:18to the work as slavery plot in Boots Riley's Sorry to Bother You,
01:22not to mention the death game blockbuster that dominated the 2010s,
01:26The Hunger Games. Evidently, it's in vogue and highly lucrative
01:30to produce entertainment criticizing the wealth inequality
01:33and unfairness of today's culture.
01:34This game is rigged, and it does not reward people who play by the rules.
01:39But like most big-budget media properties that try to critique
01:42the systems they exist in, Squid Game ends with a fundamental ambivalence,
01:46one that flinches from its own critique at the last minute,
01:49with a fantasy ending that undercuts its own key message.
01:52So what exactly is Squid Game saying about capitalism in the end?
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02:36Squid Game's grim yet candy-colored death game,
02:39fueled by widespread desperation and the logic of lotteries,
02:43is positioned as symbolizing the capitalistic world
02:46we all live in and accept as normal.
02:48The whole premise of the game at the story's center
02:51is built on a fundamental assumption of capitalism,
02:54that people must trade all of their time and even their bodies
02:57in exchange for the means of survival.
03:04The early episodes of the show establish that this is a society
03:07where life without money is pretty much unlivable.
03:09Because Gyeon's net worth is negative, as a human being,
03:12he's also looked on as less than zero.
03:15This feeling that they have nothing to lose
03:19is why the players sign away all their rights to Squid Game,
03:22and as the games go on, they're also a metaphorical illustration
03:26of how capitalism motivates people to give up their humanity
03:29and increasingly turn on each other.
03:31In the first two games, in theory, all the players can win.
03:34Without inherent competition, the Squid Game players are able to form
03:38deep, genuine connections with each other.
03:45But after the extra special game, where the game's organizers
03:48purposely encourage the players to kill each other off
03:50and form packs,
03:54starting with tug of war, the games become explicitly zero-sum.
03:58The joy of winning is linked to knowing you're simultaneously
04:02sentencing others to death.
04:04From there, the games increasingly mirror the logic of capitalism
04:07by encouraging the players to betray their teammates
04:10ever more ruthlessly to emerge on top.
04:12Nowhere is this more apparent than in the Marble game,
04:15which pits partners who paired up to play together
04:18against each other.
04:19How can you win the game?
04:21The probability of this game is half-half,
04:22but it's not easy to say, right?
04:25What's the situation now?
04:26So the games are built to prove that,
04:28like in the broader forces of capitalism,
04:30when the chips are down, it's every person for themselves.
04:33The challenges are also full of seemingly random
04:36starting advantages and disadvantages,
04:42which essentially equate randomness with fairness,
04:45though in reality a big part of playing effectively
04:48is about figuring out how to obtain those advantages
04:50outside of the actual game time.
04:52So these scenarios illustrate how capitalism encourages people
04:55to manipulate, scheme, and bend the rules
04:58to get any possible leg up out of self-preservation.
05:01The second main observation Squid Game underlines
05:04about today's capitalist society is that it's in fact one big lottery.
05:08In the game, just like in the outside world,
05:10doing everything right, like working hard and being smart
05:13and responsible, doesn't guarantee anything,
05:15because there are challenges that are just fundamentally unfair.
05:18And sheer luck plays a major role.
05:26At the beginning of the series,
05:27Gyeon is known to everyone around him as a gambler.
05:30But his state is really a broader metaphor for how anyone in poverty lives.
05:34Since he's in deep, deep debt, the only way he could ever come out of it
05:38to become a winner in life is if he gets really lucky.
05:41He chases that luck through games that are stacked against him,
05:44ending up ever deeper in debt until he needs to play lottery-like games,
05:48even to do something like obtain a birthday gift for his daughter.
05:51The main driver of the capitalist game is this simple gambler's promise,
05:55the myth that if you work hard enough, struggle long enough,
05:57and get lucky enough, you, yes, you, have a chance to be a winner.
06:02The exception to the rule.
06:03Any one of you can turn power-caller and be rolling in dough.
06:08The frontman justifies the game's cruelty as an opportunity for riches,
06:12just as the capitalistic hustle motivates people to endure terrible conditions
06:16and hardships with only the promise of possible stability.
