Del reviews Season 2 of ‘Squid Game’

Image by Netflix

“Squid Game” Season 2. Starring Lee Jung-jae as Seong Gi-hun, Lee Byung-hun as Hwayng In-ho, Park Gyu-young as Kang No-eul, and others. Directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk. Seven episodes, 33-76 minutes long per episode. Rated TV-MA. Streaming on Netflix.

Del’s take

Dystopian and violent, “Squid Game 2” can be seen as an intense metaphor for the rigged democracy and corrupted capitalism running amok in America today.

The original “Squid Game” Netflix series burst upon the scene in September 2021 and became an instant sensation with its dark theme of oppressed people battling each other and a faceless authority in contests where the odds were stacked against them.

In “Squid Game” deadbeats, drug addicts and gamblers whose luck has run out compete for a $31 million cash prize. What they don’t know going in is that the losers die and have their organs harvested. It’s like “The Running Man” without a quippy Richard Dawson to keep things moving along.

Lee Jung-jae reprises his role as the soulful Seong Gi-hun, who in Season 1 needed money to pay off his gambling debts and finance his mother’s medical treatments. He re-enters the game in Season 2 to bring down the organizers from within and expose the lethal abuse of contestants.

As in Season 1 the games are diabolically cruel, and it is here where “Squid Game,” as a vehicle for social commentary, takes on its shine. Games are packaged in the shiny colors and simple language of a children’s game, but nothing about “Red Light. Green Light” and “Tug-of-War” is child-like. If you don’t stop when the giant robot girl turns and opens its eyes, you die.

Meanwhile, contestants feud among themselves, trying to decide if they should continue the games or escape with their lives. That’s where Season 2 departs from the first season formula – participants vote after each game to play or go – as a group. In this outing one faction wants to continue playing, even if it costs them their lives, for the chance of winning a larger sum of money. The other wants to cut their losses and leave Squid Game island. It’s hard to ignore the parallels between that and the MAGA vs. Sane People rancor permeating American politics right now.

This season’s cast of characters includes a mother who joined to pay off her son’s gambling debts, a rapper who lost his fortune in cryptocurrency and a trans woman who needs the cash to complete her transition. Each has a story to tell and to be honest, they sound pityingly similar to the people being harmed by the current administration’s rampage through federal government services.

 “Squid Game” is a dark and furious condemnation of authority and oppression, with notes of human greed and towering hubris thrown into the mix. But Season 2 departs from the script of the first season by offering a moment of hope. What will Season 3 bring? We’ll find out later this year.

Season 2 of “Squid Game” rates a grade of A.

Del Stone Jr. is a former journalist and writer.

“The Host” Starring Kang-ho Song, Hie-bong Byeon and Hae-il Park. Directed by Joon-ho Bong. 119 minutes. Rated R.

Del’s take

I was told to expect a monster movie, a “Godzilla” sans cheesy rubber suit and toy airplanes. I was not told to expect humor, a dysfunctional family and biting political commentary.

Yet that’s what director Bong has delivered with “The Host,” a modern fable that calls upon classic storytelling and genre tropes to deliver its subtextual punch. “The Host” gives us a monster, yes, and it is a monster that gallops through its CGI-energized paces with the crazed recklessness of a 20-ton tweeker.

But worse monstrosities await victims of “The Host,” from the disaffections of life in the 21st century to conspiratorial governments that treat the helpless as cannon fodder for shrouded strategic aims.

In “The Host,” a family broken apart by selfishness is united in a quest to free a young girl who has been taken away by a monster that sprang from the Han River, which flows through Seoul, South Korea.

The family members must confront not only the monster but also resolve their personal differences and deal with a bureaucratic apparatus that has been set up to conceal the truth about the creature.

“The Host” is sure to befuddle the ADD-addled brains of many Americans but it is a fine piece of moviemaking that does what all good stories should do – entertain and provoke.

Mladen’s take

Sure, the people in “The Host” are important.

There’s the fractured family with its only functional constituent a middle-school girl. There’s the meek, bureaucracy-poisoned government of South Korea and there’s the omnipotent U.S. Army illegally polluting the Han River.

But it’s the creature spawned by the toxic Han that steals the show.

A cross between the quad-jaw worms in “Tremors” and the tadpole phase of the smog monster in a classic pro-environment Godzilla epic, the Han beast is ferocity and guile in all its computer-animated glory.

Smart monsters are appealing because they’re alarming. It’s not that they kill you because you’re unluckily at the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s that they’re going to figure out where you live, case the joint, organize an attack plan and then follow it to kill you.

“The Host” is appealing because it makes the absurd premise of a mutated beast rising from shallow river depths near a metropolis believable.

And, it’s believable because of the way Bong portrays humanity’s reaction to the creature.

Mladen Rudman is a former journalist and technical editor. Del Stone Jr. is a former journalist and author.

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