With K-pop leading the way, South Korean art and culture have become incredibly popular globally in the last few years. Netflix, for at least the past year, has been acquiring South Korean dramas by the dozens, with some only just beginning their runs. Squid Game represents a new milestone—a move away from niche with a big, buzzy K-drama breakout that everyone’s watching or at least talking about.
Of course, we’ve had our runs at this type of thing—deadly competitions that typically (but not always) involve young people—in the States: The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, Saw, and The Divergent series to some extent. Though these movies and shows tend to be violent, often brutal, there’s a bit of humanity at the heart of the concept: Yes, we do terrible things to each other, but it’s the systems built around us that force impossible choices.
Keep in mind that, at least since 2000’s Battle Royale, the death game has been a wildly popular genre, so there are plenty of great examples that just aren’t easily available to American viewers. That being said, here are some movies and shows that represent the breadth of the “let’s throw people together and make them fight for prizes” genre.