Director Hwang Dong Hyuk of “Squid Game” confessed, “I’m really surprised. Did BTS feel like this?”
The director said that every time “Squid Game” achieved the No.1 title, he drank a bottle of alcohol and wondered, “BTS must have felt like this”
Netflix‘s original series “Squid Game” is still heating up. It ranked 1st in all 83 countries that Netflix serviced. This drama is making a splash not only in the U.S and Japan but also in Europe and India. According to the global online video service (OTT) content ranking website FlixPatrol’s report on October 3, “Squid Game” has been on the No.1 spot for 10 consecutive days after it topped the “Netflix Today’s Top 100 TV Programs” category on September 23.
Regarding the popularity of “Squid Game”, director Hwang Dong Hyuk expressed, “Every time the drama ranked No.1 in Korea, No.1 in the world or No.1 in history, I drank a bottle of alcohol. BTS must have felt like this“. The Director continued, “In normal survival games, a cool protagonist will appear, but there is no such protagonist in this drama. The person who survives till the end, Sung Ki Hoon has no special ability. In this film, the main character is just like a loser. I wanted to express that what you need to remember after watching this competition is that the winner is not a leader, but a loser.”
In “Squid Game”, we can easily recognize the games that Koreans would have played at least once in their childhood, such as ‘marbles’, ‘the honeycomb game’, ‘red light, green light’, and ‘squid game’. However, in this film, the game was covered with blood. Director Hwang Dong Hyuk explained, “The most important thing was that the game should be easy to understand. It seemed to look strange and weird when hundreds of people gathered for the ‘red light, green light’ game and were massacred. I played ‘squid game’ a lot when I was young. I used this game in the scene when two men bet everything and fought.”
At the end of the drama, Sung Ki Hoon (Lee Jung Jae) took a step back ahead of the plane boarding to meet his daughter and participated in the game again. When asked if he already had season 2 in mind, director Hwang said, “I’m thinking about season 2. It’s hard to tell you in details, but there is a high possibility for season 2“. He continued, “If we do season 2, wouldn’t there be a story about the game manager? I think they are like 2 sides of a coin. I’m also wondering if they pick the number side of the coin, will they join as game managers?”
In addition, the surprise appearance of the top actors, Gong Yoo and Lee Byung Hun, in “Squid Game” has also drawn great attention. Director Hwang Dong Hyuk also talked about the behind-the-scenes story of the casting; he said, “I worked with Gong Yoo in ‘Silenced’ and with Lee Byung Hun sunbaenim in ‘The Fortress’. Therefore, I’m quite close to them. I asked them if they could appear as a cameo in my drama. I asked them during a nice drinking party and succeeded. I still feel thankful for that.”
In addition, other actors, such as Jung Ho Yeon, Kim Joo Ryeong, and Heo Sung Tae, who were not well known back then, began to rise to stardom after the drama release. In particular, actress Jung Ho Yeon, who played the role of a North Korean defector Sae Byeok, has become a “lightning star” with her SNS followers increasing by 30 times to reach 11.7 million.
Director Hwang Dong Hyuk said, “In the case of Jung Hoyeon, I wanted to cast a new face. I held a lot of auditions to select the right actor for the role. I also wanted a new face to play Junho, so I cast Wi Ha Joon. I experienced working with Kim Joo Ryeong with ‘Silenced’ 10 years ago, so she also joined me this time. And I had a great impression of Heo Sung Tae in ‘The Fortress’.”
Lastly, Director Hwang Dong Hyuk greeted, “I’m really surprised. Thank you for showing your interest and support.“
Sources: naver
