Where was The Squid Game filmed? Every important location, explained

“The Squid Game” is more than the most exciting competition on television: it also wears its cultural identity on its sleeve. Although it deals with universal themes such as the skewed distribution of wealth, the series is deeply and unabashedly South Korean. In fact, Hwang Dong-hyuk’s survival thriller largely revolves around a deadly series of Korean games that the country’s desperate, impoverished people play for the amusement of the jaded global elite.

One of the things to remember about “The Squid Game” is that it thrives on carefully chosen locations and impressive scenes, but rarely explains them too much. While the show does a great job of depicting the daily lives and deep financial struggles of the Squid Game participants and explaining each game to viewers who may not be familiar with them, it is often content to leave its impressive locations untouched. tackle. Still, it doesn’t hurt to know more about the regions where the show’s events take place, so let’s make the viewing experience even more immersive by taking a look at the location where “Squid Game” was filmed.

The parts of “Squid Game” season 1 that do not take place on the mysterious island where the main games are played invariably take place in Seoul, the capital of South Korea, or another major city, Incheon. In-universe, all of the contestants whose backstories the show explores come from this region; even Kang Sae-byeok (Jung Ho-yeon) and Ali Abdul (Anupam Tripathi), who are respectively from North Korea and Pakistan, operate in the area. Tourist-minded viewers will no doubt be pleased to know that the city scenes were filmed on location.

Major Seoul locations featured in “Squid Game” include high-profile destinations such as Gangnam District’s Yangjae Citizen Forest Station, where Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) plays a fateful game of Ddakji with the Salesman (Gong Yoo). and the imposing and elegant IFC mall, which hosts his confrontation with Oh Il-nam (O Yeong-su) in the season finale, “One Lucky Day.” We also see the popular Namsan Park, where Gi-hun and Sae-byeok end up in episode 2, “Hell,” after their brief exit from the contest.

Seoul’s neighboring city, Incheon, features heavily during Gangster Deok-soo’s (Heo Sung-tae) episode 2 story, which takes him to the Wolmi theme park on Wolmido Island, just outside the city. Another prominent Incheon location in the show is Incheon International Airport, where Gi-hun almost boards a flight in “One Lucky Day” before deciding to challenge the people behind the game. By the way, if you think that filming in a huge, busy airport can be complicated, you are absolutely right. In 2023, the show’s creators had to apologize when people filming an escalator scene for “Squid Game” season 2 at Incheon International Airport received complaints for sending passengers away.

Our unwitting tour guide to Seoul’s darker side is once again Gi-hun, who is so openly proud of his roots in the city’s comparatively gritty Ssangmun-dong neighborhood that “Ssangmun-dong” becomes his nickname in the series. Cho Sang-woo (Park Hae-soo) also has roots in the same area, making Ssangmun-dong a prominent location in “The Squid Game” that we see many times in the show.

Other Seoul districts we see include Daeheoung-dong, where Gi-hun’s friend Jung-bae (Lee Seo-hwan) operates a bar. In episode 1, “Red Light, Green Light”, the pair visit the city center when they bet on horses at the Sangbong Intercity Bus Terminal, and Sae-byok then steals the winnings. There’s also the Chang-dong district, where Gi-hun visits the Pokopang gallery, and the Baegun market in Gileum-dong, where Park-soo reveals his dire financial situation to Gi-hun.

The deliberately drab color schemes of the bleaker cities in “The Squid Game” contrast sharply with the lavish cityscapes of Seoul, not to mention the elaborate and colorful sets of The Squid Game itself. Of course, this fits well with the overall theme of the show: socioeconomic disparity. At times, the series can play the viewer’s emotions like a violin with its set design alone, and it’s no surprise that “Squid Game” Season 1’s best episode, “Gganbu,” unleashes its gut-wrenching horrors in an idyllic simulation. . village.

While the show’s city scenes take place in Seoul and Incheon, most of “Squid Game” Season 1 – that is, the scenes that take place on the game grounds – were filmed in a completely different city. . The show relies heavily on physical sets and practical effects, and as such, the show’s creators built the game’s many elaborate sets in full size. All of these interior scenes were filmed in a studio in the city of Daejeon. When the series actually shows us the deserted island that Squid Game’s resort is located on, the scenes are of a small, appropriately desolate island called Seongapdo, one of many in this particular area, slightly west of the mainland.

Interestingly, the island that the characters in the series talk about the most is not actually the one where the games take place. After all, the player characters have no way of knowing they are on the island in the first place. In “Gganbu,” Sae-byeok and Ji-yeong (Lee Yoo-mi) spend some time preparing a fantasy vacation accompanied by cocktails to an island called Jeju. While the location isn’t actually featured in the show, Jeju is actually a very real island province of South Korea located about 60 miles south of the mainland. Although Sae-byeok and Ji-yeong never get to visit, the island has plenty of great beach resorts and views, and definitely a mojito or two on sale.