LeBron James shares his thoughts about the ending of "Squid Game". Image Source: Deadline
LeBron James had some thoughts about the ending of Netflix’s "Squid Game", stating that he loved the show but "did not like the ending" during a press conference with fellow Los Angeles Lakers player Anthony Davis.
Hwang Dong-hyuk, during his Guardian interview, was asked about the basketball legend’s comment on the ending of the show, to which the maker replied, "LeBron James is cool and can say what he wants. I respect that. I’m very thankful he watched the whole series. But I wouldn’t change my ending. That’s my ending. If he has his own ending that would satisfy him, maybe he could make his own sequel. I’ll check it out and maybe send him a message saying, ‘I liked your whole show, except the ending.’"
Lee Jung-jae, Park Hae-soo, Wi Ha-joon, Jung Ho-yeon, O Yeong-su, Heo Sung-tae, Anupam Tripathi, and Kim Joo-ryoung star in "Squid Game," a South Korean dystopian survival drama created by Hwang Dong-hyuk for Netflix. The show revolves around a competition in which 456 people who are deeply in debt risk their lives by playing a variety of children's games for prize money that could alleviate all of their troubles. The series' title is based on a Korean children's game of the same name.
A still from "Squid Game". Image Source: NME
The creator wrote the series in 2009 but was unable to find a production company to fund it until 2019 when Netflix expressed interest as part of their drive to expand their foreign programming offerings. The series was released worldwide on September 17th, 2021, and was critically acclaimed across the globe, attracting more than 142 million member households during the first four weeks from the day of its release.
On asking about how things have changed for the creator in terms of finances, he explained, "I am not that rich. But I do have enough. I have enough to put food on the table. And it’s not like Netflix is paying me a bonus. Netflix paid me according to the original contract." Hwang Dong-hyuk also shared that writing, creating, and directing the show was physically, mentally, and emotionally draining for him as he constantly kept having new ideas and vision for every episode and revising them multiplied with the work as the crew was already filming.
Talking about his financial debt, Hwang Dong-hyuk shared, "I was very financially straitened because my mother retired from the company she was working for. There was a film I was working on, but we failed to get finance. So I couldn’t work for about a year. We had to take out loans – my mother, myself and my grandmother." Hwang further shared that he found solace in Seoul’s comic book cafés where he would read Battle Royal, Liar Games, and other survival games and related to the characters in them who were desperate for money and success. The creator added, "If there was a survival game like these in reality, I wondered, would I join it to make money for my family? I realized that, since I was a film-maker, I could put my own touch on these kinds of stories, so I started on the script. "
Squid Game staircase. Image Source: Netflix
A lot of questions were raised after the series was released, asking the creator and makers of the show on the desire to create a horrifying brute contest that held human life so cheap, to which he replied, "Because the show is motivated by a simple idea. We are fighting for our lives in very unequal circumstances." He was further questioned about whether he was making an extreme point about capitalism, and the creator replied, "It’s not profound! It’s very simple! I do believe that the overall global economic order is unequal and that around 90% of the people believe that it’s unfair. During the pandemic, poorer countries can’t get their people vaccinated. They’re contracting viruses on the streets and even dying. So I did try to convey a message about modern capitalism. As I said, it’s not profound."
Hwang Dong-hyuk was cross-questioned that his statement felt like a contradiction were without money from an international corporation, his critique of global capitalism would have never been seen? Hwang replied, "Well, Netflix is a global corporation, but I don’t think it is aggravating inequalities. I don’t think there is a contradiction. When I was working on the project, the goal was to rank No 1 on the Netflix US chart for at least a day. But it ended up being much more successful, the most watched show on Netflix ever. It’s very surprising. It shows that the global audience is resonating with the message I wanted to reflect."
Hwang Dong-hyuk is lobbying Netflix to screen his three movies. Image Source: Cheatsheet
Discussing the presence of love in Squid Game, Hwang Dong-hyuk shared that it is there, but it is a different kind of love in a very bizarre, strange, and desperate situation. He further explains that the woman relies on the strongest man in the group and has to find something to rely on, and believes that it is love. The creator mentioned that he wrote the sex scene for the show after he watched a TV reality show in which contestants are stranded on a desert island. "It was about people’s psychology in extreme situations. They are sexually attracted to people they believe are stronger and the best at hunting, when they wouldn’t have been before", he added.
Isn't it true that you portray women as sexualized commodities? Hwang was asked. "To show that, regardless of gender, women and men both tend to undertake desperate activities in extreme situations," he explains. Hwang Dong-hyuk stated that he intended to create something that would resonate with people all over the world, not only in South Korea. "We live in a Squid Gameworld," Hwang says, but he adds that not everyone in his show is selfishly concerned with number one, climbing over losers' heads to earn money.
Talking about the sequel, Hwang Dong-hyuk shares that sure, there are some talks, but he has a very high-level picture in his mind, but he is not going to work on it straight away because he aspires to make a movie right now. He wants Netflix to screen three movies he made in the past decade.
