Squid Game - an addictive slap in the face

Impossible not to mention the cultural phenomenon of the year on these lines, but warning / full disclosure: I'm more than a bit biased since I played a (tiny tiny) role in Squid Game.

Just like I've done in the past with other works, I'll simply share my two cents about a creation that's already left a mark on our popular culture. I won't deliver any spoiler, and I won't disclose insider tips (as you may know, in this game, fair play is essential).

This guys knows (backstage with the Front Man).

 

What I can say is that joining this adventure, even for only a few days, was a very intense experience, particularly in the middle of a pandemic. And that the whole crew was amazing, delivering magic at every moment. If the series are such a visual feast, that's because a lot of positive energy and passion has been poured into every single detail.

I can also say that from the start, I knew something special was going to happen. The script was such a page-turner that I simply couldn't put it down. And I couldn't wait to see these wonderful characters come to life. Expectations were very high, but the series turned out to be even more enthralling than I'd thought. Even if I knew every twist ahead, I couldn't escape the flow, and enjoyed the show in total wonder. Squid Game is truly addictive: when it's over you're left in utter withdrawal and craving for more (BTW I'm pretty sure that 99.9% of all viewers let the next episode run right after that cliffhanger end of episode X). 

Netflix gave HWANG Dong-hyuk the creative freedom he needed to carry his vision. He could even slice the series in uneven sections. Releasing all episodes at once ahead of Chuseok proved to be a genius move: it not only allowed en masse binge watching, but also instant discussions across family and friends circles, Thanksgiving-style. So fun watching viewers reacting across the world at different stages of 'enlightenment'!

Now about the content itself.

Squid Game doesn't just reinvent the survivor game concept. It's a merciless social satire, literally a slap in the face, a wake up call with a message that resonates far beyond Korea. When it comes to exposing what's wrong in our societies, few stones are left unturned. A riveting story bound to spark conversations about absurd rat races, destructive competition, appalling injustice and unfairness, everyday despair, our relationship to money, to fellow humans... For the reader, it was quite great to imagine Koreans root for a North Korean defector or a (probably Muslim) Pakistani migrant worker (eventually India's Tripathi Anupam).

If there is a lot of wit and humor along the journey, HWANG isn't afraid of pushing hard where it hurts. No holds barred - even more viscerally than in 'Silenced' (2011). And it works. If Squid Game is so powerful and popular, that's because it's resolutely, unapologetically character-driven, radiating with an immense rainbow of memorable, flawed and fallible characters.

Of course, casting big names (LEE Jung-jae, PARK Hae-soo, WI Ha-joon) helped raise interest in the project from the beginning, but I was very curious to see who'd play Sae-byeok and Il-nam, and delighted to watch JUNG Ho-yeon and O Yeong-su give life to cult characters that will haunt you forever. What a roller coaster ride for KIM Joo-ryung along HAN Mi-nyeo's telluric mood swings, and what a diverse collection of Korean talents gracing the screen, even if only for a few moments each (from the hilarious chief police LEE Dong-yong to the discreet KIM Young-sun)...

One key, omnipresent actor in the series remains invisible all the way, yet never hiding behind a mask: the man in charge of the score. I was warned that JUNG Jae-il was a musical genius, and he didn't fail to surprise with his bewitching gamelan-like rhythms, or the playful, medieval joust touch that illuminated the games. Simply brilliant.

Quintessentially Korean, ultimately universal, Squid Game is already permeating the World's popular culture, generating memes, and fueling all speculations about what comes next. All I know is that for the alchemy to work once more, it will have to start with another awesome script. And I fully understand HWANG when he says a Season 2 would require several writers: hard to top that without bringing new voices.

'OMG North Korea hacked Netflix: Squid Game / 오징어 게임 was aired a few days before the rest of the World (military parade below)' (@theSeoulVillage 20210910 - twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/1436071789579292685)

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Descendants of the Sun(glasses)

I confess I never watched the "Descendants of the Sun" drama. This 2016 military hero sporting sunglasses reminds me too much of that 1986 Tom 'Top Gun' Cruise, if not that 1966 Park 'Retaliator' Chung-hee. Plus I don't feel comfortable with a Korean national broadcaster glamorizing too much the military when on the other side of the East Sea, Shinzo Abe is trying everything he can, from anime to music groups, to promote JSDF to younger generations... Well you do need sunglasses to face such a Rising Sun revival, but still...

