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The playground game where players stop and go
at a tagger's command is one of six kids games with fatal
consequences depicted in the gory thriller named after a South
Korean variation of tag played in the 1970s and 80s using a
board drawn in the dirt. In the "Red Light, Green Light"
episode, the show's first, players are shot for failing to stand
still at the red light call.
The Squid Game is the last one the 456 cash-strapped contestants
on the show, ranging from a North Korean defector to a fund
manager charged with embezzlement, must compete in for a prize
of 45.6 billion won ($38.66 million).
The horror series has shot to popularity since premiering on
Sept. 17, becoming the first Korean drama to snatch the top spot
on Netflix in the United States. It could become its most
popular show yet globally, the company's Co-Chief Executive Ted
Sarandos said on Monday.
"We did not see that coming, in terms of its global popularity,"
he said.
South Korea, Asia’s fourth-largest economy, has established
itself as a global entertainment hub with its vibrant
pop-culture, including the seven-member boy band BTS and movies
such as Oscar winners "Parasite," a satire about class and
society, and "Minari," about a Korean immigrant family in the
United States.
The fame of "Squid Game" has transferred to the so-called
metaverse, or digital world where people move and communicate in
virtual environments.
Thousands of global users have been playing "Red Light, Green
Light" in several game rooms dubbed "Squid Game" on Roblox, a
California-based maker of popular online video game platforms.
The rooms emulate several film sets and let users sign up for a
"Red Light, Green Light" game.
On Twitter, the hashtags “SquidGame” and "RedLightGreenLight"
were trending and reviews of the Roblox games have inundated
YouTube and other social media.
Venues outside the virtual world are also capitalizing on the
show's popularity.
A Facebook post showed a mall in Quezon City in the Philippines
had installed a 3-metre (10 ft) copy of the doll that calls out
the commands in the "Red Light, Green Light" episode, which
invites people to play across a crosswalk outside and win
prizes.
Following the success of the nine-part series, season two of
"Squid Game" is in the works, and Netflix has said it plans to
invest $500 million on original movies and TV shows this year in
South Korea, one Asia's fastest growing markets.
($1 = 1,179.6200 won)
(Reporting by Sangmi Cha; additional reporting by Neil Jerome
Morales in Manila; Editing by Jack Kim and Christian
Schmollinger)
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