Squid Game

I do not usually start a day with a tragic, suspenseful movie. This Saturday morning, though, I rose from bed at 7 AM and watched the 6th episode of the hit Korean series Squid Game while preparing breakfast. Like the previous ones, the episode focused on a simple children's game, common in the 90s. It involved two players competing against another in a marble game, which they devise to their liking. Each player has ten marbles at the start. The first to take their opponents' marbles (20 all in all) wins, leaving the loser to die.

Playing marbles is familiar to me growing up in a rural area with abundant public lands to play around. I remember playing marbles with my neighbors after lunch on weekends during my grade school years. Such a game, like all the games introduced from episodes 1 to 6, follows straightforward rules. The strategies, however, employed by players to collect their opponents' marbles, determine if they can save their lives, and secure a closer shot to the billion prize money, which took the entire game to unpredictable turns.

Before the game started, the dead bodies of a player doctor and some men who conspired and cheated together were hanged and displayed for the remaining players to see as they made their way to the playing venue. Such a display is a reminder to players that they have equal opportunities in the games. Anyone who tramples such receives a punishment.

Even so, such a ruling was far from being fair. Even the capable, skilled players will end up losing in the face of manipulation, strengths preying on weaknesses, motivations, luck, and reasons.

The world is full of opportunities that may slip off our hands if we do not give a fight. We may become another person or end up at a dead-end if we fall into a trap laid by a competitor. An almost-winning player gave away his chance following a trick by his competitor halfway through the game. The 19 marbles he earned ended up replaced with stones after he trusted the words of his clever opponent. By the time he found out all this, the traitor had already passed through the door back to the quarters he would have gone to himself.

Cleverness is an apparent advantage in the marble game, not strength. Throughout the game, the latter was losing in the face of the former. However, the players thought the other way around and picked up a strong partner before the game. Soon they learned they were competing against one another.

We all can draw a handful of lessons out of this episode. In general, what stuck with me is the advantage of planning out your move strategically. I do not obsess much over this one, but I admit I become particularly picky with the steps I make now. More than ever, it pays to know how the system you are in works. By doing so, you will know when to escape before it drowns you.

10.16.21