At a cafe in Samcheong-ro, Jongno-ro, Seoul, on May 22, director Han Jae-rim of the Netflix original series “The 8 Show” participated in an interview and discussed various topics. “The 8 Show” is a Netflix series about eight people trapped in a secret space divided into eight floors and participating in a sweet but dangerous show to earn money by accumulating time.
This is the first Netflix series led by Han Jae-rim, whose works are “The Face Reader” and “The King”, which have been recognized for both their popularity and box office performance.
Director Han Jae-rim adapted Bae Jin-soo’s Naver webtoons, “Money Game” and “Pie Game”, to create a new story using the theme of “Money Game”. Regarding why he changed the title, the director said: “It’s not a survival kind of thing. I think it’s a bit twisted. If this is a survival series, someone has to die. Someone has to die so that others can live, but in ‘The 8 Show’, no one dies. That’s why I don’t want the word ‘game’ in the title. The word ‘show’ is more precise because the characters are trying to amuse the organizers.”
He continued by saying: “Since there are 8 episodes and 8 characters, and the money represents their time, I thought about changing the title to ‘The 8 Show’ to represent the human desire to have infinite time. It was difficult for the original author to agree to change the title, but I was so grateful that he was willing to understand my decision.”
After “The 8 Show” was released, some people commented that it looked like “Squid Game.” Regarding this, Director Han said: “I decided to work on this project even before ‘Squid Game’ came out. After the success of ‘Squid Game’, I even considered stopping the project. I enjoyed watching ‘Squid Game’, but I didn’t know it would be as successful as it was. At that time only ‘Money Game’ was used and I felt the limitations of the survival genre. I found the rules of the ‘Pie Game’ appealing, which is why I had the idea of telling a story where no one died. »
He explained: “I wasn’t influenced by ‘Squid Game.’ I wanted to offer something different. Looking at the reviews, I think people who expected ‘Squid Game’ didn’t find ‘The 8 Show’ interesting, but many people like the K-drama because it is different from ‘Squid Game’ . The survival genre kills people, betrays them, and features powerful characters with plenty of twists and turns. However, ‘The 8 Show’ is not a survival series, but a drama that reflects society. »
Regarding the differences between “The 8 Show” and “Squid Game”, the director pointed out: “Since the organizers in ‘Squid Game’ were portrayed as villains, audiences watched the K-drama comfortably without feeling guilty. Dozens of people die in the K-drama, but viewers feel no guilt », adding: “In our K-drama, we don’t see the organizer and the organizer symbolizes the audience. »
« Therefore, even a small dose of cruelty can lead to intense emotions, which is why we were extremely careful in creating these elements. »
He added : “To avoid spectators feeling pleasure, we reiterated our ethical concerns to avoid sensationalism. The creators of this work are thinking about how to entertain the audience. The work is filled with metaphors reflecting the concerns of those who create mass media. »