Director Hwang Dong-hyuk reportedly drew parallels between the pro- and anti-arrest protests for Yoon Suk-yeol, which unfolded on either side of the police line in Hannam-dong, and the ‘OX vote’ in , aiming to raise questions about the democratic majority rule system. The drama depicts how, as the fate of all game participants hinges on a vote, left-right political camps form, and their confrontation evolves into an attempt to subvert the game system itself—only to be thwarted. While the first season illuminated neoliberalism of each-for-themselves survival, extra-legal biopolitics, and the gift ethics among non-bodies through hidden anomalous exceptions beneath fair rules, the second season becomes a political ‘season’ released amid an unexpected impeachment crisis, steering the series' direction as if overcoming the apolitical nature inherent in all these elements. This transition, hinted at the end of Part 1, will ultimately reveal the collapse of the game system in Part 3, which depicts another counterattack after a failed revolution. This fictional resolution of real contradictions, alongside the limitations of the aesthetic reduction of politics, also serves as a reminder of the problems lurking within the process rather than offering a political solution. Here, the second installment broadens the spectrum of audience reactions through a strategic inconsistency akin to a variety show—a mix of diverse settings, styles, and social issues and controversies, sometimes exaggeratedly blended together. Simultaneously, it amplifies and reproduces the performative self-contradiction of the first installment, which struck cultural industry jackpot by critiquing capitalism. This lecture discusses the layered inner and outer dimensions of the series, intersecting them with the political consciousness emerging after martial law.

[ Event Review ] 

On April 18, Global Hallyu Team hosted a special lecture featuring Professor Seunghoon Jeong, an assistant professor in the Department of Cinematic Arts at California State University, Long Beach. Professor Jeong is a researcher who has focused on global cinema, biopolitics, and the globalization of Korean popular culture. Recently, he has attempted to analyze capitalism, human ethics, and politicality centered on the Netflix series . Titled “Between Game and Martial Law: The Political Shift in the Series,” the lecture held at the Asian Studies Institute provided an opportunity to revisit the realities of contemporary Korean society and global capitalism through the drama's game structures and narrative.

Professor Jeong first explained the island setting of through Michel Foucault's concept of ‘heterotopia’. He analyzed the island as a space seemingly detached from reality yet starkly revealing the inequality, violence, and structure of rules and exceptions inherent in reality. It functions as a ‘miniature of abnormal reality,’ pushing participants into a survival competition under the illusion of fair competition.

The lecture focused on Seasons 1 and 2, examining how each game oscillates between fairness and unfairness, plunging participants into ethical dilemmas, and how this process reduces humans to ‘abject’ beings—those stripped of dignity. He explained that key games like tug-of-war and marbles criticize real-world competitive logic by being determined more by structural inequality, randomness, and irregular rules than by individual effort.

Professor Jeong noted that in Season 2, game participants begin resisting the system based on democratic voting and a sense of community. While Season 1 centered on the ethics of survival and individual choice, Season 2 depicts more political collective movements and the possibility of system overthrow. However, this transition is not easily achieved, and the drama also shows the difficulty and complexity of ‘politics’.
Following the lecture, a Q&A session ensued. Audience members posed questions on diverse topics, including the visualization of violence within the drama, the ethical choices made by participants, and the symbolism of global capital embodied through the VIP characters. Professor Jeong concluded his lecture by emphasizing that the drama is not merely entertainment but a text that prompts reflection on the ethical and political structures of the society we inhabit today.