For many, the “Miracle on the River Han” has become “Hell Joseon.”

 

Though economic growth in Korea raised the overall standard of living, many have been left behind. South Korea’s suicide rate is one of the highest in the world, a problem particularly among the elderly, nearly half of whom live below the poverty line. Young people have their own struggles, including military conscription, intensifying academic pressure, and staggering unemployment (as of 2020, the youth unemployment rate was 22 percent). Young Koreans have coined a term for this society of heavy stress and limited opportunity: “Hell Joseon,” in satirical reference to the rigidly hierarchical Joseon dynasty that modern Korea was meant to leave behind.

賃金や一人あたりのGDPが日本を超えたとか、なんとかといってなかったっけ？ 

What distinguishes Squid Game from other dystopian content like Battle Royale and The Hunger Games is the series’s explicit focus on class and inequality, particularly in the context of modern South Korea. 

そうなんだああ。やっぱ韓国の階級と格差がを反映しているんだねええ、いかゲーム

South Korea has a long and continuous history of anti-labor practices, often extreme and sometimes violent. Just last month, the president of the country’s largest labor union confederation, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), was arrested and imprisoned on the pretext of violating COVID-19 safety regulations at a labor rally in Seoul. In all likelihood, he was targeted for exhibiting a degree of labor militancy that disconcerted the government. He is the thirteenth president of the KCTU in a row to be jailed.

労働組合が強いとかじゃないんだ？イチャモンつけられて投獄されちゃうんだ？韓国って？

 The struggle culminated in an attack from Korean Central Intelligence Agency–backed anti-unionists who dumped human excrement on the women workers attempting to vote in the union election.

どうでもいいけど、ウンコ投げ好きだよなあなああ　韓国 

For many, the “Miracle on the River Han” has become “Hell Joseon.” And like Parasite before it, Squid Game shows that cracks are forming in the country’s capitalist mythos.

 

 多くの韓国人にとっては、漢江の奇跡は朝鮮地獄だったんだね・・・・いろいろあるんだなああ。