The series is on track to be the biggest in Netflix’s history, and its message resonates around the world.
It’s clear that the show’s fictitious conflicts point to modern-day issues, both economic and social. Like the characters, an increasing number of Koreans are drowning in debt while wrestling with the pressure to fulfill their traditional duties as child, parent, and partner—a kind of social debt on top of the financial one. The show’s female contestants far from conform to stereotypes of women as docile and maternal - perhaps representing the country’s growing.
They literally hand knives to the contestants and have them contemplate the ethics of killing each other—even though the clear objective of the game is to remain the only person alive. In typical Korean drama fashion, drawn-out conversations about familial obligations ensue. “Let’s make a promise … that if either of us makes it out of here alive, we’ll look after each other’s family,” Sae-byuk tells Gi-hun as she bleeds from one side.