If we cast our minds back to September 2021, one particular television series had landed on top of the global pop-culture agenda. Shocking audiences all over the world with its compelling characters, psychologically disturbing concept and arresting violence, Hwang Dong-hyuk’s Squid Game became Netflix’s most watched show. Blowing predecessor Bridgerton out of the water, it received over 271 million views across its launch period, solidifying South Korea’s small-screen exports as undeniably mainstream.

Of course, this wasn’t the first time the Western world was enthralled by a South Korean story. In early 2020, director Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite was victorious at the Academy Awards, becoming the first foreign-language film to win Best Picture. But was this enough to change the way English-speaking institutions saw South Korea’s cultural contributions into the future? Arguably yes. In April of last year, Netflix pledged to invest $2.5bn into South Korean cinema and television development and, while the show in question doesn’t come from that particular streaming giant, a new psychological thriller shamelessly titled Pyramid Game (co-produced by Paramount+ and South Korean streamer TVING) could be seen as the latest manifestation of this trend. 

Pyramid Game follows student Seong Su-ji, played by well-known singer and actress Kim Ji-yeon, as she navigates an all-girls high school (think Mean Girls but with a dark twist). Being an angsty teenager in a totally new environment could easily feel like a daily fight for survival, but in Su-ji’s case this metaphor becomes all too literal. Forced to partake in a ruthless ranking system based on popularity, secret votes determine which students are attackers, victims and bystanders. Those who land at the bottom of this pyramid have to make a choice: do they endure violence or stand up against the game? 

Directed by Park So-yeon (The Heavenly Idol), Pyramid Game reflects a very real bullying epidemic in South Korean schools. In an interview with The Korea Times, So-yeon explains that despite the show’s depictions of cruelty, her intention is to prevent violence, not promote it. ‘I intended to show how people’s indifference and insensibility can lead to such frightening school violence. I aimed to depict psychological changes of the students under the theme of school bullying and deliver a message with their stories.’

Pyramid Game is available on Paramount+ from Thursday 30 May.