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BODY COUNT (SQUID GAME, S2 & 3)

 


SQUID GAME S2

When 'Squid Game' became an international phenomenon with its inaugural season on Netflix in September 2021, it was such a rare thing.

A subtitled, edge of your seat thriller about down on their luck people literally gambling their lives away in a series of deadly games in South Korea for a huge pot of money, Hwang Dong-hyuk's show had as big a cultural moment as Bong Joon-ho's groundbreaking Oscar winning movie 'Parasite'.

As word of mouth spread, the show quickly became a talking point in offices, shops and factories, on train and bus commutes, on social media, TV and radio shows and print and online media.

Like 'Parasite,' Hwang Dong-hyuk's series made history too at a host of awards ceremonies, with Critics Choice, People's Choice, Screen Actors Guild and Primetime Emmy awards going to its lead man Lee Jung-jae, a Lead Actress SAG for Jung Ho-yeon and a Golden Globe for Supporting Actor for O Yeong-so.

Not bad for a TV show that no-one would have predicted would become a huge international hit.

After a three year wait, Season Two finds Lee Jung-jae's 'Squid Game' winner Seong Gi-hun very much a changed man.

Despite landing 45.6 billion won (the equivalent of approximately £24.9 million in cash), he's haunted by what it took to earn it.

After thumbing his nose at the game master's demand that he board a flight out of Seoul, Seong Gi-hun is holed up instead in a heavily fortified building known as the Pink Hotel.

Regarding the cash as blood money, he resolved to use it to avenge the deaths of those killed in the games he participated in and also wants to finally put a stop to them before more people die.

With this objective in mind, he turns to his old loan shark Kim Pub-lae's Mr Kim to repay his debt and get him to recruit teams of people to scour Seoul's rail network to find Gong Yoo's The Recruiter - the man responsible for preying on vulnerable people and getting them to take part in the games.

Elsewhere in the city, another survivor Wi Ha-joon's Officer Hwang Jun-ho, who as an undercover cop infiltrated the island that houses the Squid Game, is on traffic duty.

Much to the irritation of his boss, he appears to have opted for a quieter life after he was shot and wounded on the Squid Game island and tumbled into the sea.

Like Seong Gi-hun, though, he is also obsessed with ending the games and, on his own initiative, engages the seaboat skipper who rescued him Oh Dal-su's Captain Park to take him out at sea to locate the island.

Both Seong Gi-hun and Officer Hwang Jun-ho have pretty fruitless searches for two years until Mr Kim and his associate Jeon Seok-ho's Choi Woo-Seok stumble upon The Recruiter playing his trademark game of djakhi in a rail station while slapping the participant every time he loses.

Alerting Seong Gi-hun, they follow The Recruiter to a park where he challenges homeless people to make a choice between a bread roll or a lottery scratchcard.

All bar one choose the scratchcard and are unsuccessful and when one of them asks for the bread, he cruelly empties the rolls on the ground and stamps on them.

Racing in a hired car to join Choi Woo-Seok and Mr Kim, Seong Gi-hun is pulled over by a police colleague of Officer Hwang Jun-ho who issues him with a speeding fine.

Digging into the traffic violation, Officer Hwang Jun-ho realises they have stopped the winner of one of the Squid Games and sets about tracking him down.

Mr Kim and Choi Woo-seok follow The Recruiter to an alleyway where they decide to jump him before Seong Gi-hun's arrival.

However The Recruiter manages to turn the tables on them.

Soon Choi Woo-seok and Mr Kim are bound to a chair and gagged and forced to play Russian Roulette to the sound of 'Nessun Dorma' on vinyl.

Afterwards The Recruiter goes to the Pink Hotel for a showdown with Seong Gi-hun and, against all odds, comes out the worse in their confrontation.

When Officer Hwang Jun-ho arrives on the scene, he realises Seong Gi-hun has made it his mission to end the Squid Game and teams up with him and Choi Woo-seok to disrupt the games.

However their efforts are spectacularly derailed when Seong Gi-hun is kidnapped by the Squid Game organisers and thrust back into the contest.

There he encounters an old friend and former co-worker, Lee Seo-hwan's Park Jung-bae who has signed up to take part.

Other participants include Kang Ha-neul's Kang Dae-ho, Im Si-wan's YouTube influencer Lee Myung-gi who lost his and other people's money in a cryptocurrency scam, a girl he got pregnant Jo Yu-ri's Kim Jun-hee, Yang Dong-geun's gambler Park Yong-sik and his elderly mother Kang Ae-shim's Jang Geum-ja and Lee David's timid young man, Park Min-su.

There are kooky characters too like Choi Seung-hyun's idiotic ecstasy taking rapper Choi Su-bong who goes by the stage name of Thanos, Roh Jae-won's thug Nam-gyu who serves as the rapper's right hand man, Song Young-chang's irascible loudmouth Im Jong-dae and Chae Kook-hee's self-proclaimed shaman Seon-nyeo.

