Buckle up audiences, Remember the heart-pounding frenzy of “Squid Game”? That explosion of colour and carnage took all over the entertainment spirit and bled through our isolated life during the time of corona when we were locked up in our rooms with its thriller approach. If that show pulsed through your gut with its “red light and green light “, “The 8th Show” comes with a similar vibe although with a more dark setting.
The cinematic experience is beyond a masterpiece and while the idea behind it might seem similar to some, the screenplay and execution far exceeds anything that we have witnessed before. Directed by Han Jae-rim this South Korean show unwraps a symphony of suspense. In the shadowed underbelly of South Korea, these eight souls teeter on the precipice of oblivion. Debt, despair, and desperation weave a noose around their necks. Then, a whisper, a siren song in the darkness: asking a little bit of their time in return the participants earn money with each passing minute. Sounds simple right? Don’t be fooled by this initial simple understanding of the show for there are dangerous twists and turns to the game that the players fall into after their initial excitement and the joy of winning their prize becomes a nightmare.
The miraculous cast of:
- Ryu Jun-yeol
- Chun Woo-Hee
- Lee Yul-em
- Park Jeong-min
- Lee Joo-young
- Park Hae-Joon
- Moon Jeong-hee
- Bae Seong-woo
Makes the show even more intriguing, giving life to the characters and their indoor struggle. The fake setting of the game becomes alive within the screen calling out and laughing at the struggles of the character and playing with the audience’s consciousness- we as the audience mimic the characters, every time an interesting event makes them excited about exceeding the time of the gamer, it becomes a moment where we too just like the characters gets excited. The show takes a much more psychologically dark turn and focuses more on human nature and hierarchy. Audiences are thrilled by the performance, and their amusement is visible in their words. Some think that even though the show somehow shares a similar idea to that of “Squid Game” it is much different, there is no anonymous front man or armed soldiers which provides even more grotesque to the series. It shows exactly how heirarchy is established in real day to day human life making the project and masterpiece.
