Hwang Dong-hyuk makes us understand why people take appalling risks. Squid Game earns our recommendation through that attention to its contestants, though his speeches can explain what the drama has already made clear.
Fi1m perspective
Hwang Dong-hyuk makes children’s games frightening by giving the players reasons to stay. In Squid Game (2021), financially desperate contestants face lethal versions of those games, and the prospect of money unsettles every relationship between them. We were frightened because their need to win remains understandable even when the offer is appalling. For much of the series, he lets the pressure of that offer do the work. We recommend it, though he does not always trust us to understand without an explanation.
His feature debut, My Father (2007), dealt with adoption, identity and forgiveness. Silenced (2011) turned towards the abuse of vulnerable people and institutional failure, while Miss Granny (2014) combined comedy, family drama and music. The historical drama The Fortress (2017) followed before the turn to television with Squid Game. Actor Lee Byung-hun and producer Kim Ji-yeon are among his collaborators across that career. It is worth keeping those different kinds of film in mind before assuming that lethal competitions are all he has to offer; comedy and family drama belong in the picture too.
Hwang conceived the Squid Game script around 2009 and went on to create, write and direct the series. Its strength is how directly the games test what each person will accept. Debt and inequality matter because they affect those decisions; we do not need a speech to tell us that money has made the offer hard to refuse. The familiar children’s games give the violence an extra cruelty: something meant for play becomes a test nobody should have to take. That is a strong enough premise to sustain our interest in the people playing.
The weakness is his tendency to say again what the drama has already made clear. Squid Game is sometimes over-explained, with speeches blunter than they need to be and little respite from the violence. We would rather he spent that time with the contestants, whose choices have already made his point. Start with Squid Game, but do not choose it for an evening when everybody needs to relax.
Biography
Hwang Dong-hyuk is a South Korean film director and screenwriter. He graduated with a BA in communications from Seoul National University and an MFA in film production from the University of Southern California. He began his career with short films before making his feature debut with My Father (2007).
He is known for directing and writing Silenced (2011) and The Fortress (2017), and for directing and writing the Netflix series Squid Game (2021–2025), on which he also served as creator. He directed the episode "Red Light, Green Light", for which he received the 2022 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series. Other credits include directing Miss Granny (2014) and adaptation work on Collectors (2020).
