The marketplace and the games, both engineered by distant, faceless billionaires, dehumanize and humiliate their participants, eroding human relationships, turning simple acts of kindness into costly, self-destructive endeavors. The pursuit of money has taken everything from Seung Gi-hun - all he can do is strengthen the family relationships that remain. He shouldn’t win, really (indeed, the game ends up being rigged in his favor, to some degree, as his elderly father figure is later revealed to be one of the masterminds behind the games).Īfter Seung Gi-hun emerges victorious, with millions of dollars to spend, he finds that his mother has passed away in his absence his newfound fortune can do anything, except bring her back.
He is forgiving, empathetic, and self-sacrificing, in stark contrast to the cold, calculating nature of his fellow players. In the games, however, Seung Gi-hun is one of the few players who actually values human life and friendship. The protagonist, Seung Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), is introduced as a lazy loser who has failed to live up to his responsibilities - he’s an absent father, whose elderly mother pays the bills, while he gambles her money away. Love and friendship simply cannot survive in this environment, as the incentives change by the day the tug of war rewards teamwork, while a game of marbles brutally punishes the players for caring for one another.Įvery interaction becomes a calculation, every life saved an investment, as is every throat cut. A bloody betrayal becomes a business transaction - morality has no meaning or value when everyone’s lives are on the line, and only one can emerge alive. It’s not a subtle metaphor, and yet, it is effective once the players accept the conditions of the game, they change. And it’s all for the amusement of a small group of billionaires, numbed to a life of excess, who view poverty as an opportunity, human misery as mere entertainment.
Hence, the players actually want to return to the dystopian playground, a deadly casino coated in candy pink and blue, where the trigger-happy guards have no face, no personality, and seemingly, no soul. Money, it seems, is the only mind-altering substance that could make these people tolerate such violence and depravity.Īlthough the vote is almost evenly split (it passes by a single vote), the players return to their mundane reality, where they are reminded that a life spent drowning in debt, frantically struggling to keep one’s head above water, isn’t particularly different from the deadly games.Īt least participating in the games provides a real opportunity to get rich - ordinary life promises only drudgery, hardship, and ever-accumulating debt. However, once the prize money is revealed, stacks of bills piled inside a shiny golden pig, their sense of self-preservation fades away.
0 kommentar(er)