06:29Though we initially see Gyeon as his world does as a feckless gambler,
06:34we later learn that Gyeon actually had a steady job at an auto factory for years.
06:38Gyeon says that Gyeon is all over 10 years.
06:45Though the common narrative would have us believe that people are in debt
06:48and living in poverty as a result of their own decisions,
06:52the true story is that Gyeon is forced into taking bigger and bigger risks,
06:55including gambling on horse racing, starting his own business,
06:58and eventually playing the squid game,
07:01all because of his old boss's irresponsibility.
07:04In fact, this plot is partially inspired by the real history of organizers
07:14at Korean automaker Ssangyung Motor.
07:16As Squid Game writer-director Hwandeon-yuk put it,
07:18in a capitalist society, anyone can find themselves in Gyeon's position at any time.
07:22This society is separated into three distinct classes of people.
07:35Above the desperate players at the bottom are the workers,
07:38who do have a level of security but don't actually have any freedom or power.
07:42They're still part of the same conformist structure
07:44that forces them to do its dirty work,
07:46and uses a strict top-down power system to punish them
07:51if they step even slightly out of line.
08:03Finally, on top is the much smaller number of ultra-wealthy elites,
08:07like the Squid Game host and VIPs,
08:09who are so removed from seeing the lower classes as real people,
08:13that they get a thrill from observing the squalid desperation of the competition.
08:17Trust me, the screens we have at home are plenty big,
08:19but nothing beats seeing it with your own eyes.
08:23The luxurious lifestyle of the people on top
08:25is another force perpetuating inequality.
08:28As long as the rich can use material pleasures
08:30to distract themselves and dissociate,
08:32dismissing the poor as a distant lesser species,
08:35this removes their sense of collectivist responsibility
08:38to their fellow human beings.
08:39The Hunger Games makes a similar point in connecting
08:49how well the rich people in the capital were eating
08:52to their willingness to let the rest of the people
08:54in the poor districts suffer.
08:55In the final twist, when it's revealed that Gyeon's friend,
08:58the elderly Oh Il-nam, was the rich mastermind behind the games,
09:02he becomes a human symbol of the villainous callous system
09:05that makes it impossible for people like Gyeon to survive.
09:08But he reveals he too was driven by his own misery within this world.
09:17He complains that having too much money sucked the joy out of life
09:21for him and his fellow rich people.
09:23And he created this whole game because he was seeking the fun he felt
09:36as a regular child with his friends.
09:39Ultimately, as sick as Il-nam's explanation is,
09:49his statements reveal that wherever you fall in this system,
09:53capitalist bottom lines are bad for all three classes of people
09:56who are isolated and dehumanized by a joyless, all-powerful game.
10:01As much as all this feels like an in-your-face takedown of today's society,
10:10Squid Game ends up sending some mixed messages about what it's actually advocating.
10:14First of all, as much as the story underlines the game's cruelty,
10:17most of the actual intrigue of the story lies in who's going to win.
10:21The narrative is interested in which values and advantages
10:24rise to the top of both Squid Game and capitalist society,
10:28whether that's raw strength, wily intelligence, experience,
10:32purity of heart, resilience, or human integrity.
10:35There's a sense that the fittest do survive longest,
10:38and the feeling that the most deserving player wins in the end
10:41kind of contradicts all of the points about how capitalism is an unfair lottery
10:46that doesn't reward human goodness.
10:48In the later episodes, it's one of the players, Sang-woo,
10:50who's treated as a primary antagonist for using his intelligence
10:54to manipulate others and stealing every dirty advantage he can.
10:57Still, from Sang-woo's perspective, he's merely buying into the games
11:09and capitalism's every-man-for-himself-fight-to-the-death logic.
11:13In his view, Gyeon's moral hang-ups are a liability,
11:16and Gyeon has only actually advanced this far
11:18because his teammate Sang-woo made all the difficult calls for him.
11:22After all, selflessness is usually punished in Squid Game.
11:29Ali, the most purely kind and trusting character,
11:32dies due to his lack of cynicism and self-preservation,
11:36weaknesses that Sang-woo exploits.
11:37Unlike Ali, Gyeon does display gifts that capitalism favors,
11:44like ingenuity and resourcefulness, being savvy and observant,
11:48manipulating when he has to, and just getting very lucky.
