Hungarian ties of Squid Game, Netflix’s big hit – VIDEO

Squid Game, Netflix’s latest addition to its plethora of movies and series has swept the world off its feet, breaking record after record and becoming one of the most watched shows of all time.

Squid Game is a South Korean survival drama created by Hwang Dong-hyuk for Netflix and the show quickly became number one in over 90 countries including the United States and the United Kingdom.

According to Netflix’s estimation, Squid Game has drawn over 142 million viewers only 28 days after its air on the streaming platform. Find out how to learn Hungarian while watching your favourite shows on Netflix HERE.

Despite its popularity even in Hungary, not many people know that the show has some Hungarian ties.

Budapest Scoring

Thanks to a Hungarian violinist, Index found out that the music score of the series was recorded and played by a band of Hungarian musicians in Hungary.

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Bálint Sapszon has been living in Los Angeles since 2007. Following his graduation from UCLA, his career in Hollywood has taken a jumpstart and he also founded Budapest Scoring.

Bálint knew that there were many talented musicians, sound engineers and other professionals in Hungary, so his goal was to connect Hungarian supply with Hollywood demand.

They have been doing scores for movies, series, video games and have paved their way to international success. According to Index, the staff of Budapest Scoring have been working closely with South Korean filmmakers for years now.

Budapest Scoring created the theme music for Parasite, which won four Academy Awards; Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Feature Film, becoming the first non-English language film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. The Squid Game project followed soon.

Hungarian contributin to Squid Game

Bálint said that while working on Squid Game‘s score, they did not know what it was all about. Two classical pieces are used throughout the show; Johann Strauss II’s The Blue Danube and Joseph Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto in László Tóth’s performance.

The recordings of both the jazz big band, classical music and original film score were recorded in Budapest, Bálint Sapszon reported to Index. He, alongside Norbert Elek were the music arrangers.

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Formulating the classical pieces were easy, and Péter Illényi was outstanding in the role of conductor. “There were also times when I received the video and I had to compose a score for it,” – Bálint recalled.

He had to orchestrate Fly Me to the Moon for big band performance. “They gave me free reign, but I had to abide by their instructions,” – Báint said.

The vocals were also recorded by Hungarian women, but they ended up using a Korean lady’s voice.

Budapest scoring has been working together with Korean composer Jung Jae-il for many years and the scores and his compositions were recorded in Budapest in the Hungaroton and Pannonia studios, wrote Index.

Bálint Sapszon added that he found it strange that the music behind the aggressive images were cheerful, classical music.

“We are proud that we Hungarians can be part of this world success,” – he said.

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Source: Index.hu