Squid Game Season 3 Teaser Analysis
It seems this subreddit prefers images and memes, but I don't know where to better post this. It is getting a quite long post. Director Hwang Donghyuk said there would be a hint in the teaser.
The teaser gave us essentially four images.
What can we see?
The first image just gives us the players '096', '100' (Im Jongdae) and '353' to enter the arena, watchung Younghee's back. The background looks like sunset at the sea. You can also see a hatch on the ceiling and something like a rope hanging from it. However, it could also be just a gap in the decoration.
It is just Young-hee face and the background is also dark. You can clearly see her eyes are still detectors.
An image of Cheolsu. Probably everyone knows it know, but Younghee and Cheolsu are the "protagonists" of Korean school books in around 1960s to 1980s. Cheolsu was announced mid-2022 with director Hwang stating like "what could be more scary than two killer robots?" The background is bright. It is clearly day time behind Cheolsu. The foreground makes it look like Younghee is looking at Cheolsu and Cheolsu is looking at Younghee. In the background is also a house.
The lights of a railroad crossing (건널목). In the background is a house that seems to resemble a traditional Korean 간이역 (railroad station). Here, it is dark again.
Interpretation
It seems that the arena has the most impressive setting since 구슬치기 (Marbles game) and I think it could be the same arena, remodeled. The style is very Korean and I also find railroad crossings in Korea very pretty. Here are some two photos I made in Yongsan and Haeundae.
Yongsan, quite traditional like we see in Squid Game
Modern railroad crossing in Haeundae
The whole scene also reminded me on this image:
I should also add an image for a railroad station in the countryside, here old Gokseong Station, photographed by seobeom1 on Naver.
The most notable aspect from the teaser, I think is the light. It seems like sometimes it's day, sometimes it's night. So, I thought could the game have something to do with light or day and night? Like 낮과 밤 놀이?
Overall, I think the setting does not give a hint on the game. In season 1, games 1 and 6 are on a school playground / 운동장. The dalgona game takes place on a kid's playground 놀이터. The Marbles game takes place in a typical Korean neighbourhood in the 1980s. You could basically play every game there.
This time, the setting seems to be a 시골 간이역과 건널목. I think the focus of the theme is on the countryside and the pretty small train station is a nice addition. So, I think the overall setting doesn't necessarily give anything away for the game.
And then, there are Younghee and Cheolsu. To me it appears as they are able to turn like in 무궁화 꽃이 피었습니다 (Red light, green light). Because in one image it looks like Younghee is looking at Cheolsu, but in the other it looks like she is looking at the sea or sky, and probably turned the back on Cheolsu.
As said before, the most notable thing is that it is sometimes day, sometimes sunset/night.
What could that mean for the game?
강 건너기 놀이 (Crossing the River)
Because it looks like Younghee and Cheolsu are on two opposite sites of a railroad, in between, they simply could let the players play "crossing the river". It would be a phyiscally demanding game like "squid game". I don't see how Junhee ('222') could play it. She is walking worse than Jang Geum-ja who played gonggi with ammunition during the Korean war. There would be two teams, one as attacking, the other one defending. I cannot add youtube videos here, but you can just google it.
단체줄넘기 (group rope jumping)
A Korean magazine (Single List) reported in September, that group rope jumping would be part of season 2. Now, we all know the story about season 2 and the split of the ~13 episodes into two separate seasons, 2 and 3. The article has been taken down. So, was it just a hoax, and error, or not meant to be published?
Well, anyways, Younghee and Cheolsu would hold the ropes and then, the players would jump. The rope might be lethal so that touching it already would kill you.
It was also one of the prototype pictograms for season 1 by art director Chae Kyung-sun.
Actually, I don't have much ideas and I think the only noticeable thing, other than that the setting is just pretty, is the boolean dark and light in the teaser. So, I was thinking of a game with two states, where players can do something in the one state but mustn't do something in the other state. Sadly, not much comes to mind. It could also be a hint on a simple time restriction.
Hwang Donghyuk said that game 4 will be the most thrilling game. Let's wait and see.