According to Koreaboo on October 12, in a recent interview, director Hwang Dong Hyuk shared about the inspiration behind Squid Game. The filmmaker also revealed that a character in the film was inspired by the former US President.
Squid Game is currently the hottest name on Netflix worldwide. In a recent interview, Hwang Dong Hyuk shared untold stories related to this "super product". Hwang Dong Hyuk is the director and scriptwriter of the hit work. The famous filmmaker shared that he started the idea of Squid Game in 2008 and created and wrote the script about 10 years ago. However, when the director introduced the project to actors and investors, they all refused, saying that the content of the work was "too strange and unrealistic".
However, according to what Hwang Dong Hyuk revealed, the film exploits more real points than they think. The talented director stated that some real-life events and characters inspired the development of Squid Game's content.
Notably, the crisis of Lehman Brothers - a global financial service and once the fourth-largest investment bank in the U.S., was applied by Hwang in building the character's context in the film. The collapse of this business in 2008 affected the global economy, including South Korea. The screenwriter of Squid Game shared that he also faced economic difficulties during this time.
Squid Game also has elements inspired by the development of modern technology, from the virtual currency that the youth of the Land of the Morning Calm are rushing to invest in to the rise of tech giants like Facebook, Google, Naver... According to director Hwang, these large companies have restructured people's lives, and although they have brought many innovations, these companies have also become wealthy quickly due to that process.
In particular, another source of inspiration that helped Hwang Dong Hyuk create a character type in the film came from Mr. Donald Trump. According to the famous filmmaker, there are even characters in the film that resemble this well-known politician and businessman. Hwang Dong Hyuk shared that when Donald Trump became the President of the United States, he saw Trump as if he were running a game show and bringing horror to everyone. 'I think he is similar to one of the VIP characters in Squid Game,' the filmmaker said.
The 'VIPs' in Squid Game are masked guests who come to watch the deadly arena of desperate people competing for a huge cash prize. They wear masks, sit and observe everything happening from a luxurious room, and bet on potential players...
This talented director further shared: 'After all that has happened, I think it is time for this work to be introduced to the world.' Perhaps the above factors have contributed to making Squid Game a massive phenomenon as it is now.