Comments by "K `" (@user-jt3dw6vv4x) on "'Squid Game's' global popularity has real-life ripple effects" video.

They didn't just "call out" South Korea. The show was created by Koreans and aimed at a Korean audience. Every character in that show represents a group of people in modern Korean society who have been affected by the country's inequality crisis. It applies to the whole world but the creators of the show created the show as an allegory of modern Korean society.
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@blackwintergaming4609 They're aren't trying to make South Korea look bad though. Talking about the social isues in the country is not "making the country look bad". It's harmful to think that speaking about these issues means it's making the country look bad because these issues will never be addressed then.
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@karithema9ician657 No it's weird because there was no need to add "woman" into the sentence. It's the type of language people would use to talk down on a woman elsewhere in the world. That's why it's weird.
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@kjellvb1979 Yes I know that but what I'm saying is that this show was created specifically as an allegory of Korean society. That is why every character in that show is representative of people who exist in modern Korean society who have been affected by various things like the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, the exploitation of South and Southeast Asian migrant workers, the life of North Korean defectors and the debt crisis. This show was created and aimed at Korean audiences. It was promoted in South Korea with some promotion in other parts of Asia. The success of the show elsewhere was unexpected and is part of the reason why South Koreans are confused as to why it became so popular in the West because it's based on Korean societal issues. Yes it's a critique on capitalism but the show itself is supposed to highlight the issues in modern Korean society, some of these issues just so happen to be global issues too.
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No, she's right. Yes, the show is relatable to audiences the world over but the show was created by Koreans to target Korean viewers. That's why each of the main characters in the show represent a specific type of group of person in modern Korean society. The global success of Squid Game was never expected.
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@kjellvb1979 If one is aware of the issues of modern Korean society post-modernisation, then they will understand that the show as a whole is an allegory of capitalist Korean society in particular. Yes, it's an allegory of a capitalist society in general but the show is set in South Korea and the characters have been influenced by current day events in Korean society. If this was set in the US, then there would be no North Korean defector for example. Gi-Hun's (the main character) back story would be different as the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis did not affect the US and there would be no South Asian migrant worker from Pakistan. South Korea's severe household debt crisis (which is the highest in the world) influenced the series and if it was set in the US, there may have been another reason for why Squid Game exists in that alternate American society. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the show is very specific to Korean issues and provides an allegory of a capitalist world through modern Korea.
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@jamiek1714 It's due to globalisation and access to the internet. Before, Korean pop culture became popular in the rest of the world, it was hugely popular in many parts of Asia as early as the late 1990s. Korean dramas and pop culture made their way to the West via Asian diaspora communities. For example, there were Asian-oriented TV channels on cable TV in the US that broadcast Korean dramas in the 2000s. Streaming apps created by Asian TV channels (from my knowledge, specifically those from China and Sri Lanka) also emerged in the US and Australia providing Asian shows for overseas Asian migrant communities. These apps included dubbed Korean dramas. Kdramas were a pan-Asian thing that seemed to be of common knowledge to many different Asian groups (not just Koreans) and thus it helped in their exposure on a larger scale. Then Gangnam Style happened and it was the first time a Korean pop cultural item became widely popular outside of Asia. I never expected Kpop to become popular but it gained mainstream popularity in the West in 2019 and I never thought Kdramas would become popular in the mainstream either but Squid Game has done that. The internet has helped a lot in the spread of different cultural exports. It's made them easily accessible. If we were in the 1990s or 2000s, this wouldn't have been possible in my opinion and Kdramas would have remained an Asia-specific thing like how South American telenovelas are very much specific to Latin America.
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@aldonalidia3850 The show is an allegory of Korean society. It's specifically representing the issues of the capitalist Korean society.
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