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S. Korea Netflix Mega Hit 'Squid Game' Premieres in Seoul after Martial Law

Season 2 of "Squid Game" premieres in Seoul as South Korea grapples with a political crisis. Jung Yeon-je / AFP
Season 2 of "Squid Game" premieres in Seoul as South Korea grapples with a political crisis. Jung Yeon-je / AFP
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S. Korea Netflix Mega Hit 'Squid Game' Premieres in Seoul after Martial Law

Season 2 of "Squid Game" premieres in Seoul as South Korea grapples with a political crisis. Jung Yeon-je / AFP
Season 2 of "Squid Game" premieres in Seoul as South Korea grapples with a political crisis. Jung Yeon-je / AFP

Squid Game is back. Netflix's most popular show ever, a dystopian South Korean vision of divided society, premieres its highly-anticipated second season on Monday as Seoul battles real-life policial chaos.
The show's return comes just days after South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol triggered a national crisis by briefly declaring martial law, until he was forced into a dramatic reversal by determined lawmakers, who battled heavily-armed soldiers in parliament to vote it down, AFP said.
Yoon remains in office having survived an impeachment bid, with his party accused of staging a "second coup" to cling on to power, the opposition vowing to try to remove him again, and massive street protests expected this weekend.
"Squid Game", an ultra-violent tale exploring themes of division and inequality, is considered to be one of the most significant works in solidifying South Korea's status as a global cultural powerhouse, alongside the Oscar-winning film "Parasite" and K-pop megastars BTS.
Hwang Dong-hyuk, who wrote and directed both seasons of the show, said he was feeling "heavy-hearted" by what happened in his country ahead of the show's second season red carpet premiere on Monday, with global release set for December 26.
"It is extremely unfortunate and infuriating... that the entire nation cannot sleep due to such absurd circumstances," he said at a press conference in Seoul.
Due to the political chaos, South Koreans have had "to take to the streets, and must spend the end of the year filled with anxiety, fear, and depression," he said, adding he had stayed up all night to watch the martial law events unfold in live news broadcasts.
He urged "the person responsible" for the real-life drama, President Yoon, to accept responsibility "whether it is through impeachment or voluntary resignation."
'In the abyss'
Squid Game Season 2 introduces several new young characters, including a "crypto expert" who has amassed significant debt and a transgender person who cannot afford gender confirmation surgery.
The main protagonist, Seong Gi-hun, played by megastar Lee Jung-jae, returns and joins the game again.
The second season takes place -- spoiler alert -- three years after Gi-hun won first time around, and he is determined to bring down the organization responsible for the violent life-and-death games.
The original show, released in 2021, was a high point for the "Hallyu" or Korean wave -- the seemingly inexorable rise of South Korean content first noticed by many in the West after Psy's 2012 breakout hit song "Gangnam Style".
But embattled President Yoon has put all this at risk, 3,000 people in the film industry said in a statement this week.
Hallyu has "fallen into the abyss" thanks to Yoon's decision to declare martial law, the group, which includes luminaries like "Parasite" director Bong Joon-ho, said Sunday.
During the six hours of martial law, it was announced that "all media and publications shall be subject to the control of the Martial Law Command".
"No matter how much cinematic imagination is employed, what seems like a mere delusion has happened in reality," the statement by the South Koreans in the film industry said, calling for Yoon's exit and arrest.
"For Korean filmmakers, Yoon Suk Yeol is no longer the president. He is just a red-handed criminal for treason."
Most watched show
The show's first season was loosely inspired by South Korea's real-life tragedy of a crackdown on a 2009 Ssangyong Motor strike, which resulted in around 30 people taking their own lives or dying of stress-related causes.
The series highlighted some of the most marginalized individuals in the fiercely competitive South, like a North Korean defector and a laid-off, indebted worker.
The story unfolds as they compete in traditional children's games for a chance to win an unimaginable fortune in somewhat mysterious circumstances, with all losing players facing death.
The first season still holds the record as the streaming giant's most popular series of all time, boasting more than 330 million views as of Monday.
Hwang said Monday the reason why the first season of "Squid Game" was so successful was because it had "links" to the real-life "society we live in".
Even in the upcoming second season, viewers will be able to "find scenes that connect the absurd conflicts, divisions, and upheavals happening in our country and around the world," he said.
"Watching 'Squid Game' will not come across as something that is particularly detached from how we view the world."

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Michael Madsen, ‘Reservoir Dogs’ and ‘Kill Bill’ Star, Dies at 67

Actor Michael Madsen appears at the premiere of "The Hateful Eight" in Los Angeles on Dec. 7, 2015. (AP)
Actor Michael Madsen appears at the premiere of "The Hateful Eight" in Los Angeles on Dec. 7, 2015. (AP)
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Michael Madsen, ‘Reservoir Dogs’ and ‘Kill Bill’ Star, Dies at 67

Actor Michael Madsen appears at the premiere of "The Hateful Eight" in Los Angeles on Dec. 7, 2015. (AP)
Actor Michael Madsen appears at the premiere of "The Hateful Eight" in Los Angeles on Dec. 7, 2015. (AP)

Michael Madsen, the actor best known for his coolly menacing, steely-eyed, often sadistic characters in the films of Quentin Tarantino including "Reservoir Dogs" and "Kill Bill: Vol. 2," has died.

