“ | Sang-woo: When we were young, we used to play like this and our moms would call us in for dinner. But no one calls us anymore... Gi-hun: Let's go... Let's go home. Sang-woo: Gi-hun... I'm sorry... (...) Gi-hun... my mom... my mom... |
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~ Sang-woo's last words to Gi-hun, asking him to take care of his mother. |
Cho Sang-woo (Korean: 조상우), also referred to as Player 218, is the deuteragonist of the first season of the South Korean Netflix drama Squid Game. Sang-woo is Seong Gi-hun's childhood best friend and the former leader of a investment team at a securities company.
Being extremely intelligent, Sang-woo graduated as the top of his class at Seoul National University and became a successful businessman. However, after siphoning money off from his clients and failing upon investing it mostly in the future market, he became heavily indebted and wanted by the Korean police. Sang-woo accepted to join the 33rd Squid Game to win the crash prize, in order to pay his ₩6 billion debt and solve his financial problems, especially because they will also cause his mother's financial ruin.
Starting as Gi-hun's closest ally and teammate in the Squid Game, the two friends form a team to survive the games. Because of Sang-woo's more calculated and pragmatic ways to deal with the games, he eventually becomes an anti-villain near the end of the brutal competition for the ₩45.6 billion prize, turning into his friend's rival and final adversary in the games.
He was portrayed by Park Hae-soo, and by Park Si-won as a child. In the English dub, he was voiced by Stephen Fu.
His Evil Ranking[]
His Villainous Deeds[]
- He performed fraud and embezzlements. He even used his mother's business as a loan.
- He chose not to tell his friend Seong Gi-hun that he had figured out that the second games was Dalgona, which could've gotten Gi-hun killed (although Sang-woo became anxious when he saw that Gi-hun picked the hardest shape and later relieved when his friend survived).
- He tricked his friend Ali into giving him his marbles, which ended up killing Ali (although Sang-woo would've died if he didn't do it and felt remorse for it).
- He killed the glassmaker in the Glass Stepping Stones game for wasting too much time (although this saved not only himself but also Seong Gi-hun and Kang Sae-Byeok).
- He killed Sae-Byeok, who was about to die from a mortal wound, just because he feared Gi-hun was about to start a vote and stop the games to help her.[1]
- He attempted to kill Gi-hun during the final game.
Why He Doesn't Stand Out?[]
- While killing 2 people directly and causing Ali's death is enough to pass the baseline, he fails the heinous standards to other villains who have done much worse with similar resources, such as Jang Deok-su and his gang (the latter also fail the heinous standards themselves) as the other ten murders were made by proxy in the Tug-of-War since he would have died otherwise and was forced to kill them.
- He is an anti-villain as his ultimate goal is to get money to take care for his mother and save her from financial ruin.
- He is very pragmatic and only commits crimes because he is always trying to make the best decision in a given circumstance.[2] Most of his crimes are to assure his own survival in the games, instead of being for villainous reasons. And his ultimate goal never changes during the games.
- Sang-woo's actor (Park Hae-soo) explains that he and the director of the series (Hwang Dong-hyuk) did not approach the character as "good or evil", or as a "hero or villain", instead they think that Sang-woo is an extremely reasonable individual.[3][4][5]
- He is overall affable to others and honorable:
- According to Park Hae-soo and Hwang Dong-hyuk, Sang-woo isn't really cold-hearted. They describe him as an elitist who helps others out of duty but also out of sympathy (talking about the scene Sang-woo helps Ali to get a bus to go home).[6][7]
- He joined the games out of desperation to make up for his past crimes by paying back his clients and stopping his mother's belongings from being taken.
- Upon seeing the players begging the masked staff to let them go, he is the one who reminds the masked men about the third clause, which allows players to vote stop the games.
- He tried to help the player who was beaten by Deok-su during the lunch time.
- He didn't stall after pushing the glassmaker in Glass Stepping Stones game, despite that this would've eliminated competitors for the next game. Instead, he quickly moved to end and even turned around to wait for Gi-hun and Sae-Byeok (both of whom would have otherwise died when the time was up).
- Upon being beaten by Gi-hun in the final game, Sang-woo accepts defeat. He still could've grabbed the knife and killed Gi-hun when his friend was leaning and offering his hand, but he chose not to.
- He refused Gi-hun's offer to go home empty-handed, which would have saved his own life but make him and Gi-hun return to a miserable life outside the games. Instead, Sang-woo chose to die so that Gi-hun (and his mother) would have the prize money.
- He genuinely cares for Gi-hun, seeing him as a brother.[5][8][9] Sang-woo not only shows concern for his childhood best friend but also protects and saves him multiple times during most of the games.
- He is nice to Ali (in and outside the games), which results in them becoming friends. Sang-woo even gave Ali food, his own phone, money for the bus to get home. He also reassures Ali whenever he is anxious during games and defends him when Mi-nyeo suggests they kick him out. While he betrays Ali to survive, Sang-woo is clearly remorseful for it, hesitating to leave when he hears Ali calling for him and flinching when he hears the gunshot.
- Alongside the other player's, he's genuinely horrified watching Deok-su and his team brutally slaughter Team 7 in Tug-of-War, showing that he has standards.
- He helped his teammates get through the games, even if it was mainly for pragmatic reasons.
- He helped his team to defend Sae-Byeok during the Special Game, also saving Gi-hun alongside Ali beforehand.
- He saved multiple people during the games, including his entire team in the Tug-of-War game.
- He feels remorse for his actions and redeems himself in the end by killing himself so Gi-hun could win the game.
References[]
- ↑ Squid Game Cast Review the Biggest Betrayals in Season One | Vanity Fair
- ↑ The 'Squid Game' Cast on Becoming a Netflix Sensation
- ↑ 'Squid Game' roundtable panel with creator Hwang Dong-hyuk, lead actor Lee Jung-jae, cast and crew
- ↑ 211119 Squid Game cast full Q&A
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Lee Jung Jae And Park Hae Soo Are Two Sides Of The Same Coin In “Squid Game”
- ↑ The Squid Game Cast React To Their Own Show | Netflix
- ↑ Squid Game: Hwang Dong-hyuk and Bong Joon-ho in Conversation | Netflix
- ↑ Netflix’s ‘Squid Game’ Cast and Director Talk About Bringing the Korean Survival Show to Life
- ↑ Squid Game: Keyword Interview with Lee Jung-jae
External Links[]
- Cho Sang-woo on the Villains Wiki
- Cho Sang-woo on the Heroes Wiki
- Cho Sang-woo on the Squid Game Wiki
- Cho Sang-woo on the Inconsistently Admirable Wiki
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Players Masked Men See also |