‘I lost nine teeth filming Squid Game’: BBC on set with show’s director

Hwang tried for 10 years to get Squid Game made, taking out large loans to support his family, before Netflix swooped in.

They paid him a modest upfront amount, leaving him unable to cash in on the whopping £650m it is estimated to have made the platform.

This explains the love-hate relationship South Korea’s film and television creators currently have with international streaming platforms.

Over the past few years, Netflix has stormed the Korean market with billions of dollars of investment, bringing the industry global recognition and love, but leaving creators feeling short-changed.

They accuse the platform of forcing them to relinquish their copyright when they sign contracts – and with it, their claim to profit.

This is a worldwide problem.

In the past, creators could rely on getting a cut of box office sales or TV re-runs, but this model has not been adopted by streaming giants.

The issue is compounded in South Korea, creators say, due to its outdated copyright law, which does not protect them.

This summer, actors, writers, directors and producers teamed up to form a collective, to fight the system together.

“In Korea, being a movie director is just a job title, it’s not a way to earn a living,” the vice-president of the Korean Film Directors Guild, Oh Ki-hwan, tells the audience at an event in Seoul.

Some of his director friends, he says, work part-time in warehouses and as taxi drivers.

Park Hae-young is a writer at the event. When Netflix bought her show, ‘My Liberation Notes’, it became a global hit.

“I’ve been writing my whole life. So, to get global recognition when competing with creators from across the world, has been a joyful experience,” she tells me.

But Park says the current streaming model has left her reluctant to “pour her all” into her next series.

“Usually, I’ll spend four or five years making a drama in the belief that, if it’s successful, it could somewhat secure my future, that I’ll get my fair share of compensation. Without that, what’s the point of working so hard?”

She and other creators are pushing the South Korean government to change its copyright law to force production companies to share their profits.

In a statement, the South Korean government told the BBC that while it recognised the compensation system needed to change, it was up to the industry to resolve the issue. A spokesperson for Netflix told us it offers “competitive” compensation, and guarantees creators “solid compensation, regardless of the success or failure of their shows”.

Squid Game’s Hwang hopes his candor over his own pay struggles will initiate that change.

He has certainly sparked the fair pay conversation, and this second series will surely give the industry another bump.

But when we catch up after filming has wrapped, he tells me his teeth are aching again.

“I haven’t seen my dentist yet, but I’ll probably have to pull out a few more very soon.”

The second series of Squid Game will be released on Netflix on 26 December 2024.