"Squid Game" actor makes history at Emmy

Filmmaker Hwang Dong Hyuk, who wrote the script for Squid Game, was honored in the directing category. However, the Korean series lost out to HBO's Succession in the "Outstanding Drama Series" category.

Squid Game was nominated for 14 Emmys this year and won four. Two of those were in the technical filmmaking category, which was presented at the Creative Arts Emmys earlier this month. Park Hae Soo and Oh Young Soo were nominated in supporting actor categories but did not win.

The South Korean drama made waves at the US awards season last year. It was nominated for major awards at the SAGs, Golden Globes and Primetime Emmys. Squid Game also won Best Series at the Gotham Awards and People's Choice Awards, and Best Foreign Language Series at the Critics Choice Awards.

Squid Game was released in mid-September 2021 and became Netflix's most successful series in history with 111 million viewers after 25 days of broadcast. The film is a survival fighting genre, revolving around Gi Hun (played by Lee Jung Jae), a middle-aged man abandoned by his wife, unemployed, addicted to gambling and in debt of hundreds of millions of won. One day, the creditor catches him and forces him to sign a kidney donation paper to clear his debt. Gi Hun agrees to participate in a life-and-death game with the chance to earn 45.6 billion won to change his life. Critics highly appreciate the film's script, which incorporates many messages about society, religion and politics.

Director Hwang Dong Hyuk said he is focusing on the second part. "The character Gi Hun will come back. He will do something for this world," the South Korean filmmaker told AP.