I don't know if KBS aired a marathon of the "Descendants of the Sun" drama on election day to keep young voters home, but in spite of a record audience for the shows, the ruling party lost its majority.

That political drama came as a personal blow for Descendant of the Sunglasses PARK Geun-hye, as well as for at least two candidates to her succession:
- KIM Moo-sung bowed out after the debacle. Anyway, he didn't stand a chance for 2017 (at least he won't even need to be "bankimoonized" - see further down)
- OH Se-hoon failed miserably in his risky Jongno-gu bet* - over and out for politics?

Internal wars are likely to rage within a Saenuri Party that already started imploding when PGH pushed for her own candidates, provoking an outflow of defectors. Which currents will emerge around which leaders? And who will play the role of ROH Moo-hyun's MOON Jae-in for PARK, CHOI Kyoung-hwan?

If you think the time has come for BAN Ki-moon to rise, think again: just days after the elections, some of his best enemies made public his embarrassing reports to CHUN Doo-hwan about KIM Dae-jung in exile in the States...

BAN Ki-moon's dream for 2017 stop here (his 1985 reports on KIM Dae-jung to CHUN Doo-hwan) (twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/721879593443921920 - 20160416)
via @annafifield**

AHN Cheol-soo dreams of drafting disillusioned Saenuri figures with his brand new 38-MP-strong People's Party. If the Minjoo Party claimed much more seats (122), MOON Jae-in can't claim it as a personal victory. His party recorded its first win as soon as he left its leadership - as if even the old KIM Chong-in, who worked for CHUN Doo-hwan and PGH, looked less a figure of the past, and a better leader for the left than him. Worse: Honam (Jeolla-do) voted massively for AHN's camp. And MOON let other faces get the spotlights, like KIM Boo-kyum, who triumphed in conservative Daegu.


If PARK Won-soon didn't run last week, he doesn't hide his ambitions for 2017. Depending on how AHN manages to build on his momentum, the Seoul mayor could have a tough time playing the independent leader. And MOON won't let him hijack Minjoo that easily. 

The months to come could be fun watching... and feature more bankimoonizations.

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* see "OH Se-hoon returns... but did he ever leave?"
** see "반기문, ‘김대중 귀국’ 미국 내 여론 동향 보고…미, 전두환 정부 ‘호헌 지지’ 요청에도 끝내 거절"

Love In The Time Of Ageing Korea: 'My Love, Don't Cross That River' - 'Old Partner'

Released a couple of weeks ago, Jin Mo-young's old-love-umentary 'My Love, Don't Cross That River' echoes Lee Chung-ryoul's 'Old Partner' (2008), and seems to be following the same success in theaters.

Both movies feature very old couples nearing the end of their lives in rural Korea. 

'My Love' tells the final moments of a 76-year-long marriage (Jo Byeong-man is 99, Gang Gye-yeol 90):



'Old Partner' adds a 40 year-old cow to form a very moving menage-a-trois in Bonghwa-gun, Gyeongsangbuk-do. You can't tell who will die first between this stubborn farmer and the animal he keeps pushing beyond its limits, while in the next field a younger man uses a mechanical plow.



A bit too K-melodrama-ish a way to tell the story of a disappearing Korea, but was there any better way of capturing "Love In The Time Of Ageing Korea"?

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First World Congress for Hallyu

When SEO Taiji's "Nan Alayo" resonates in the middle of the keynote speech, it dawns on you: this truly is a gathering of Hallyu scholars (NB: I owed this trip back to 1992 Korea to ethnomusicologist Keith Howard - SOAS, University of London).

But what does "Hallyu" cover, exactly? Answering the question seems to be the most complex task... or maybe I should write "tusk", since I heard at least two references to the old Indian tale of the blind men and the elephant - the one where each man touches a different part of the animal and describes something completely different from all others.

The organization behind this First World Congress for Hallyu, the World Association for Hallyu Studies, leaves definitions up to scholars, who are encouraged to explore all possibilities. WAHS itself is structured around the following sections: Humanities and social sciences, Korean language education and culture, Medical science, Hallyu policy and management, Sports science, Entertainment business, Tourism, Textile fashion and beauty science, and Food. So during the two-day event held on Korea University campus, topics reached far beyond the usual suspects (K-pop and K-drama*). As well as beyond WAHS's 18 regional branches, the 125 panel participants representing 24 nations and all continents (even Antartica was mentioned - by Stephen Epstein in his focus "below the Equator").

