한국형 생존서사와 K-능력주의 - 넷플릭스 오리지널 드라마 <오징어 게임(황동혁, 2021)>을 중심으로

Abstract

The Netflix drama <Squid Game>, directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk, was the most talked-about drama in the world in 2021. <Squid Game>, which surpassed 100 million paid-viewing households in 17 days, secured the largest number of effective viewing households in Netflix history on October 13, 2021, and has been ranked world No.1 for the longest time. <Squid Game> was loved all over the world because of the power of universal themes and distinctiveness of Korean content. Therefore, this paper examines the differences between the universal narrative of market liberalism and the narrative of Korean meritocracy by finding the fact that <Squid Game> internalized the polarization phenomenon driven to the extreme of market liberalism into a basic narrative, that is, a master plot, making the universal crisis around the world acute and differentiation revealed through unique Korean traditional games, emotional structures, and social conventions for awareness of these issues. A story that was popularly successful in a particular era, its narrative, narration, and plot can be said to be the result of reflecting that era. When excessive competition is agreed upon as a means of fairness, <Squid Game>, which was explosively popular with the global public through the Online-streaming platform, deals with fairness in capitalist society and the rules of games derived from fairness in earnest. <Squid Game> has universalized a ‘survival narrative’, which was considered B-class, minor, and sub-genre, into a mainstream popular narrative, and the distinctiveness of the Korean survival narrative played a major role. The Korean survival narrative is different from the existing survival narrative stories, which have been called death games where survival is the final reward. First, the characters are different. The main characters in <Squid Game> are all legally flawed characters and are economically disqualified, but rather, they gain relative ethics and goodness through the game process. The second difference is that the malformed fairness theory combined with meritocracy is repeated in the game process. The bizarre fairness theory exposes the cruel side of market liberalism disguised as meritocracy. The irony of meritocracy is reinforced through the simplicity and repetition of the six games. In that sense, <Gganbu>, the 6th episode that is evaluated the highest among drama episodes and gives a strong immersion, is also a part showing the unique conflict evangelism narrative unique to <Squid Game>, which converts external conflicts into internal conflicts. Such empathy functions as an opportunity to expand final survival into tragic catharsis and a sense of reflection on the contemporary, not simply the pleasure of victory. On the other hand, this is also the reason why it was able to draw the response of novelty from narrative consumers around the world by breaking away from the cliche of Hollywood popular movie narratives, which are considered the epitome of public and blockbuster narratives. In that it embodies the harmful effects of income polarization and unconditional market liberalism into empathetic episodes by revealing the lies hidden by the fairness theory of polarization and unrestricted market liberalism as well as the formal differences in the characters, the ending, and the way events are conducted, the worldwide popularity and empathy of <Squid Game> was also accepted as a very important social achievement. The contradiction of the meritocracy era disguised as fairness was reproduced in the dual time and space of simplified games. As a result, it is also breaking away from the cliché of the 21st century cinematic fantasy, which tried to satisfy the contradictions of the world with a fantasy stage and alternative fiction by sealing it with a happy ending. <Squid Game> is a work with a contemporary meaning that asks the meaning of ethics and fairness in this era through the characters who are clearly disqualified from the point of view of the law, but whose good and evil are not easily distinguished from the perspective of deep ethics instead of the fictional definition of a cinematic narrative that can no longer be realized by the dichotomy of good and evil.