In the mix as well are Won Ji-an's tomboyish Se-mi, Park Sung-hoon's transgender former Special Forces soldier Cho Hyun-ju and Lee Jin-wook's Park Gyeong-seok who is hoping to win money to pay for his young daughter's treatment in hospital for blood cancer. 

Seong Gi-hun hits it off with Lee Byung-hun's player Oh Young-il but as the season progresses, the audience soon realises this character is not all that he seems.

As with the previous season, the participants are forced to play a deadly version of the playground game 'Red Light, Green Light' with a giant doll using motion sensors to pick out potential victims to be executed.

Seong Gi-hun's efforts to limit the damage by guiding participants through the game earns him the respect of some participants.

But when given the opportunity to vote on whether to take the money they've banked and leave or continue with the deadly games to earn more cash, he is unable to persuade them to overlook their greed.

As a result, we are exposed to a warped six-legged pentathlon of children's games and also a very creepy game called Mingle where participants are rotated on a platform and are then told the size of a group that they must form in designated rooms to avoid execution.

While the bloody games continue, Officer Hwang Jun-ho and Choi Woo-seok charter a boat full of mercenaries with the help of Captain Park to locate the island using drones.

In another development, Park Gyu-young's North Korean defector Kang No-eul, who left her daughter behind, becomes a Squid Game sniper but falls foul of some colleagues who are harvesting the organs of those who die.

Can Kang No-eul overcome her colleagues' suspicions?

Will Officer Hwang Jun-ho's rescue mission succeed?

How will Seong Gi-hun cope with witnessing more carnage?

And who will survive the various games?

Following up the inaugural season of show like 'Squid Game' was always going to be a huge ask.

After all, how do you maintain the element of surprise that made the show such a cultural talking point?

Somehow against all odds, writer-director Hwang Dong-hyuk has managed to do just that with a gripping second season that actually eclipses the original.

Remarkably finding a way to get Seong Gi-hun back into the game, the writer-director ensures we remain hugely invested in his character, thanks to Lee Jung-jae's transformation into a deeply haunted man who has lost all his innocence.

Watching how he handles being back in the Squid Game is compelling.

But we also become quickly invested in a whole new set of characters whose back stories are just as fascinating as previous Squid Game contestants.

The other big draw in 'Squid Game' are the games themselves which remain elaborate, disturbing and ingeniously executed (if you pardon the pun).

Visually, 'Squid Game' also remains one of the most striking TV shows around, thanks to Kim ji-Yong's sharp cinematography, Chae Kyoung-sun's vibrant production design and Jo Sang-gyeong's smart choice of costumes.

The cast are uniformly superb, with Lee Jung-jae leading the line brilliantly.

Other standout performances come from Lee Seo-hwan as Seong Gi-hun's longtime friend, Jo Yu-ri as a young woman hiding her pregnancy while taking part in the games, Yang Dong-geun and Kang Ae-shim as a son and mother who have wound up taking part because of his gambling debts, Park Sung-hoon as a transgender contestant, Choi Seung-hyun who revels in playing a drugged up, egotistical buffoonish rapper and Lee Byung-hun who turns out to be much more than he lets on.

Gory, terrifying and highly original, Season Two of 'Squid Game' sets itself up for one hell of a climax with an action packed final episode.

But as it enters its third and final season, can the Netflix show possibly live up to audience aspirations now that Hwang Dong-hyuk has raised the bar even higher?

(Season Two of 'Squid Game' was made available for streaming on Netflix on December 26, 2024)


SQUID GAME, S3

Okay, this review comes with Season Two spoilers.

So if you don't want to know what happened at the end of Season Two of 'Squid Game,' it's best to stop reading this now until you've had time to watch it all.

(SPOILERS ALERT!!)

Season Three of 'Squid Game' finds Lee Jung-jae's Seong Gi-hun in a state of despondency after his failed insurrection at the conclusion of Season Two.

That season ended with his friend, Lee Seo-hwan's Park Jung-bae being executed in front of his eyes.

Trying to reassure him that he is not to blame, Yang Dong-geun's gambler Park Yong-sik instead points the finger at Kang Ha-neul's Kang Dae-ho because he froze while collecting machine gun magazine during the heat of battle.

This makes Seong Gi-hun livid but he also has to endure being taunted by Song Young-chang's greedy loudmouth Im Jong-dae for leading a failed rebellion that increased the prize pot and by Chae Kook-hee's fake shaman Seon-nyeo who tells him he has bad karma.

Park Sung-hoon's transgender former Special Forces soldier Cho Hyun-ju is the only other survivor of the rebellion and remains protective of Jo Yu-ri's pregnant young woman Kim jun-hee, Park Yong-sik and his elderly mother Kang Ae-shim's Jang Geum-ja.