Madsen was found unresponsive in his home in Malibu, California, on Thursday morning and pronounced dead, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Watch Commander Christopher Jauregui said. He is believed to have died of natural causes and authorities do not suspect any foul play was involved. Madsen's manager Ron Smith said cardiac arrest was the apparent cause. He was 67.

Madsen’s career spanned more than 300 credits stretching back to the early 1980s, many in low-budget and independent films. He often played low-level thugs, gangsters and shady cops in small roles. Tarantino would use that identity, but make him a main character.

His torture of a captured police officer in Tarantino's 1992 directorial debut "Reservoir Dogs," in which Madsen's black-suited bank robber Vic "Mr. Blonde" Vega severs the man's ear while dancing to Stealers Wheel’s "Stuck in the Middle with You" was an early career-defining moment for both director and actor.

He would become a Tarantino regular. He had a small role as the cowboy-hatted desert dweller Budd, a member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, in 2003's "Kill Bill: Vol. 1," then a starring role the following year in the sequel, in which he battles with Uma Thurman's protagonist The Bride and buries her alive.

Madsen also appeared in Tarantino's "The Hateful Eight" and "Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood." He was an alternate choice to play the hit man role that revived John Travolta's career in 1994's "Pulp Fiction." The character, Vincent Vega, is the brother of Madsen's "Reservoir Dogs" robber in Tarantino's cinematic universe.

His sister, Oscar-nominated "Sideways" actor Virginia Madsen, was among those paying him tribute on Thursday.

"He was thunder and velvet. Mischief wrapped in tenderness. A poet disguised as an outlaw. A father, a son, a brother—etched in contradiction, tempered by love that left its mark," she said in a statement. "I’ll miss our inside jokes, the sudden laughter, the sound of him. I’ll miss the boy he was before the legend. I miss my big brother."

His "Hateful Eight" co-star and fellow Tarantino favorite Walton Goggins celebrated him on Instagram.

"Michael Madsen... this man... this artist... this poet... this rascal..." Goggins wrote. "Aura like no one else. Ain’t enough words so I’ll just say this.... I love you buddy. A H8TER forever."

James Woods, Madsen's co-star in two films, wrote on X, "I was always touched by his sweet nature and generosity, the absolute opposite of the ‘tough guys’ he portrayed so brilliantly."

Madsen was born in Chicago to a family of three children.

He performed on stage with the city's Steppenwolf Theatre Company alongside actors including John Malkovich.

During a handprint ceremony at the TCL Chinese Theatre in November 2020, Madsen reflected on his first visit to Hollywood in the early 1980s.

"I got out and I walked around and I looked and I wondered if there were someday some way that that was going to be a part of me. And I didn’t know because I didn’t know what I was going to do at that point with myself," he said. "I could have been a bricklayer. I could have been an architect. I could have been a garbage man. I could have been nothing. But I got lucky. I got lucky as an actor."

His first film role of any significance was in the 1983 hacker thriller "WarGames" with Matthew Broderick. The following year he played pro baseball player Bump Bailey alongside Robert Redford in "The Natural."

He spent much of the rest of the 1980s doing one-off guest roles on television dramas including "Miami Vice" and "Quantum Leap."

1991 would bring a career boost with roles in "The Doors," where he played a buddy of Val Kilmer's Jim Morrison, and "Thelma and Louise" where he played the boyfriend of Susan Sarandon's Louise.

Then would come "Reservoir Dogs."

In 1995, he played a black ops mercenary in the sci-fi thriller "Species" and in 1997 he was third billed after Al Pacino and Johnny Depp as a member of a crew of gangsters in "Donnie Brasco."

He occasionally played against type. In the 1993 family orca adventure "Free Willy" he was the foster father to the orphan protagonist.

Madsen would return to smaller roles but worked constantly in the final two decades of his career.

Madsen had six children. He had struggled in recent years after the 2022 death of one of his sons, Hudson.

"Losing a child is the hardest and most painful experience that can happen in this world," Madsen said in an Instagram post last year.

He said the loss put a strain on his marriage to third wife, DeAnna Madsen. He was arrested on suspicion of domestic battery last year, but was not charged. He filed for divorce, but asked that the filing be dismissed just weeks later.

He had previously been arrested twice on suspicion of DUI, most recently in 2019, when he pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor.

"In the last two years Michael Madsen has been doing some incredible work with independent film including upcoming feature films ‘Resurrection Road,’ ‘Concessions and ’Cookbook for Southern Housewives,' and was really looking forward to this next chapter in his life," his managers Smith and Susan Ferris and publicist Liz Rodriguez said in a statement. "Michael was also preparing to release a new book called ‘Tears For My Father: Outlaw Thoughts and Poems’ currently being edited."

They added that he "was one of Hollywood’s most iconic actors, who will be missed by many."