Is this the next Squid Game? Gruesome Korean thriller Bargain about organ harvesting and a bloody battle for survival is being compared to Netflix’s smash hit

A gruesome Korean drama about the dark world of organ harvesting is being dubbed the next Squid Game by fans.

Bargain, streaming today on Paramount+, won Best Screenplay at this year’s Canneseries Festival – the first Korean series to receive such an award.

However, the gritty thriller is not for the faint of heart, featuring sex scams, violent crime and organized gangs.

The series begins with a teenage schoolgirl Joo-young meeting a middle-aged man in a motel room, where they negotiate for her virginity.

After the teen’s initial suggestion that he pay her $1,000 for sex, he negotiates down to $70, but soon finds himself involved in another negotiation. This time he is blindfolded and tied to a board while other people bid for his organs – before an earthquake strikes and all the characters are forced to fight for survival.

The dark series is a reimagined version of a 2015 short film that won several awards at the Mise-en-scene Short Film Festival in South Korea the following year.

Speak with NMEdirector Jeon Woo-sung, who was also involved in the production of the original short film, revealed that there were never any plans to turn the story into a longer series, but then he was approached by a production company and started thinking about how the story could be expanded.

And after the completed series started racking up awards across the board, the director admitted he was surprised by the critical acclaim and thought only about “40 percent” of audiences would like it.

Speaking about the dark and twisted story, he states that “all the characters in the series are villains and villains.”

The drama begins with an earthquake in a motel where a middle-aged businessman was offered for organ harvesting

While a man is tied to a board and blindfolded, with the location of his organs outlined on his body, the young woman holds an auction for his body parts

However, the director explained that he wanted the audience to resonate with some of the characters as the plot unfolds, even if they are not very nice people.

For example, the character Keuk-ryul is involved in the organ harvesting trade because he is looking for a kidney, but his motivation is a desperate attempt to save the life of his ailing father.

The director explained, “Some people may think he’s not as bad as the others because he actually had to buy an organ for his father, but he’s still a bad guy.”

In a theme that some fans say parallels the Oscar-winning film Parasite, Jeon said the crumbling motel, whose foundations are precarious after the devastating earthquake, is a metaphor for capitalism.

But there is another parallel to be drawn with this gruesome, dystopian Korean series that will take the world by storm: Netflix’s big hit, Squid Game.

While Jeon finds the comparison funny and insists he wasn’t thinking about Squid Game when developing the series, he agrees there are similarities between his series and the dystopian competition drama, which has reportedly grossed a whopping $900 in revenue . Netflix.

Parallels lie in the bloody violence, the characters’ lack of respect for the sanctity of life (except for themselves) and a life-changing amount of money up for grabs.

When Squid Game premiered on the streaming giant in 2021, viewers were quick to point out that the premise was a parody of capitalism, as contestants risked their lives to win a massive jackpot and paid the ultimate price if they didn’t finished first.

Speaking about this theme, Jeon said that many Korean filmmakers have the theme of capitalism in their minds, which in turn encourages individualism.

While many may point to unintended similarities to Squid Game, Jeon insisted that his conscious influences were Hollywood blockbusters, including the war epic 1917 and the Michael Keaton drama Birdman.