The purpose is not to push Hallyu overseas, but "to advance Hallyu Studies as a multidisciplinary body of knowledge and profession serving the public good" (as the mission statement goes), and ultimately peace and mutual understanding, as WAHS President PARK Gil-sung pointed out in his wrap-up remarks. Significantly, the Grand Prize for the Student Essay Contest was awarded to a Palestinian female student (Maysa Sameer), and the First Prize for the Article Contest went to Dredge Byung'chu Käng (USA) for his paper on "transnational transgender personification in Thai K-pop cover dance".

I wish I could have attended more panels in this rich program, but I'm glad I didn't miss the "Policy Makers" roundtable on the sustainability of Hallyu featuring representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute (KCTI - Ministry of Culture), the Korea Foundation (KF), the Korea Creative Contents Agency (KCCA), the Korea Institute for Design Promotion, the Korea Foundation for International Culture Exchange, the King Sejong Institute Foundation, and KBS Hallyu Promotion Office. What started like a classic, digestive post-lunch series of presentations turned into a lively debate on the most relevant topic - Hallyu's sustainability - when KIM Tae-hwan (Korea Foundation) frankly shared his doubts regarding the future of what appears to be an overblown, short-lived fad marketed as an entertainment commodity, and his wish to see people work on more sustainable approaches. Participants also had passionate discussions around the roles of public diplomacy and of a government often accused of fanning the flames of international hype.

Day 1, Policy Makers Roundtable

Leveraging a network of 200 overseas missions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs collects all positive and negative feedback about the wave to produce a "Current Status of the Global Village" in partnership with the KF, which explains rather low-profile rethorics: yes we support the Korean wave, but we refuse the driver's seat; Hallyu should neither be politicized, nor be seen as a one-way phenomenon disrespectful of other cultures... The posture is less "we have the answers" than "we need to ask more questions": do we know Hallyu? do we overestimate it? do we have to broaden its scope?

The KCTI considers Hallyu as a content by itself, sustainability being only a matter of quality; it's neither in the hands of government, nor a question of public diplomacy, and the leadership is expected from the happy few top content providers... even if YG Entertainment, SM Entertainment, or Cube have more short term preoccupations, around their core activities (contents, convergence...). The KCCA's main worry for the future seems to be replicating the model on new markets, and KBS simply accompanies a dekoreanization process where Hallyu is not even seen as a part of Korean culture... 

Obviously, if the ecosystem seems aware of the need to embrace sustainability, definitions and forward-thinking levels differ a lot. Again, I threw in my two-cents on the issue the following day (see "Heralding cultural diversity: a stronger and more sustainable Korean wave (1st Congress - WAHS)").

Note that the second WAHS congress will be held in Argentina next year, and that Israel will host a second Middle East - WAHS Conference in May 2014 ("The Cultural Geography of the Hallyu: Mapping the World through Korean Popular Culture", following "The 'Miracle' Narrative of the Korean Cultural Industries: Perspectives from the Middle East" - May 2013).

ADDENDUM - read my presentation "Heralding Cultural Diversity: a stronger and more sustainable Korean wave": Part I, Part II, Part III.

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* or "Koreanovelas", as they are known in the Philippines (where they were initially aired in the local language, with Filipino names and soundracks).

Return to Naganeupseong

Naganeupseong, Jeollanam-do
Photo : "Naganeupseong farmer" (Copyright Stephane MOT 20070820)

Fortunately, nothing has much changed. The old halmony is over 74 now but her place remains as simple, comfortable and beautiful as it was a couple of years ago. In her (central-, not back-) yard like in most of the houses of the village, thatch is kept under ugly plastic for the yearly roof change. She's drying plants under the blazing sun and we'll have more delicious shiraegi bokkum bap this autumn. We invited her to play yutnori but she didn't know the game. Even in this beautiful spot in the middle of rice fields, you're too busy to learn this kind of trivialities.


All right, there's that big parking lot beyond the fortress, the other side of the village. And more highways have been completed in the area, destroying pristine landscapes. Plus they were shooting an MBC Drama that day - the kind with bearded tenors in lavish costumes. And another one was announced in the area (around the meta-sequoias... yet another Winter Sonata ephemeral hit for sure). Damyang-gun is definitely turning into a major touristic hub.


SM 200708