SHOULD YOU WATCH SQUID GAME ON NETFLIX?

Nothing much is changing today, so far.

• The Los Angeles County wildfire continues, with the Pacific Palisades and Eaton fires still burning.
• Trump cabinet confirmation hearings doing well, with no bumps in the road today.
• The hoped for first phase of peace in the Gaza Strip still seems ready to occur on Sunday, January 19.

• 
  President Joe Biden made his farewell address, and warned against the influence of the super-rich.  Surely sounds like the coming of a dictatorship featuring oligarchs, as in Russia.
• Kilauea Volcano inside Halemaumau Crater still erupting.  It comes and goes, and is now again active.

It took me two weeks, but I watched all 9 episodes of Squid Game Season 1 and 7 episodes of the second season.  Each chapter is about an hour long.  I normally would be discrete about sharing too much from these productions, but will make an exception for this series.

Most of you don't know South Korean culture, nor their performers.  I think you will more fully enjoy these two seasons knowing the backstories.  So if you continue reading, you will know who will survive into Season 3.  Significant revelations, but, perhaps, more useful to understand what is happening.  All this will better prepare you for S3.  I think I'm doing most of you a favor.  Rotten Tomatoes gave Season 1 95/83 ratings and Season 2 83/63.  About right.

I thought there surely would be more episodes in Season 2 after watching #7, for the game was nearing a conclusion.  But it suddenly ended.  My immediate thought was that the writers were burnt out and ran out of ideas.  Maybe that's what happened, but TUDUM by Netflix reports on how the two leading cast and members and creator explained the ending.

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  So the main character Seong Gi-hun (above, actor Lee Jung-jae), Front Man Hwang In-ho (right, actor Lee Byung-hun, but also Young-il as player 001) and director/writer Hwang Dong-hyuk were interviewed.

• 
  I'm just now getting what happened in S1 and S2, but Player 001 has always been an administrative spy placed there by those running this game to manipulate situations.
• In S1, it was Oh Young-su, who was not a down-on-his-luck old man desperate for a  fortune.  He was a wealthy business scion behind the creation of the game.
• In S2, Player 001 was Front Man or HI or LB (the FM is the one in the black mask and controls the game).
• But keep in mind, these two individuals know that they themselves could easily get accidentally killed in the process of living out this role in the actual game.
• 
  Of the two competing main characters, the Front Man believes there is absolutely no hope for the world or humanity, while the main character, SG, now back into the game after winning S1, hopes for the best in society.  This contention is at the heart of S2.
• Yes, these initials and relationships are hard to remember, but using their full names in this posting makes it even more awkward.

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  What is the Front Man's backstory?
• FM earlier had given one of his kidneys to his step brother, Hwang Jun-ho (person on right, a former police officer, who quits his job to find FM, who HJ thought was somehow involved in the game). 

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  FM or HI or LB (from now on I'll only use FM for Front Man) was also a police officer, and his wife had a kidney ailment.  He couldn't give another kidney to his wife, so in trying to borrow money for one, got into legal problems and was fired.  She was also pregnant, but soon passed away.
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  Despondent and in debt FM was recruited for Squid Game in 2015, and won.
• The SG administration subsequently hired him on their staff, who did well and in time became the FM.
• They never say this, but the first SG began in 1988, with 33 annual competitions into 2020.  Season 2 was the 37th Squid Game. 
• 
  Another character to watch is popular actress Park Gu Young, who plays a North Korean deserter, No-eul, searching for her infant daughter she left behind.  She becomes Pink Guard 011 only in S2.  You'll first see her as a mascot at a theme park.  She is likely to continue into Season 3.

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  Also looking good to be in S3 is Cho Hun-ju, who is Player 120 in S2.  She is a trans-woman who is kicked out of the military after coming out.  She joined the game to support her gender-affirming surgery and move to Thailand.   The role is played by cis-gender male actor Park Sung-hoon.  This concept, as well as other social conscience themes, is purposefully inserted into the film.  Should you want more info, click on this.  

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  Someone who won't return to S3 is Choi Seung-hyun as Thanos, a purple-haired villain who stood out...and died.  He is known professionally in Korea as T.O.P., a rapper, singer, songwriter and actor.  He was selected for a lunar spaceflight aboard SpaceX's Starship in 2024, but delays cancelled his participation.  Watch his most popular rap song, Turn It Up.

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  In short, Squid Game S1 and S2, in addition to the gore and twists, also attempt to address socially controversial issues.
• By the way, if you don't like to see blood, avoid watching Squid Game at all costs.

I'll close with the most popular Korean songs of all time, 

• Maybe Gangnam Style because it so captured the attention of the world a dozen years ago.

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  However, maybe not, because it has been viewed only 5.43 billion times on You Tube.  #1 in the world is Baby Shark Dance by Pinkfong with 15.52 billion views.  Not #1 only in South Korea, but #1 for the entire world.  If you never ever saw that video, click on it.  Now.  Although you could spend the rest of the day humming it.  #2 is Despacito by Luis Fonsi with 8.63 billion.  
• My posting on 1October2012 featured Gangnam Style, while my 6November2020 included Baby Shark Dance.
• 
  Then again, Arirang is a Korean folk song with no clear sign of exactly when it was first written, although 1756 is a popular date, and another that it is more than 600 years old.
• There are 3600 variations and 60 different versions.

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  Today, Arirang represents the symbol of unity lost in the Korean War.
• This is the only Korean song in my early memory.

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  The first known recording was made in 1896 by American ethnologist Alice Fletcher.  
• Here is a 1928 version by Kim Yeon Sil.

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  Sung by Nat King Cole in 1964.
• By the New York Philharmonic live in Pyongyang, North Korea 13 years ago.
• By the Vienna Boys Choir 12 years ago.

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  By So Hyang and Youn Sun Nah, both 9 years ago.
• The Three Kinds of Arirang by Youn Sun Nah, 4 years ago.

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