When COVID-19 first circulated in the news, it allegedly all started from a bowl of bat soup in Wuhan, China. As the infection rates soared, so did the racism towards Asians. People around the world, most prominently Westerners, called the SARS-CoV-2 virus the China virus, Asian virus, and even bat soup virus. Heck, when former President Donald Trump said those names, I guess we weren’t even surprised.
I remember how life was when it first started back in early March 2020. The roads were quiet, the malls were empty, people were scared, and the only thing we could hear was that tudum sound from Netflix. In a time where we all had to stay inside, we used media like television, films, and video games to keep ourselves sane and not bored. I vividly remember what I used to do, as if it was all just yesterday even though it’s already been more than a year. I played Animal Crossing almost daily just to have a virtual “outside” while being stuck inside. I followed a lot of TikTok trends, whether it were silly dances, comedy videos, or even recipes like dalogna coffee. Of course, I watched Netflix like it was the only thing that mattered. I religiously watched Tiger King, Outerbanks, and That 70s Show to keep myself entertained. It was a boring part of my life, and I thought that maybe in the span of a year things would get better. It did not.
Aside from COVID rising instead of falling in the country, Asians around the world were getting news of the spikes of Anti-Asian hate crimes in the United States. It was scary to see, especially knowing I have relatives who live there. This went on for weeks and the reports kept coming. From race-blaming to hate crimes, I distracted myself with movies to escape the hard reality we were living in. Around this time my watchlist was filled with Cobra Kai, Judd Apatow films, and true crime documentaries. This was also around the time Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Ten Rings trailer dropped. It blew up on the internet: It was Marvel’s very first Asian-led superhero film, I was psyched and excited and I couldn’t wait to watch it myself. Fast forward to now, I still have not seen it, but I have seen the amazing new heights this movie reached. It became the largest Labor Day weekend box office movie ever in the United States despite the pandemic! It boosted the careers of countless Asian actors, especially with Simu Liu and his stock photo memes.. It was so good to see Asians finally winning somehow, after all the stuff we went through, but that wasn’t all.
September 17, 2021 shook the world with the release of the Netflix series Squid Game. A suspenseful, violent, funny Korean drama that blew up Netflix in ways they couldn’t have expected.
The show centers around Gi Hun (Lee Jung-Jae), a broke single father who still lives with his mother. Running away from debt, bankruptcy, and gambling, a series of events leads him to joining Squid Game, a competition with hundreds of contestants who all have the chance to win billions of won by playing games inspired by traditional Korean games. The catch is, if you lose… it’s truly the final game over.
K-Dramas aren’t that new to the Asian continent 一 they’re quite popular already. What’s special about Squid Game is that this K-Drama is the first to receive this much international acclaim. In almost under two weeks, Squid Game dominated #1 spot in hundreds of countries on Netflix. Worldwide, it beat out two strong Western contenders, Sex Education and Money Heist. It also received a “certified fresh” Rotten Tomatoes rating, with a 100% of their Tomatometer review, and that is truly impressive. Although being a K-Drama, Squid Game had more than just Koreans in the show itself, giving South and Southeast Asian representation with two characters from Pakistan and Filipino descent respectively. I personally really loved that Squid Game showed that Asians are diverse: we come in all colors, shapes, sizes, and it was something needed to be represented, especially to the viewers from the West.
If you are a person in 2021 with access to the Internet, you definitely have heard of Squid Game. You simply can’t escape it: it dominates social media. TikTok trends rose, specifically with recreating the dalgona candy in the show. Twitter flooded the timeline with Jung Ho-Yeon, a Korean model who broke the Internet with her acting on the show Squid Game, especially as this was her very first major acting role, so I totally get the hype. Squid Game memes, parodies, Halloween costumes, and theories flooded feeds, and I really loved experiencing it first hand. What I find the most impressive about Squid Game’s success is that the whole show isn’t in English. It was written, directed, and acted in the show’s Korean language, and I believe that that is a huge win for Asians.
I always go back to what Bong Joon-Ho, director of the Oscar award-winning film, Parasite, said while accepting his award: “Once you overcome the 1-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.”
That is something Squid Game was able to accomplish, and that is something I want to accomplish in the future, too. Squid Game isn’t just the biggest show of the year: it is the stepping stone for more Asian shows or films in the future that can achieve this success worldwide.
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