So just read Battle Royal, Liar Game or Kaiji instead of the politically charged Squid Game? got it.
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“Modern capitalist society” you mean socialism with a few caveats where government will allow you to do business as long as you keep paying your bureaucrats and you don’t step on the toes of the monopolies the government instituted?
I'll recommend the movie of Battle Royale - it's not a pleasant movie, but it is a good movie. IIRC, the manga and book were more questionable, but that's second-hand information.
And while I haven't watched Squid Game, as I understand it they are two very different premises. A deadly Takashi's Castle is not the same thing as a fight to the death.
funny both battle royal and Takeshis castle starred Takeshi Kitano, it's like he was just preparing decades for battle royal
I actually prefer the manga series to the movie - if only because the manga goes into more detail about each character.
It's a movie that sticks with you for sure -- it leaves you feeling uneasy the entire time, but it's a film that is very grounded in its depiction of violence and distrust.
That's what makes Battle Royale work, and that's why it's so unsettling. You could definitely see something like that happening, and for the most part it's very believable in how it's depicted.
Beside the point, but I can't recommend Liar Game. It starts out promising enough, but the last couple arcs have several logic holes (pretty important in a manga about deduction and game theory). Also, this manga has the worst ending I've ever read in any manga, ever, if you can even call it an ending.
Some of those were turned into movies or cartoon series if you want to watch them instead.
The interview is just... wrong though. Battle Royale is about a crony-socialist government where your parents enter you for a raffle to be in a death game chance, if they don't want to pay the government education taxes or offer military service. A lottery of "free" schools is held every year and one class of freeloaders is chosen. This isn't a secret, it's straight-up in the opening chapter establishing the setting: You either engage in the pseudo-capitalist system, or you get socialism-style provided for your every need, but like all livestock being provided for by a raiser, you might get harvested. You are not forced into either choice, the world economy is very similar to what it is now, in-setting.
From what I understand, Hunger/Liar Games and the later western-influenced titles it's wealthy elite running things, but the OG inspired-in-Japan one had the government doing it and being the ur-villains.