South Korea is —deservedly— in fashion, and a good example of this has been the irruption in the 2021-2022 awards season of the fantastic series turned into a global phenomenon entitled ‘The Squid Game’; a production that has earned Netflix to scratch seven Emmy nominations in major categories and emerge triumphant in two of them.
Making history
In addition to Lee Jung-jae, who has given the bell by winning the award for best leading actor in a dramatic series and beating names like Jason Bateman —’Ozark’—, Brian Cox —’Succession’— Bob Odenkirk —’Better Call Saul’—; director Hwang Dong-hyuk has won the award for best directing in a drama series for his work on the chapter ‘Red Light, Green Light’.
Hwang, who was competing against Jason Bateman —’Ozark’—, Ben Stiller —’Separation’— and Mark Mylod, Cathy Yan and Lorene Sscafaria —all three for ‘Succession’— has thus become the first foreign-language director to win an Emmy for a series not shot in the language of Shakespeare.
In addition to the awards for Hwang and Lee, ‘The Squid Game’, which also opted for the statuettes for best supporting actress, best supporting actor – twice -, best screenplay and best dramatic series, has been made with technical awards best production designthe best specialiststhe best guest actressand the best visual effects.