11:54But ultimately, the real reason the story selects him as a winner
11:57is because he somehow manages to remain a kind and good person.
12:02Gyeon and Sang-woo are juxtaposed in multiple moments.
12:06Gyeon almost tricks his partner in the Marbles game, like Sang-woo,
12:09and he thinks about killing Sang-woo just as Sang-woo kills Sae-byeok.
12:13And in the final shot, as the rain falls,
12:15the image emphasizes that they're both men without umbrellas,
12:18childhood friends forced to fight to the death
12:21because they both have no safety net.
12:23But what separates the two men is that Sang-woo is fully committed to this game,
12:27whereas Gyeon rejects it, repeatedly affirming
12:30that some things are more important than money.
12:32Gyeon and Gyeon and Gyeon and Gyeon and Gyeon and Gyeon are
12:35He votes to stop playing at the beginning,
12:37and again turns down the prize right at the end.
12:40He's giving up the prize money right here at the very edge of victory.
12:47Oh, f***ing away.
12:48So that he and Sang-woo can vote to leave, both alive.
12:52At that point, Sang-woo kills himself, once again doing Gyeon's dirty work for him,
12:56and following through on his total commitment to this game
12:59so that his mother will get some of the money.
13:01Whereas Gyeon believes no amount of money is worth dying for,
13:04to Sang-woo this amount of money is worth taking any life in the game,
13:08including his own.
13:09On some level, Sang-woo's action is also an endorsement of Gyeon
13:12as inherently worthy of being the winner.
13:14Sang-woo knows his old friend will use the money for good.
13:17So as traumatized as Gyeon is, his victory is a happy ending,
13:21in that it's framed as the best person winning.
13:24Moreover, his win fuels the fantasy that it is possible for even the worst-off
13:28person to win capitalism if they really deserve it,
13:32since Gyeon is also the offense in the Squid Game who's handicapped.
13:35Why is he hopping on one foot?
13:37The attacker is given a handicap.
13:39Representing the person with no advantages,
13:42who takes no moral shortcuts and still wins.
13:45Overall, this conclusion of the right person winning runs counter to all the
13:49commentary that capitalism is a game of randomness,
13:52indifferent to morality, and heavily rigged against the disadvantaged.
13:55At first, Gyeon tries not to touch the funds he views as blood money,
14:08but after taking care of Sang-woo's and Sae-byeok's families,
14:11and planning to go visit his daughter,
14:13and happening to see another desperate person about to get roped into the game,
14:16Gyeon suddenly has a purpose for his wealth.
14:18He vows to go after the perpetrators.
14:29As an avenging agent of the Squid Game's victims,
14:32Gyeon is a lone wolf with nearly unlimited resources
14:35ready to take down the system.
14:37In other words, he's a good rich person going after bad rich people.
14:41The good rich person fighting bad rich people has long shown up in the image of
14:44the noble philanthropist, the thief with a heart of gold,
14:47or the superhero like Iron Man and Batman.
14:50This is too much power for one person.
14:52That's why I gave it to you.
14:54What are you?
14:55Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.
14:58In fact, this myth is one of the most effective to prop up the entire system,
15:02because any given viewer can hold onto the hope that not only will they be
15:06the lucky winner, but they'll use that amazing future wealth to be the good guy.
15:10Even if the messages in Squid Game and similar popular stories today
15:14are anti-capitalist, is that the real reason viewers enjoy watching the show?
15:19Or do we come in large part for the violent bread-and-circuses
15:22spectacle of the Squid Game itself?
15:24The very first episode already aligns us with the callous spectator
15:28as we watch the frontman look on while sipping whiskey,
15:32just as we at home might be enjoying a relaxing beverage while watching.
15:35And by underlining how ruthless the capitalism game is to those at the bottom,
15:40the story may, instead of inspiring us to bravely fight to abolish the death game,
15:45just scare us into, like Sangwoo, ensuring by any means necessary,
15:49we, as individuals, don't lose.
15:51While Squid Game's entertainment serves the ultra-wealthy,
16:02the DNA of the death game goes back to antiquity,
16:05when the Roman poet Juvenal coined the phrase bread and circuses
16:08to refer to bloody contests that serve to placate the masses.
