CHOI WP3: The Translation of Korean Cultural Values in Squid Game in the US.
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Eric GyuMin Choi
Professor: Zen Dochterman
Final Draft. Last edited: April 4, 2022.
(Scroll down to see a picture with me and the director of Squid Game!)
When Squid Game was released in September last year, I expected it to be just another one of those old Korean shows critiquing society and capitalism. Now, it’s gone on to become Netflix’s most-watched series, topping the charts in 94 countries, with more than 142 million views and 1.65 billion hours watched in the first month of its launch. Squid Game revolves around the story of 456 players in deep financial debt who enter a contest to play deadly children’s games to win a 45 billion Korean won prize (around 38 million US dollars). The series’ global success, particularly in the US, can be explained by the resonant themes of socioeconomic inequality and the dehumanizing effects of capitalism. But perhaps more specifically, the main reason why Squid Game has translated well in the US is because of its motif of a dystopian outlook on society that inequality is beyond remedy and its representation of a hyper-competitive individualistic survival mindset.
The values of extreme competition as a means to survive and escape desperate unequal circumstances are deeply embedded in Squid Game and are central to its worldwide acclaim when translated to American audiences. Squid Game embodies the intense anxiety of South Koreans about their place and status in the world. In a way, the game of competition in Squid Game acts as a metaphor for the Korean experience as a whole. Similar to the debt-ridded contestants who forcefully strive to climb up the socio-economic ladder, South Korea went from a completely demolished and impoverished Third World country at rock bottom after the Korean War in the 1950s to become one of the most highly developed global economies today. Yet housing is expensive, secure jobs are scarce, and even the positions in conglomerates led by chaebols can only be earned with ruthless competition. If you end up falling through the cracks, you’re done for. Squid Game exposes these existing social anxieties through an extreme representation of this reality, where workers make extreme decisions to escape death, a theme that is simultaneously far-fetched and realistic.
South Korea made continuous sacrifices to achieve this economic growth, sacrificing democracy during the years of rapid industrialization under the dictator Park Chung-hee, as well as sacrificing well-being, being a nation with some of the working longest hours globally to this day. Just like the contestants do in Squid Game, countless people died as a result of these decisions, from hunger, conflict, or disease. The United States is also not without these experiences of intense competition, and it seems like Squid Game’s representation of the idea of the survival of the fittest has provided a reason for its likeability.
We can actually see some of these eerie parallels to the competition Korea underwent during its dramatic economic rise in scenes of Squid Game. For example, the enormous robotic girl doll in the game Red Light Green Light who announces when the contestants can run forward and stop may be symbolic of the conditions laid down by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) during the Asian Financial Crisis when South Korea was also literally in foreign debt. South Korea seems to be a contestant in the real-life, global Squid Game, competing in a tug-of-war game against regional competitors Japan and Taiwan, overseen by the “VIP” audience in Squid Game, rich Westerners betting on the participants that are very much like the Group of Seven (G7) (Feffer, 2021).
These values of national identity and an individualistic mentality to survive in the game prove to have been very appealing to American audiences, who are familiar with the idea that we sometimes need to trick and betray others for personal benefit. Through economic predicaments such as the Great Recession and the financial crisis in 2008 and the Occupy movements, the US has also experienced rising income inequality and poverty in recent decades, which would be a primary factor that makes Squid Game more relatable and resonant. We’re naturally drawn to rags-to-riches stories as they’re inspiring, and remind us that with determination, grit, and a bit of luck, we can overcome our circumstances and achieve extraordinary success.
