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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | 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 Netflix's K-drama Squid Game. Sang-woo is Seong Gi-hun's childhood best friend and the former leader of an 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, even using his mother's business as a loan. He has also been hiding from the police instead of facing his trial and even lied to his mother about being abroad on a business trip.
- 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 was 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]
- What makes this worse is that, moments before Sang-woo killed Sae-byeok, Gi-hun came close to killing him during his sleep, and only stops because Sae-byeok told him not to do it.
- He attempted to kill Gi-hun during the final game, although he quickly gives up on it when Gi-hun wins their fight.
Why He Doesn't Stand Out?[]
- While killing Sae-byeok and causing Ali's death both allow him to pass the general baseline due to the personal impact they had, he fails the show's high heinous standards to other villains who have done much worse with similar resources, such as Jang Deok-su and his gang members (who fail the heinous standards themselves), Nam-gyu and Lee Myung-gi, as the other ten murders in Tug-of-War were made by proxy in the Tug-of-War game 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, and to pay back his clients.
- He is a grey-zoned character:
- 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. While it can be seen as selfish, the extreme circumstances he is in makes it understandable.
- Sang-woo's actor Park Hae-soo explains that he and Hwang Dong-hyuk, the director of the series, 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]
- According to Dong-hyuk, one of the reasons Sang-woo didn't tell his teammates about the Dalgona game is because he wasn't absolutely sure that his guess was right, but Sang-woo also saw no reason to guide all of them to the easiest shape.[1] Despite this, the scene implies that Sang-woo didn't want Gi-hun to get killed, as he is reluctant to let Gi-hun go after he states his intention to choose the umbrella and contemplates warning him. Later, Sang-woo also shows relief that Gi-hun survived and apologizes to him.
- He is overall affable to others and honorable:
- According to Hae-soo and 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 where Sang-woo helps Ali to get a bus to go home by giving him money to pay for the fare).[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 staff about the third clause of the consent form, which allows players to vote to stop the games, and although he voted to continue, this act nonetheless indirectly saved the lives of fourteen participants who refused to rejoin the games.
- He is the first participant who rushes to Player 271's side after he is beaten by Deok-su, fully intending to help him, before learning about his death.
- He didn't stall after pushing the glassmaker in the Glass Stepping Stones game, despite the fact that doing so would've eliminated competitors for the next game. Instead, he quickly moved to the 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.
- When Gi-hun is saddened by Oh Il-nam's "death", he consoles him by telling him that Il-nam was just a random old man he had met during the games, and then points out that Player 069's opponent was his wife, whom he won against and therefore had gone through something worse.
- It's implied that he pushed the glassmaker not only to ensure his own survival but also because Gi-hun and Sae-byeok were in danger, since they would have died when the time ran out.
- One could even say his anger towards Gi-hun for calling him out when he pushed the glassmaker is because Sang-woo had to get his hands dirty to ensure Gi-hun's survival, so Sang-woo interprets Gi-hun's words as him being ungrateful for what he did for him.
- He is nice to Ali (in and outside the games), which results in them becoming friends. He even gave Ali food, his own phone, and money for his bus fare so he could get home in the second episode. He also reassures Ali whenever he is anxious during games and defends him when Mi-nyeo suggests they kick him out.
- When he betrays Ali to survive, he 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 players, he's genuinely horrified watching Deok-su and his team brutally slaughter Team 7 in Tug-of-War, showing that he has standards.
- He is a heroic character who did several heroic deeds such as helping his teammates get through the games, even if it was mainly for pragmatic reasons. He even passes the series's admirable standards and as a result is Inconsistently Admirable.
- 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.
- His death is played for sympathy, as he remorsefully sacrifices himself to allow Gi-hun to win the games and the prize money. Despite his actions, it still makes him a scapegoat because he felt remorse for all of them and was just trying to survive the games.
Trivia[]
- He's the third and current icon of the Mature template, with him being blood stained and replacing the horrified Percy Wetmore.
- He's the only Squid Game VB in Season 1 to not be a part of Jang Deok-su's team, and also the only one to be a finalist.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 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
[]
 Villainous Benchmarks
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Players Staff Parody See also | ||