Seoul holds more evangelical megachurches than almost every U.S. South Korea sends out more Protestant missionaries than any other country besides the United States. The Christian movement grew in the ‘70s and ‘80s, made possible by Western influence after the Korean war.Īlthough 29% is not a large percentage, the power and zeal that Christians - especially Protestants - have in South Korea overshadow that of other religious affiliations, according to The Diplomat. An additional 23% of the population is Buddhist, and 46% has no religious affiliation.
However, some English speakers or non-Korean natives may miss other underlying themes, such as classism, xenophobia and religion in South Korea.Īpproximately 29% of the South Korean population identifies as Christian, with three-quarters Protestant and one-quarter Catholic. These themes are mostly obvious to all watchers around the globe. It also shines a light on elitism, specifically how the richest of the rich have power over others. One overall theme of the show is greed and how far one would go to be rich or out of debt. If you win, you go to the next round, accumulating more money in the process. If you lose a game, you are gruesomely killed. Desperate for financial stability, he finds himself playing games of life-and-death in an arena with over 400 participants. The show follows Seoung Gi-hun, a debt-ridden gambler who is struggling to provide for his 10-year-old daughter and elderly mother. But beyond the surprising visuals and horrific violence that touch on an array of themes, the show also has something to say about religion - specifically, Korean forms of Christianity. 1 television show in more than 90 countries. Presumably, the inspiration was not Korean, as Hwang went on to say in that same Soompi article: “I wanted to make a survival drama that was the most Korean.” It’s that kind of cultural specificity that can take a well-worn trope like the deadly competition structure, and turn it into something new and relevant, like Squid Game.(REVIEW) The horrifyingly addictive Netflix Korean thriller “Squid Game” has become the No. Some potential mangas Hwang could be referencing include Gantz, Dice, or Future Diary. The “deadly competition” trope has been a popular one in both American stories, like Hunger Games, and East Asian narratives, like Battle Royale, for more than a decade-though you can trace the trope even further back than that. Hwang doesn’t mention the comic book by name, but there are many to choose from. According to Soompi, the creator has been working on the concept for Squid Game since 2008, when he read a comic book about a group of people who fell into a deadly game. However, writer-director Hwang Dong-hyuk (previously best known for features like 2017 historical epic The Fortress) has cited the initial inspiration for Squid Game as a comic book. Squid Game has no source material other than its stellar script. The short answer to this question is: no.
So is Squid Game based on an already published story? When it comes to genre storytelling specifically, many of those adaptations have anime, comic book, or manga source material-one look no further than the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a chief example.
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In this era of peak content, a notable chunk of the stories that make it to our screens in the form of TV shows and movies are adaptations of some kind. It’s one of the search terms that trended after the Korean social horror hit Netflix last week, and it’s not hard to understand why. If you are wondering if Squid Game has a source material past its script, then you aren’t alone.