Squid Game: Is It Inspired by a True Story?
Squid Game may be inspired by real-life abuses at South Korea's Brother's Home camp.
Squid Game, the popular South Korean Netflix series, has become a worldwide hit, thanks to its thrilling plot. In the show, a group of people plays children's games to win a huge amount of money. But there’s a deadly twist: if they lose a game, they are shot and killed.
While the show has been praised for its exciting story, it also highlights the serious issue of how wealth is unequally distributed in society, creating a gap between the rich and poor. Recently, viral videos on social media have revealed that Squid Game may be inspired by a real-life story from South Korea.
The Brother’s Home Camp
In the 1970s and 1980s, there was a place in South Korea called “Brother’s Home,” which was an internment camp. People were kept in these camps even though they had not committed any crime. The biggest of these camps was called "Brother’s Home." It was originally an orphanage but later became a place where many people were forced to stay, even if they weren’t criminals.
In this camp, people suffered human rights abuses. What are human rights abuses? It means people were not allowed their basic rights, tortured, or made to do hard work. Many people in the camp were not even homeless, but poor, and they needed money. Still, they were sent there.
A Survivor’s Story
One of the survivors of Brother’s Home, named Han, shared his experience with BBC. He said that in 1984, he and his sister were kidnapped near a police station. Men in blue tracksuits pushed them into a bus and took them to the camp. Han said, “They started beating us, saying we were too loud.”
This story sounds similar to the events shown in Squid Game, where players are taken to the game by men wearing pink tracksuits. In Squid Game, the players are given green tracksuits and rubber shoes, and similarly, in the Brother’s Home camp, the inmates were given blue tracksuits and rubber shoes.
Photos of Brother’s Home show that there were bunk beds in the camp, just like in Squid Game. Inmates were made to complete difficult tasks, and if they failed, they were punished in brutal “games.” In one of these games, they were hit in the eye until it bruised, and in another, they were beaten while hanging upside down.
Many people died in the Brother’s Home camp, with official records saying at least 551, though the true number may be higher. There are also reports of sexual abuse, although this is not shown in Squid Game.
The Director’s View
When asked about the inspiration behind Squid Game, the show's director, Hwang Dong Hyuk, said that the series was not inspired by Brother’s Home. He said his main inspiration came from Japanese comics and animations. He also mentioned that the story was partly inspired by the 2009 layoff at SsangYong Motor, an automobile company, which led to massive protests when over 2,000 employees were fired.
In the first season of Squid Game, the main character Gi-hun loses his job after 16 years of working at a company called Dragon Motors. Like the workers in the real-world protests, Gi-hun ends up struggling financially and is forced to join the deadly game.
The Camp’s Dark History
In 1987, the truth about the Brother’s Home camp came out, and the camp was shut down. However, Park In Keune, the man who ran the camp and made millions from forced labor, received a very light punishment.
While many people believe that Squid Game was inspired by the events at Brother’s Home, there is no strong evidence to support this. Some images online show similarities between the show and the real camp, but it’s unclear how much of the story is true.
For now, we can only wonder whether the shocking events of Squid Game were influenced by real-life horrors.
