Yahoo News North Korea Blasts ‘Squid Game’, Says It Depicts Capitalist Culture At Its Worst
The No. 1 rule of North Korea is, “Don’t be the first one to stop clapping.”
Exception: Unless the subject is South Korea’s smash hit show Squid Game.
More from Deadline
'Lucifer' Dominates But 'Squid Game' Fails To Crack Nielsen U.S. Streaming Chart In First Week
LeBron James "Didn't Like The Ending" Of 'Squid Game' And Suggests His Own
While the dystopian series is the No. 1 show on Netflix in 90 countries, its not a big hit in North Korea, where it was slammed as a “sad reality of a beastly South Korean society.”
TMZ is reporting that the pro-North Korea website Arirang Meari is the source of the sour review, and it apparently didn’t get the memo on the show’s fictional nature. To Arirang Meari, the show “gained popularity because it exposes the reality of South Korean capitalist culture.”
That’s the least of its barbs. The show depicts “a world where only money matters — a hell-like horror” and celebrates a society where “corruption and immoral scoundrels are commonplace.”
Squid Game, for the uninitiated, shows people with unpayable debts competing in a strange, winner-take-all contest that will instantly wipe out their slate. That’s not good, according to its critics.
“It is said that it makes people realize the sad reality of the beastly South Korean society in which human beings are driven into extreme competition and their humanity is being wiped out,” whined Arirang.
Just where North Korean society watches Squid Game is a mystery. Western media is forbidden, and those caught with it risk prison.
Best of Deadline
Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
