(EDITORIAL from Korea Times on Sept. 15)

Creativity recognized
'Squid Game' makes history by winning 6 Emmys

The global hit drama, "Squid Game," made history by becoming the first non-English TV series to win best actor and director in a drama series at Monday's Emmy Awards. Lee Jung-jae, who plays the lead role of Seong Gi-hun in the Netflix original series, won Outstanding Lead Actor, becoming the first non-English speaking performer and South Korean actor to win an Emmy. Hwang Dong-hyuk, who produced, wrote and directed "Squid Game," won the Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series.

"Squid Game" has won six Emmys, including four at the Creative Arts Emmys held last week. The dystopian survival drama series, which portrays a group of people playing deadly rounds of children's games to win prize money, garnered 14 nominations at this year's awards.

After accepting his award, Lee thanked director Hwang "for making realistic problems we all face come to life so creatively on the screen with the great script and amazing visuals." As Lee said, the success of "Squid Game" has confirmed once again that Korean dramas also can create a boom around the world, if bolstered by creativity, following phenomenal K-pop and K-movie hits.

In his congratulatory message to Hwang, President Yoon Suk-yeol said, "Your insight and approach toward unfairness and the loss of opportunities, which are difficult problems in modern society, have gained global sympathy." The Emmy wins of "Squid Game" are really meaningful in that Korea's pop culture is capable of arousing sympathy among audiences globally by looking squarely at our social problems.

South Korea has become one of Asia's cultural powerhouses in a matter of 20 years. However, this must be the new beginning, not the end. What's urgently needed then is to create an ecological system in which movie and drama professionals can raise the value of their works and nurture new actors instead of relying on only a few major actors. In this regard, it's certainly time to give big rounds of applause to the unknown actors and staff who dedicated themselves to the seamless production of "Squid Game."
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