A real media phenomenon that from South Korea, thanks to the distribution on the Netflix platform, is strongly entering the world collective imagination. Squid Game, the series that aired on Netflix for less than a month, is smashing every record. In just 29 days of programming it reached 111 million viewers: for example, one of the most viewed series on Netflix, Bridgerton, had stopped at 82 million viewers. But Squid Game went further: because the dystopian series produced in South Korea (which came to us on the streaming platform without even dubbing in Italian) has already become a "case". The story is quite simple: a group of desperate people full of debt or problems with justice agree to participate in a secret contest. They will have to face six simple children's games: it is a pity that the loser is destined to die. The last one left can win a huge cash prize.
The plot is nothing particularly original (just think of many episodes of Black Mirror or the famous Hunger Games) but what made the series a cult is certainly not the plot. The disturbing sets, the pastel colors of the prison in which the contenders are locked up, the guardians with covered faces that mark the lives of the players, the masks of the VIPs who watch the games: a thousand facets and an obsessive attention to detail are the ingredients that are making the series a costume phenomenon. Perhaps it is for this reason that the costumes inspired by the series are sold out on Amazon and the cookie cutters that are the protagonists of one of the games are also strong. Not to mention the doll-shaped alarm clock that sings its nursery rhyme "one two three star". Entrusted to a skilful direction, once the western public manages to enter the typical "slowness" of the dialogue and of the South-African cinema the effect is alienating but also amusing. And beyond the grotesque, the blood and anguish of certain settings, the film brings to light many themes dear to South Korean culture.
As already in the award-winning “Parasite” (Oscar and Palme d'Or at Cannes), the theme of the stratification of social classes is also present here, so much felt in South Korea: a country that grew economically so quickly as to create strong contrasts. And then also the theme of gambling, of betting: an essential constant to understand the mechanisms of the plot. And like any self-respecting worldwide phenomenon, Squid Game also arrives accompanied by the inevitable controversies. Amplified by the tam tam of social media, news from all over the world bounces everywhere: but the theme is always the same. Is it right or not that children also have access to the series? Aside from the fact that the product is forbidden to minors under the age of 14 on Netflix, there is no doubt that children can have access to anything via their devices. And that a lot of material about the series circulates on the net: photos, videos, comments and so on. So here is the news of children playing "One two three stars" and getting hurt on social networks all over the world, others mimicking the gesture of the gun against the comrades eliminated from the games, A petition to suspend the series is even online.
Verifications of the facts, very few; but media hype: a lot. Now it is not known whether the whole thing is part of a clever advertising campaign for the product or is a phenomenon that has been self-fueled given the success of the series. But net of the hypotheses, one thing is certain: there are those who, on the wave of success, also try to remedy some visibility. Like a Roman real estate agency that in recent days has scattered business cards on the street with the symbols of the game and a telephone number. The ticket ended up in school chats: creating an unjustified panic and painting apocalyptic scenarios of baiters and suicide challenges. None of this: just a real estate agency looking for staff.
