Los Angeles designates Sept 17 as Squid Game Day
LOS ANGELES - The city council of Los Angeles has designated Sept 17 as Squid Game Day.
Squid Game, the dystopian K-drama which was released on Sept 17 last year on Netflix, is being recognised for increasing the representation of Asian communities in Hollywood.
Council member John Lee, who is of Korean-American heritage, spoke to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency and said the California city will commemorate the day every year.
In the resolution which was passed recently, it was noted that Squid Game is the most-watched Netflix original series to date and “it was the first ever Korean series on Netflix to reach No. 1 in the US, breaking the barrier that many foreign language shows face with Western audiences simply because of subtitles”.
“Squid Game marks another victory in the fight to grow representation of the AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander) community in film and entertainment, exposing audiences to Korean culture and traditions while paving the way for other AAPI communities to also have their stories told,” according to the resolution.
The record-breaking drama is up for a number of awards at the upcoming Emmy Awards, including Best Drama Series, Best Director and Best Actor, and the ensemble cast is expected to fly to Los Angeles this weekend for the ceremony.
The awards will be presented next Monday in Los Angeles.
Squid Game’s breakout star Lee Jung-jae - who is up for Best Actor against Bob Odenkirk, Adam Scott, Jason Bateman, Brian Cox and Jeremy Strong - also scored his first major role in a Hollywood production.
Entertainment portal Variety reported on Thursday that Lee, who is already a big name in South Korea, has been cast as the male lead in a new Star Wars series on Disney+.
The Acolyte, to be helmed by time-loop drama Russian Doll’s co-creator Leslye Headland, will go further back in time than any live-action Star Wars title before it.
It is set a century before the events of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999) and will depict an era when the Jedi were at their strongest and the Sith were believed to have been eradicated from the galaxy.
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