It's the show that everyone is talking about - and for good reason.
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Squid Game - the Korean drama that combines playground nostalgia with a survival game - has been a massive hit for Netflix internationally. The streaming juggernaut announced this week that the dystopian drama had been viewed in a "mind-boggling" 142 million households worldwide. It ranked number one on the platform in 90 countries, making it the most popular series in Netflix's history.
And the popularity is not only seen in its stats. It's pierced the cultural zeitgeist with it inspiring a never-ending thread of memes and social media videos, and even being referenced by Bill Shorten in a video about net zero emissions. Squid Game's September release also means that it all but guarantees it to be a popular Halloween costume next week.
But where popularity lies, so does controversy - and in this case, it's partly because of the show's content and partly because of how the show is being presented.
Squid Game is a dystopian drama that centres around people who play childhood games in the hopes to win a big money jackpot. If they lose, they not only miss out on the money - which all of the players desperately need - but they're also killed.
So despite the show being named after a playground game, Squid Game is not child's play - and has never been pitched as a kids' show.
However, in the month since its release, there have been warnings issued to parents that the drama is not suitable for children. A council in the United Kingdom issued a warning after reports of children as young as six had been replicating the violent challenges, meanwhile in Canberra, some schools have advised parents to "carefully consider whether this is a suitable show for your children to be watching".
But as University of Canberra associate dean of research Sora Park says, this is not the first time a show such as Squid Game has sparked controversies such as these.
"When there's some violent content or extreme content, parents are always worried that it might affect their kids in a negative way," she says.
"There are incidents where children watch something and copy it and get harmed, so there's always that risk. Not all children are equipped to deal with that brutal portrayal of blood everywhere and shooting - it is very violent, the actual content.
"The reason people are trying to put a stop to it is because it's so popular. There are lots of violent movies out there but people don't care because they know children won't be exposed to it.
"The concern is always there and it's legitimate. All parents should be concerned, I suppose."
The most notable debate, however, revolves around the translation from Korean into English. Those who are English-Korean bilingual argue that the translation does not do the show justice. Some even go as far as to say that those who watch the show in English haven't seen the "real" Squid Game.
There's a certain cultural and linguistic nuance that's lost in translation. For example, Korean - and other languages, for that matter - have different ways of speaking to different people, based on how old they are. There is no equivalent to that in English, and it therefore cannot be translated.
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"That's what happens to any content that's translated or interpreted into another language, there's always some loss in translation," Professor Parks says.
"It's a form of art to be able to add subtitles. It's not just the translation, you have to fit it into the screen. So within the limits, you have to somehow change the oral language into written without losing the meaning, which is hard.
"But then people still watched it. I think that's more important. Regardless of that loss in translation, people still appreciate it, meaning that even if there's some change or some reduction of quality due to the translation, it's still good enough that people enjoy it."
It does beg the question, however: how does a show such as Squid Game become so popular internationally if those who are not watching it in Korean are not watching the "real" show? Is it simply a matter of people not knowing what they're missing out on?
Yes and no.
According to Professor Parks, it's all about the layers within a good drama - now, more so than ever with the increasing globalisation of content.
For something to succeed to the scale that Squid Game has, it needs to appeal to both its home audience - in this case, Korea - and internationally. It's a balancing act between an audience who has previous context and another which may not.
"They've done an incredible job of having that almost dual structure," she says.
"If somebody who is Korean and lives in Korea who watches Squid Game, they would have a very different experience from someone in Australia, watching it from here. They would look at different things.
"I think dramas and movies are increasingly having that multi-layered structure where anyone can enjoy it from their perspective. And it doesn't have to be the same uniform experience."
What connects these these layers are universal truths that both audiences can relate to on some level.
"Although it's set in Korea, and it's a very Korean context, where income disparity and equality is a huge problem in Korea at the moment," Professor Parks says.
"But the income disparities or uneven wealth distribution is global, it's everywhere. So I think it has that universal element to it that anyone can relate to and to the story.
"And the childhood games, although they're different, they have the same kind of feel. You know what children's games are like, so even though they're different, you can understand. And some of them are the same, like Green Light, Red Light.
"I think that the global appeal of that storyline is very important for its success."
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