A woman in South Korea admits to being inundated with calls to her cell phone after her number appeared in the popular series Squid Game.
The digital streaming media service provider that airs Squid Game, Netflix, said it would edit the scene featuring the number.
A businesswoman in Seongju, southeastern South Korea, told local media that she had received thousands of texts and calls to her phone asking to play, "to the point that it is difficult for me to continue my daily life".
"This is a number I've been using for over ten years, so I was quite surprised. There were over four thousand numbers I had to remove from my phone," he told Money Today.
"At first I didn't know why but my friend told me my number was out in the Squid Game and that's when I realized it."
Compensation Rp60 million
The woman has reportedly turned down an offer of compensation of up to five million won (nearly Rp. 60 million).
Netflix has yet to comment on the compensation claim and asked fans of the show to refrain from calling the number.
"Together with the production company, we are working to resolve this issue, including editing the scene with a phone number if necessary," Netflix said Wednesday.
Squid Game first premiered on September 17 and Netflix says it topped the most popular shows in 90 countries in just 10 days.
Even if you've never seen the show on Netflix, or come across memes about it on the internet — chances are you've heard of the Squid Game.
Everyone seems to be talking about the hyper-violent thriller series that has been a huge hit since Netflix launched this past mid-September.
In fact, this Korean series — whose story centers on a brutal survival game — is about to beat Bridgerton, the British Regency-era romance drama, to become the greatest original series of all time.
While the series' genre is not new, its surprising visuals, close-knit characters, and disturbing study of human nature were well received by audiences around the world, report the BBC's Waiyee Yip and William Lee.
Murder on the playground
In the Squid Game, as many as 456 people, mired in debt and despair, participate in a bloody game of survival.
The winner has a chance to win 45.6 million Korean won (US$39 million or Rp. 558 billion), if he wins in six game series.
The surprise? If they lose, they die.
The gameplay itself is pretty straightforward — these are the games that the participants used to play as children.
So, it is the surprising interplay between innocent play and violent death that keeps the audience from moving.
"People are attracted by the irony that desperate adults are willing to risk their lives to win a child's game," Squid Game director Hwang Dong-hyuk said in an interview.
"The gameplay is simple and easy, so the audience can focus more on each character rather than the complex rules of the game."
There's also an element of nostalgia here.
For example, Dalgona's honeycomb challenge, featured in episode three, is a game that many Koreans played when they were little.
In this challenge, participants had to carefully cut a paper-thin honeycomb sheet using a needle. If the candy sheet breaks, then he loses.
One Korean tweeted: "Squid Game makes me want to eat Dalgona [candy] again. I haven't eaten in 20 years… Is the candy still for sale? I don't think I can find it."
Characters like you and me
Observers also say the success of this event is due to its characters, many of whom are marginalized by society.
Although all of them have the same problem, namely being in debt, they all come from all walks of life.
The main character, for example, is an unemployed man with a gambling problem who is trying to earn the respect of his family.
Through this game, he meets a young North Korean defector with a tragic background, and a Pakistani laborer who is abused by his employer.
Kim Pyeong-gang, a professor of global culture at Sangmyung University told the BBC: "People, especially the younger generation, who are used to experiencing alienation and hatred in real life, seem to be able to sympathize with these characters."
Much like its East Asian neighbors, the hyper-competitive culture in South Korean society has left many people disappointed.
Despite all the hard work, it's not possible for everyone to get into the best universities or get a decent job.
The gameplay in Squid Game, however deadly, provides an alternative world based on justice.
As one game guide in the series put it: "All participants in this game are equal.
"We are giving people who suffer unequal treatment and discrimination in the outside world the last chance to win the competition fairly."
Red light, green light
Western media compared Squid Game to Parasite, the Korean film that won an Oscar in 2019, which also presents wealth inequality and injustice in society.
But in East Asia, audiences say this series is similar to a Japanese film released in 2014, As The Gods Will.
The characters in this film are high school kids, but the storylines are quite similar. Some people even accuse Squid Game of plagiarism.
For example, As The Gods Will also features the traditional children's game "Red Light, Green Light".
In one of Squid Game's most famous scenes, a giant robot girl uses her laser eye to find the losing player. They were then killed.
Hwang dismissed these accusations. He said, "there is no connection" between the two films, and a resemblance is found by many because they are of the same genre.
“I started planning [Squid Game] in 2008 and started writing the script in 2009… The resemblance mentioned is completely unintentional and there is no copying from either side,” he said.
Whatever behind it, the popularity of Squid Game has made fans ask for a second season. However, fans seem to have had a long wait before it materialized.
"I don't have any great plans for Squid Game 2 yet," Hwang told Variety. "It's quite tiring just thinking about it."
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