The South Korean drama “Squid Game” is taking the whole world by storm.
In this exciting thriller, 456 contestants compete in childhood games with their lives at stake, all to win the grand prize of 45.6 billion Korean Won (approximately SGD $51.9 million).
But why is it 45.6 billion Korean Won?
In response to this, the writer-director Hwang Dong-hyuk has revealed the rationale behind the prize money and shared that in fact, the amount is related to the lottery!
In an interview with Korean media recently, Hwang Dong-hyuk talked about the meaning of the prize money in the mega-hit Netflix series. He revealed, “When I was writing the script 10 years ago, I originally wanted to set the total prize money at 10 billion Korean Won”.
But as time passes and with the currency inflation, the South Korean director thought that the 10 billion Korean Won seemed to be too little, so he checked what was the highest lottery win in Korea at that time and it was around 40 billion Korean won.
“So, I thought, if I were to set it such that each participant’s life is worth 100 million Korean Won, the prize money would be 45.6 billion Korean Won. And the number “456” is right in the middle, it’s also easy to remember.”
When asked why did the main character Gi-hun (Lee Jae-jung) has his hair dyed red in the final scene, the director said, “In my opinion, dying my hair red is something I would never normally do. So, the craziest thing that came to my mind was red hair. And red hair also represents Gi-hun’s anger”.
Since its release, the original series Squid Game has become the number one trending show on Netflix. The success of Squid Game has director and writer Hwang Dong-hyuk “feeling good one moment, and then feeling a little nervous next”.
Apologises for featuring a real number
The Netflix’s original series had unfortunately revealed an actual existing phone number causing trouble for the owner of the phone number. As the individual continues to complain about the constant trouble, the Squid Game production team stated they are working to resolve the issue.
To which, the director apologised for the controversy over the real existence of the phone number. He said, “At first, I thought about a non-existent number, but I didn’t expect that 010 (the first 3 digits of South Korean mobile phone numbers) would be automatically added when the call was made.”
“This was something that even the production team didn’t expect. I am sorry for not verifying this, and once again, I would like to apologise to the owner of the phone number.”
The director also revealed that the production team is already drawing up a compensation plan and will be responsible for their mistake.
Second season?
While it’s unclear if there would be a Season 2 or sequel series of the Squid Game at the moment, Director Hwang said that he “may have to think about it again”.
So, all hope is not lost! At least he didn’t say NO.
If you’d like to contribute your story to us, drop us an email at editors@sureboh.sg and we’ll review it. We read each submission that comes to us within two weeks of receiving it.