16:12The modern incarnation of bread and circuses is intricately tied to mass media.
16:17If no one watches, then they don't have a game.
16:19It's as simple as that.
16:20In one of the earliest death game movies,
16:231987's The Running Man, criminals participate in a game show
16:27where they try to escape assassins in an effort to earn a pardon.
16:30And the show is a way of providing entertainment for the masses
16:33to distract people from their conditions.
16:35What's the number one television show in the whole wide world?
16:40The Running Man!
16:42Similarly, The Hunger Games depicts a dystopian world
16:45that relies on the spectacle of a death competition
16:48to control the population and crush potential rebellion.
16:51While The Hunger Games might be the most popular version
16:54of the death game for American audiences,
16:56Squid Game's most direct forerunner is 2000's Battle Royale.
17:00The society in Battle Royale forces a school class to kill each other,
17:03in part using the same justification of randomness as fairness as Squid Game.
17:08On some level, it's not surprising that the genre took off in Japan and Korea.
17:20During the 1990s, Japan experienced its lost decade,
17:23suffering soaring unemployment and a crumbling financial system.
17:27Today, Korea suffers its own high unemployment rate and simmering debt crisis.
17:31That sense of despair emanates from nearly all of the characters in Squid Game,
17:41even relatively young players.
17:42Many popular anti-capitalism stories
17:48of our era end on a pretty bleak, cynical, or defeatist note,
17:52suggesting that there may not be a way out of capitalistic misery.
17:56But Squid Game reminds us that there is another possibility,
17:59one of the rules states that players are allowed to collectively call an end to the contest.
18:10After a razor-thin majority actually votes to do this, though,
18:13the Squid Game players return to the cold, uncaring society
18:17that sees them as disposable individuals.
18:20Unable to find each other or work together,
18:22the characters choose to go back to the game.
18:24In 2001, there were 187 people in the middle of the world.
18:28My return rate is 93%.
18:30Squid Game centers how the monolithic capitalist society isolates us
18:35by reducing our lives to a series of individual transactions,
18:39trapping us through personal rewards and punishments
18:42so we can't fight for the shared interests of us all.
18:45Ultimately, Squid Game is a TV show that has made Netflix
18:48a very large amount of money, to the point that real-life VIP
18:51Jeff Bezos tweeted enthusiastically about it.
18:54So is there a way to authentically critique capitalism
18:57while capitalizing from that critique?
18:59And does any story about capitalism's evil really take us very far
19:03unless it presents some kind of concrete, compelling alternative?
19:06The most important message we can take from Squid Game
19:09is not to value money so much that you devalue humanity,
19:13or equate others' value with their net worth.
19:16While the lie of Squid Game is that these people are lucky to play
19:19because they have nothing to lose, of course they're gambling
19:22the most valuable thing of all.
19:23The pursuit of money actually takes Gyun away from the things he cares about.
19:27By the time he returns home, his mother,
19:30whose treatment he needed money for, dies.
19:32When Il-Nam looks down from his fancy deathbed
19:35on a down-and-out man lying on the street,
19:37who actually does get help, the mirror image reminds us that,
19:41as much as we separate people into tiers and classes,
19:44in reality, our lives pass and reduce us all to the same death
19:48in much the same way.
19:54What makes Gyun special is that he does still care about others,
19:58and refuses to accept that anyone is disposable.
20:06And ironically, it's this authentic human element he retains
20:10that makes him the best player.
20:12This game is over.
20:14Yep, that about wraps it up.
20:19This is The Take on your favorite movie shows and culture.
20:22Thank you so much for watching and for supporting us.
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20:26Thanks again to Word Farm Adventure for sponsoring this video.
20:29If you want to challenge both the creative and clever parts of your brain,
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20:37Unlike the brutal death games of Squid Game,
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21:11Click the link below to play now.
21:12Word Farm is free to download and available on Android and iOS.
21:36Make sure to download Noah's linked video withilly Next.
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21:49Lots of social distancing techniques are
21:52long- δια-marketing We'll see each other matters.
21:55Even if you're learning from a family Rogue Friends,
21:58ato pan,
21:59the more things we do,
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