But at the same time, Squid Game embodies the values of a nihilistic outlook, giving us a message about how although resilience to better our circumstances is admirable, challenging the system is intolerable, and winning comes at a price. Koreans even refer to their own nation satirically as “Hell Joseon/Korea” as a result of anxieties and discontentment with unemployment and working conditions, a sarcastic attitude that may have resonated with American viewers. One scene in Squid Game that best represents the element of unchangeable hopelessness in society is the ending: just before the protagonist Gi-hun boards his plane to the US, he calls the number on the invitation business card, demanding to know who is running the games. The receiver tells him to simply “get on the plane” and not get “any absurd ideas”, to which Gi-hun turns around. Ultimately, no matter how Gi-hun tries to expose the games, the fact that he is still controlled by them and fails to do so until the end suggests that there is no way to change the system and that the contestants are just pawns to the wealthy and powerful. Gi-hun also never really recovers from the games, and is haunted by a sense of survivor’s guilt, PTSD, and extreme depression. Because of this guilty conscience, he doesn’t spend any of the prize money but instead passes the money onto others, leaving a share of the grand prize for the family members of the other dead contestants, fulfilling his promise to them. Americans seem to love these themes of morality, and Gi-hun’s good-hearted nature is also a reason why Squid Game has experienced widespread popularity, especially in the US. Still, even Gi-hun is forced to take risks and make violent sacrifices to succeed in a world where odds are played against him, and this sense of dystopia can also be an explanation for the appeal Squid Game has had on American audiences.
However, there were also obviously some mistranslations and different interpretations of Squid Game and the cultures it represents. One key theme that was overlooked was the idea of America’s cultural dominance in Korean society. There are many scenes throughout the series that demonstrate this. Several scenes in the first episode, for instance, portrays Gi-hun struggling with his relationship with his daughter and divorced ex-wife. He unthinkingly gives his daughter a toy gun as a present and his wife plans on leaving Korea to emigrate to the US with her new husband. The connotations and notions related to a gun are rather different for Koreans, and Americans would have a completely different reaction to such an event. The fact that Gi-hun’s ex-wife intensely hopes to move to the US is representative of the sadaejuui (사대주의) mindset in Korea, which translates to subservience or sycophancy, in other words, recognizing and serving the greater power (be it the US or China). That notion of flunkeyism seems to be lost in translation, as the ex-wife’s fixation and obsession with pursuing the American Dream is something that isn’t usually thought of from an American perspective. The presence of Western VIPs watching over the games, and encouraging contestants to kill each other also has significance, and the idea that the female character Sae-byeok is also a North Korean refugee doesn’t seem to be completely understood by American audiences. There are many expressions and nuances lost in Squid Game for American audiences, especially on experiences unique to Korean culture and society (like Sang-woo attending Seoul National University or kids playing the honeycomb dalgona (달고나) game), and are difficult to capture in English captions or dubs, but overall, it seems that the main theme on competition as a result of structural inequalities in capitalism has resonated more for the American audience to enjoy it.
Squid Game’s critique on the extreme competition of life and the impact of economic inequality on workers has proven to be a globally intelligible issue that affects all countries, even developed ones. Its allegory of South Korea’s determination to rise in the global economic ranks has been particularly well-received in the US; it seems that the message that globalization is inevitably a blood sport, a race to the top like the children’s game King of the Hill, and the “winner takes all” mentality has truly resonated with American audiences. Perhaps cultural values are not hard to translate after all: people of different identities and backgrounds may differ in their cultures and values, but the world is more alike in its than it seems, and Squid Game is a testament to this.
Works Cited: References and Outside Sources
Catt, Chris. “‘Squid Game’ Explained: A Detailed Analysis of the Survival Drama.” Creepy Catalog, Creepy Catalog, 22 Oct. 2021, https://creepycatalog.com/squid-game-explained/.
D’Addario, Daniel. “‘Squid Game’ Review: Netflix’s Global Hit Wants to Condemn Violence While Reveling in It.” Variety, Variety, 14 Oct. 2021, https://variety.com/2021/tv/reviews/squid-game-tv-review-1235084305/.
Feffer, John. “The Real Meaning of Squid Game — FPIF.” Foreign Policy In Focus, 30 Oct. 2021, https://fpif.org/the-real-meaning-of-squid-game/.
Lee, Michelle Ye Hee. “Decoding the Hidden Language and Signs of ‘Squid Game’ for Non-Koreans.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 22 Oct. 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/10/22/squid-game-korean-meaning-gganbu-dalgona/.
Romano, Aja. “What Squid Game’s Fantasies and Harsh Realities Reveal about Korea.” Vox, Vox, 6 Oct. 2021, https://www.vox.com/22704474/squid-game-games-korean-references-symbols.
