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Subscribe: Every year, seemingly thousands of shows wind up on Netflix from all across the globe, and sometimes — like in the case of, say, the German sci-fi thriller Dark — some of those shows find huge success and set social media ablaze. TikTik in particular has had a generous helping hand in catapulting this Korean series’ popularity thanks to a trend wherein TikTokers try to play some of the death games themselves. But what’s the root of all this tomfoolery, huh? Creator Hwang Dong-Hyuk was inspired to write the show by a few factors. First was, of course, the issues of debt and money lending in South Korea — a problem that plagues most of the world, and which he figured correctly lots of people would relate to. He also has theorized that the show is so successful because of the games’ simplicity and the irony of adults playing children’s games to the death. Then, of course, there’s the title, which not too shockingly came from the real life children’s game that he played in his youth. He figured it was more symbolic of the society we live in today. For the role of the Front Man, Hwang turned to the actor perhaps most well known to US audiences: Lee Byung-hun, who of course played Snake Eyes in GI Joe: Retaliation. He also led the South Korean Jee-Woo Kin film I Saw the Devil, which if you like extreme tension and bittersweet plot points, that’s the film for you. Lee had also already worked with Hwang on the historical action film The Fortress in 2017, so presumably they were already pretty tight. Anyway, if you want to learn more about the cast, the plagiarism allegations regarding Takashi Miike’s As the Gods Will, or just talk aboutpractical sets (we love those!) go ahead and watch the video. Not sure why you’re down here in the description. Especially this far down. The video’s up there. Chapters: 0:00 - Intro 0:25 Inspiration 1:10 Cast 2:52 Practical Sets 3:48 Plagiarism Allegations 4:34 Those Subtitles… 5:26 A Second Season? Check out Screen Rant’s official TikTok! @screenrant Our Social Media: Our Website: Written by: Michael Keene Narrated by: Michael Keene Edited by: Michael Keene For copyright matters please contact us at: legal@