With the numbers of those who voted against continuing the Squid Game depleted because many died in the rebellion, a vote is held on whether to proceed to the next game.

Not surprisingly, it is comfortably won by greedy contestants who are determined to press on.

The first game of Season Three is a deadly variation on hide and seek, with the surviving contestants split into two camps.

Those hiding are given blue bibs and specific keys to doors that lead to passages and rooms.

Meanwhile the seekers wear red bibs and carry daggers on the basis that they must use them to kill those they discover it they are to progress further in the game.

With the participants taking part in a draw to decide their fate, Park Yong-sik and his elderly mother Kang Ae-shim end up on opposite sides.

Im Si-wan's YouTube influencer Lee Myung-gi is a hunter but the ranks of the hunted include the girl he got pregnant, Jo Yu-ri's Kim Jun-hee who he still vows to protect.

Im Jong-dae and Seon-nyeo are among those trying to avoid capture, while Roh Jae-won's bloodthirsty thug Nam-gyu relishes brandishing a dagger while strung out on what remains of his deceased boss, Thanos's ecstasy stash.

The hunters also include Lee David's timid Park Min-su.

The game provides Seong Gi-hun with an opportunity to kill Kang Dae-ho for his part in the failed insurrection.

Meanwhile Wi Ha-joon's Officer Hwang Jun-ho and Jeon Seok-ho's Choi Woo-seok are continuing their search for the island that houses the Squid Game on a boat full of mercenaries.

However Choi Woo-seok becomes increasingly suspicious of the skipper, Oh Dal-su's Captain Park after a drone operator disappears.

Not convinced by Captain Park's claim that the man must have fallen overboard while drunk, he decides to look into his background when they return to port to find a new drone operator and warns Officer Hwang Jun-ho to be wary of him.

Meanwhile Lee Byung-hun's Frontman entertains a group of American and British VIPs on the Squid Game island, played by David Sayers, Jane Wong, Bryan Bucco, Jordan Lambertoni and Kevin Yorn.

Not only do they enjoy watching the contestants kill each other but they also get to participate.

However the Frontman is left with a major security headache when Park Gyu-young's North Korean defector and Squid Game sniper Kang No-eul rescues one contestant Lee Jin-wook's Park Gyeong-seok whose ill young daughter she knew in Seoul.

Swapping his identity for that of the doctor used to harvest the organsbof the Squid Game victims, she tries to arrange his escape from the island.

Over the course of the six episode run, we are treated to a grim skipping rope game and a final showdown involving the nine remaining players where they must choose to eliminate at least three contestants by pushing them off pillars.

As the series winds on, players become vulnerable due to injuries sustained in the games and broken hearts.

Kim jun-hee also has her baby, adding another element into the mix that cleverly ratchets up the sense of horror.

But while these elements of the story are impressively handled, Season Three is badly let down by the depiction of the five VIP guests watching the Squid Game.

The actors playing them are so wooden and their dialogue is so stilted that it is not so much like having a fly in your soup but more like having a giant octopus.

When they appear, you just want them off the screen and to go back to the Korean characters who are much more interesting and believable.

Writer-director Hwang Dong-hyuk also lets the side down by trying to tie everything up far too neatly over the course of a rather long drawn out final half hour of the show which veers into the saccharine.

The appearance of a well known Oscar winning actress at the end also feels too gimmicky - rather obviously keeping the door open for an American spin-off.

That's a shame because it undermines all the good work that Hwang Dong-hyuk, his cast and crew have done over the course of three seasons and even this season.

Among the star players in Season Three are Im Si-wan,vYang Dong-geun, Kang Ae-shim, Roh Jae-won as the thug Nam-gyu, Park Sung-hoon as a transgender contestant Im Jong-dae and Jeon Seok-ho.

Anchoring the show with a lot of integrity is Lee Jung-jae who impressively conveys the maelstrom of emotions Seong Gi-hun experiences as contestants are picked off one by one.

The show still looks fabulous thanks to Kim Ji-Yong and Kim Sung-jin's cinematography and Chae Kyoung-sun's production design.

The action sequences remaims top drawer.

It's just a pity that they had undermine it with Western characters who are just not very believable played by actors who seem to think they're performing in panto.

If there's going to be a US 'Squid Game' spin-off (and that looks inevitable), they have got a tough act to follow.

But they're also going to need actors who convince and have much better English dialogue than the inane drivel that comes out of the VIP characters' mouths.

Maybe, though, instead of squeezing every drop out of a franchise that has mostly impressed, some things are better off left alone?

But, then again, when has that ever stopped Hollywood?

(Season Three of 'Squid Game' was made available for streaming on Netflix on June 27, 2025)

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