A factory turned into a battlefield, riot police armed with tasers and an activist who spent 100 days atop a chimney — the unrest that inspired Netflix's most successful show ever has all the hallmarks of a TV drama.
This month sees the release of the second season of "Squid Game," a dystopian vision of South Korea where desperate people compete in deadly versions of traditional children's games for a massive cash prize.
But while the show, itself, is a work of fiction, Hwang Dong-hyuk, its director and writer, has said the experiences of the main character Gi-hun, a laid-off worker, were inspired by the violent Ssangyong strikes in 2009.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.