Squid Game: 12 Hidden Details You Definitely Missed

7. The VIPs

Squid Game
Netflix

Though the VIPs were the least favourite of many an audience member, their characterisation and writing - though sometimes over the top and clunky in dialogue - were fairly accurate to how the director wanted to portray them.

It's not hard to see why the VIPs, though masked, are mostly white, all men, and mostly American. The US has one of the biggest, if not the biggest, superpowers' global economies, so the inclusion of more than one American feels like a decision rather than an accident.

The director even once stated that one of the VIPs resembled Donald Trump, and that he meant for them to represent "the powerful elite, the global CEOs."

The way their jokes are crass and low hanging fruit was also a narrative choice, to show that their riches didn't mean they were better or even classier people. The sexual overtures of one of them towards detective character Hwang Jun-ho may also be in reference to Western sexpats in Asian countries like South Korea. The painted figures in the room they were in also contained painted men and women and used as furniture, which, as the director points out, shows how they objectify human beings.

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Writer, artist, professional animator. Indie comics and Hi Nay podcast creator. Queer Filipino storyteller || @MotzieD on Twitter || Originally from Quezon City, The Philippines. Currently based in Toronto, Canada || motziedapul.com || hinaypod.com