We are all waiting for the second season of Squid Game which will arrive streaming on Netflix on December 26, 2024.
The South Korean series, which arrived in streaming in 2021, had an unexpected great success, which also pushed Netflix to dub the show into Italian which, initially, it was only available in the original language with subtitles.
If you are desperately looking for other stories that tell of deadly games, it is good to take a leap into the past, precisely in 1987 and 1985years in which they were released respectively The implacable e The long marcha film and a novel that deal with very particular competitions in which if you lose you get a nice one-way trip to the world of the dead.
There is one thing that these two stories have in common: both were created by Stephen Kingor rather more precisely from Richard Bachmanthe pseudonym that the great writer used to sign his first novels.
DIE LIKE A STAR OR FIGHT TO SURVIVE
If the events of Squid Game they tell the stories of Seong Gi-huna man afflicted by the gambling habit who lives with his mother squandering the little money at his disposal, The implacable, film based on the novel by Stephen King The man on the runshows a very different character.
We are in the eighties, a historical period in which cinema was very popular the figure of the strong hero who fought against injustice.
Precisely for this reason, The implacable he put on stage Arnold Schwarzenegger in the shoes of Ben Richardsa policeman who refuses to open fire on a group of men and women rebelling against the Government.
We are in 2017, and the world is an increasingly ugly place to live in, where the price of raw materials has skyrocketed and censorship takes the breath away from art in the name of a totalitarian regime that uses television to broadcast his lies for propaganda purposes.
A program called dominates on TV Running Manin which prisoners must face a series of fights against the Exterminatorsviolent armed men assigned to the indiscriminate killing of competitors.
If they manage to survive the attacks of the exterminators in three hours, Freedom and rich rewards are assured.
It will be the good Richards who will become the contestant of this very popular program, a participation that will change the fate of this media empire thanks also to the man's contacts with a group of rebels.
If in the 80s The implacable it was seen as just a good enough science fiction film, salvageable especially due to the figure of Schwarzenegger in the cast, but nowadays it is seen again as Paul Michael Glaser's feature film instead it appears as a solid entertainment film which anticipates many issues that the world will face during the 22nd century.
While The implacable doesn't offer all the profound drama of Squid Game and instead tends to stage the muscular hero who manages to defeat evil with a smile on his face and an irreverent ironic joke, Ben Richards' exploits are embellished with excellent scenography and dynamic direction that manages to enhance the exciting fights in the “gladiator of the future” style of the action star Arnold Schwarzenegger.
RUN IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE EXECUTED
George Romero and Frank Darabont, the showrunner of the highly followed series, had already tried to bring it to the big screen in 1998. The Walking Deadin 2007, but without success: I'm talking about the novel The long marchfirst story written by Stephen King which came out in the first edition in 1979 and only in 1985 in Italy.
The story of The long march is set in a dystopian present in which a totalitarian government exists. Every year a particular march is organized in which 100 children can participate.
During this particular race, each of them will have to maintain a pace of at least 6 kilometers per hour. If this rule is not respected, a warning is earned. If you get more than three warnings, the match is over and you are officially out of contention.
The great peculiarity of this race is represented by the way in which the competition is eliminated: the runner who has failed to respect these rules he will be killed with a shotgun.
The last contestant to survive wins and he can get anything he wants.
The setting of The long march is more similar to that of Squid Gamebecause Stephen King's novel is purely dramatic when it describes all the effort of Raymond “Ray” Garraty, the protagonist of the story that he clearly expresses all his fear and terrorespecially when he sees his racing companions fall with whom he had also established a solid bond of friendship.
If in the film version of The man on the run the presence of Arnold Schwarzenegger ensures the victory of the good over the bad and is a comforter happy endingbetween the pages of The long march and breathe a tragic and psychologically asphyxiating air while following Ray's dramatic events.
Just like Seong Gi-hun, Ray wants to get involved to ensure a better life but he soon realizes that the price to pay is too high and tries to fight not to remain a useless puppet in the hands of those who hold power and know how to psychologically manipulate a person in difficulty.
If you consider Squid Game very dramatic, maybe you haven't read it yet The long march: the tragic experiences of the protagonist of Stephen King's novel are much worse than those of Seong Gi-hun, because the boy will very soon find himself lacking the physical and mental resources to thwart his oppressors.
