How the makers of 'Squid Game' cracked its cinematic code

Netflix's most popular series to date, "Squid Game," isn't just a creepy thriller about a survival competition. In its nightmarish carnival of the economically struggling wagering their lives for the amusement of wealthy voyeurs, creator, writer and director Hwang Dong-hyuk unleashes a blistering critique of the system that makes such a story seem not impossible. He and his collaborators use sly cinematic language with coded meanings in elements such as numbers, set design, colors and paintings.

Through an interpreter, Hwang says, "I was totally financially deprived" around 2008, when he conceived the story "and wanted to depict the society I was living in. Why do the haves continue