Editor’s notice: This text incorporates spoilers for “Squid Sport” Season 2
It’s bizarre to say that there are any “joys” to “Squid Sport” given how sharply cynical director Hwang Dong-hyuk’s imaginative and prescient is for a gamified company organ-harvesting program — one which now has its personal corporate-powered continuation, at that. However it’s to the credit score of the Netflix collection that it at all times creates fascinating and complicated variations in motion, little moments the place even us VIPs may really feel lower than entertained by the horror of the violence being accomplished for our amusement.
For Season 2, stunt coordinators Chung Seong-ho and Park Younger-sick had their arms full with the calls for of not simply new video games however with shut quarters, inter-player preventing that’s decidedly nastier, and an enormous firefight between the gamers and guards. Making Season 2 really feel simply as horrifically violent as Season 1 required the “Squid Sport” stunt staff to lean into scale — whether or not that meant maximizing the overwhelming chaos of the dorm battle in Episode 7 or offering the form of brutal focus and readability that comes from the purpose of a cross going into somebody’s face in Episode 6.
IndieWire despatched e mail inquiries to the stunt coordinators, who responded as a pair, about their work on Season 2. For each Park and Chung, each state of affairs, irrespective of how sophisticated or easy, begins from a consideration of the characters — what abilities they’d realistically be bringing to the desk and the way they reply underneath stress. The trick is to choreograph actions that painting character whereas upholding the collection’ total tone.
“The general vibe of preventing sequences in ‘Squid Sport’ has a uncooked survival-action really feel. For different characters that wanted a extra skilled really feel, like Hyun-ju [Park Sung-hoon] and the Entrance Man [Lee Byung-hun], we took their background, occupation, and bodily skills into consideration, and went for motion methods impressed by varied martial arts,” Chung and Park stated.
The expanded maze-like atmosphere of the enormous pastel staircase gave Park and Chung an awesome setting through which to capitalize on the sharp, skilled actions of the ad-hoc commando squad of gamers preventing in opposition to the Masked Guards to interrupt into the management room. They adjusted actions on website to reap the benefits of colourful alternatives for the gamers to get intelligent with how they discover cowl and transfer upwards, and castle-like phases for murdered guards to fall down. In each instances, sustaining a way of route — the problem of the gamers preventing to get up — was key.
“We checked the purpose or vacation spot of every character and thought of what occurs alongside the best way. Then, we deliberate motion scenes that match the drama between the characters. After that, we labored with the particular results staff to resolve the place the impression results will occur,” Chung and Park stated.
That sounds easy sufficient, nevertheless it takes a village to drag off. For many of the present, Chung and Park known as on BEST STUNT Workforce, the collective of round 40 stunt performers who received the Stunt Ensemble Emmy for “Squid Sport” Season 1. However for the large-scale work in Season 2, they expanded their attain. “For extra stunt performers, we collaborated with roughly 400 stunt performers based mostly in Korea,” Chung and Park stated.
Particularly within the early phases of the video games, the coordinators should set up 40-50 stunt performers on digital camera at any given time. “Generally, changes have been made based mostly on digital camera angles or lighting circumstances. There have been additionally instances the place we wanted to make some modifications resulting from adjustments in character settings. For wire work, we coordinated with the lighting staff upfront to examine the lighting positions and to make sure there aren’t any conflicts,” Chung and Park stated.
However among the most exact storytelling work that the stunt staff does is within the extra — for lack of a greater phrase — intimate clashes between gamers. The battle within the restroom required a deft hand for a way petty, informal frustrations can flip lethal. “We needed to present how the battle began and steadily escalated into one thing extra intense,” Chung and Park stated. “That sequence was significantly fascinating.”
As was the battle with tortured Masked Guard No-eul (Park Gyu-young), which the stunt staff needed to make as grounded as doable. “Because it concerned tough preventing as a lady, we labored exhausting to make sure it didn’t seem overly exaggerated,” Chung and Park stated. “Because of the nature of the collection, the characters’ bodily skills and traits are vital… We labored exhausting and filmed intensely, so we hope you get pleasure from watching it.”