Korean drama Pyramid Game is the series of the year on school bullying

After The Glory in 2023, another Korean drama, in 2024, stirred our guts on the subject of school bullying: Pyramid Game.

How to forget The Glory ? The Korean series was not only sensational in every way, it was also one of the most viewed series on Netflix in 2023. Dong-eun, the heroine, orchestrated a cleverly thought-out revenge against her tormentors, after a whole childhood of school bullying. But in 2024, another Korean series tackled this theme in the form of a gripping psychological thriller: Pyramid Game (on Paramount+ and Canal+).

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When Su-ji joins a new girls' high school, she discovers the terrifying pyramid game. Every month, on a dedicated app, students vote for each other, by secret ballot. Depending on the number of votes received, you enter category A, B, C, or D, with a different level of privileges depending on this result. But if you don't have any votes or you refuse to play, then you're an F. And being an F makes you the person everyone can vent to: the pain in the ass. In short, the F are the victims of institutionalized, codified school harassment.

Su-ji has not had time to build a “reputation”: she immediately becomes an F. Humiliations and blows rain down, the executioners are unleashed, while the others turn a blind eye. But Su-ji's temperament prevents him from giving in. She decides not only to get out of rank F, but above all to develop a plan to destroy the pyramid game. For the first time, in this high school, the pyramid will wobble.

Pyramid Game is a chilling representation of reality

It will not escape you that Pyramid Game takes the side of allegory. Of course, school bullying doesn't always take the form of a game of this type, but this one is a good representation – even a careful deconstruction. From start to finish, the Korean series addresses every ingredient, from the most obvious to the most discreet, behind the mechanics of harassment. It shows how this is the result of a tacit social contract which is established within educational establishments.

And this realism is, of course, chilling. Certain scenes are shocking and they are not always the most graphically brutal: as the students have agreed to leave as few traces as possible, we witness psychological brutality and sometimes more sneaky physical brutality. School violence from all angles, in short. Ultimately, Pyramid Game strives to depict a reality.

Ja-eun (Ryu Da In) dans Pyramid Game. // Source : Paramount+

It thus takes the form of a psychological thriller: Su-ji's fight is a puzzle that she must solve. This perverse game is full of ramifications, of unsaid things, of silences to be reconstructed. The series also plays on this by not always revealing the entire dialogues, thus postponing certain exchanges until later in the narration. But the characters are also puzzles in themselves. In fact, like many successful Korean dramas, the writing and direction are quite breathtaking. The emotional impact of Pyramid Game is indisputable.

Bringing Down the Pyramid: A Surprisingly Restorative Series

General public series tackling this issue of school violence so head-on remain extremely rare. At the start of the year, season 2 of another work, of Jordanian origin, shocked us: AlRawabi School for Girls. More Pyramid Game has an additional ace up its sleeve: if it is not devoid of triggers for former victims, it can also be experienced as a restorative experience.

It is first of all Su-ji's determination that grips the guts. The heroine (played by Bona, seen in Twenty Five Twenty One) is a dignified and uncompromising girl, despite her immense emotional modesty. She is in survival mode, partially cut off from herself and others, but her empathy is indeed her driving force. It is her friend, Ja-euhn, who describes her personality well: “ She is not cold-hearted, she is cold-headed. »

Su-ji (Bona) faces Da-yeon (Hwang Hyun Jung) in Pyramid Game. // Source: Paramount+

Brilliant and mischievous, Su-ji will stop at nothing to protect her comrades and to defeat her enemy: the creator of this game. The interpreter (Jang Da-Ha) brings to life with a certain brilliance this antagonist who is as impassive as she is terrifying.

Baek Ha-rin, the icy antagonist played by Jang Da-Ha // Source: Paramount+

The heroine is inspiring until the very last second of the series. And, yes, it's not an image: the last second counts enormously and gives an even more moving — and restorative — meaning to the story.

And Pyramid Game is a psychological thriller with dark and poignant overtones, so there's something satisfying about witnessing the heroine's plan. Seeing her find allies. Seeing her confront the bullies in a way that completely destabilizes them. It is not so much the story of revenge as the story of rebellion. Of which we do not want to miss the slightest crumb.

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