The real-life event that inspired main character Gi-hun’s entire story in Squid Game

The Squid Game plot is a crazy concept, but did you know some of it is actually based on real-life events? While the evil games are fictional, one thing is real – Gi-hun’s story.

In 2021, the show’s director Hwang Dong-hyuk explained that the character’s backstory is inspired by the real Ssangyong Motor Strike that took place in South Korea in 2009.

Credit: Netflix

At the start of season one, he is laid off from his job at Dragon Motors, where he had worked for 16 years and goes on strike. This is what leads him to go into the cruel games as he needs money.

In 2009, the Ssangyong Motor Company in Pyongtaek laid off 43% of its whole workforce in one go, which was a whopping 2,646 workers.

The workers then did a sit-in strike which lasted 77 days, one of the longest and most intense stints of industrial action in the history of South Korea.

“Through the reference to the SsangYong Motor layoffs, I wanted to show that any ordinary middle-class person in the world we live in today can fall to the bottom of the economic ladder overnight,” the director said.

He added that viewers around the world “deeply relate to the theme of economic inequality portrayed in Squid Game” as money trouble is a real-life issue that’s experienced by so many.

Credit: Netflix

Hwang also said his own personal experiences with racial discrimination inspired the story of Ali, the Pakistani migrant worker who joins the games in season one.

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“When I visited the UK at age 24, a white staff member at airport immigration gave me a dismissive look and made discriminatory comments. I find it truly shocking to this day,” he said. “I think I was someone like Ali back then.”