WARNING: Spoilers ahead for Squid Game and Sweet Home
Park Gyu-young’s performance as Kang No-eul – also known as Guard 011 – inSquid Gameseason 2 is a reminder of how badlySweet Homewasted her. One of South Korea’s most talented rising stars, Park Gyu-young was perhaps the most exciting addition to the cast ofSquid Gameseason 2. While many assumed that theSweet Homeactor was going to play a contestant,Park Gyu-young’sSquid Gamecharacterturned out to be one of the pink guards. No-eul’s story has been fascinating so far and should be essential toSquid Gameseason 3’s plot.
In hindsight, it makes sense thatSquid Gamewouldcast Park Gyu-youngin a more shocking role than that of a regular contestant. Considering thatPark had already been in a major multi-season Netflix K-drama –Sweet Home– and played the lead character in her own Netflix original series –Celebrity– her addition to the cast ofSquid Game2 was massive news. WhileSweet Home’s popularity doesn’t compare toSquid Game’s, the 2020 monster K-drama was Netflix’s first global Korean hit. Unfortunately, Park had a very limited role inSweet Homeseason 2 and didn’t return for season 3.
Squid Game Season 2 Gave Park Gyu-young The Attention Sweet Home Didn’t
Park Gyu-young’s Character Was Killed Early On In Sweet Home
Although every role is different for an actor,Squid Gamearguably gave Park Gyu-young a lot more to do thanSweet Home. InSweet Home,Park Gyu-young played Yoon Ji-soo, a young musician who had just moved into the Green Home building when the monster apocalypse began. Ji-soo became friends with Song Kang’s Cha Hyun-su and a few other neighbors during the outbreak and was one of the main characters in season 1. The problem, however, is thatJi-soo was quickly killed off in season 2, even though she was supposed to be one of the story’s central characters.
Netflix’sSweet Homewas based on the webtoon of the same name by Kim Carnby and Hwang Young-chan.
To be fair,Sweet Homeseason 2 no longer had a source material to follow, meaning that everything was on the table for what was going to happen to the characters. Still, Ji-soo played a major role in the original webtoon on which the K-drama was based and should not have been killed off that quickly in season 2.Park Gyu-young’s Ji-soo was only in three episodes ofSweet Homeseason 2before she was killed. Ji-soo’s death was followed by a year-long time jump, meaning we didn’t even get time to mourn her on the show.
Park Gyu-young’s Kang No-eul Was Squid Game Season 2’s Biggest Surprise
Squid Game’s Guard 011 Twist Was Genius
Park Gyu-young’s character inSquid Gamewas the biggest surprise of season 2. WhileSquid Gameseason 2 had a lot of twists, from the Front Man joining the games as Player 001 to Captain Park being a bad guy the whole time, the Kang No-eul twist was arguably the most shocking one.Squid Gameseason 2, episode 2 followed No-eul’s life in the outside world as if she were a soon-to-be contestantin the games, even establishing that she was friends with a little girl who needed money for cancer treatment.
Squid Game
Kang No-eul
Between her tragic backstory as a North Korean defector who had to leave her daughter behind and the connection she had with the little girl from the park, there were more than enough reasons to believe that Kang No-eul was going to join the games as a contestant. She even received what appeared to be a standardSquid Gamecard from a recruiter. The big twist was thatNo-eul was joining the games as a pink guard, and that this was not her first time doing so. Suddenly, we were emotionally attached to one of the masked guards.
Why Sweet Home Barely Used Park Gyu-young’s Ji-soo
Netflix’s Sweet Home Wasted Ji-soo
From the start,Sweet Homemade some significant changes to Ji-soo’s character from the webtoonthat made me question how big of a role she was going to have on the show. The most important one was downplaying the relationship between Ji-soo and Hyun-su from the source material. Instead, Hyun-su had a closer relationship with Eun-yu,played by Go Min-si. By the beginning of season 2, Ji-soo’s story was completely disconnected from that of Hyun-su. As such, her death was not that surprising despite being very frustrating.
Even still, in a show where people turn into monsters and neo-humans,Sweet Homecould have found ways to reinvent Ji-soo’s character in season 2. The fact that she was not included in season 3 – not even in a dream or flashback sequence – made her death even more frustrating. Whether this had anything to do with Park Gyu-young’s schedule is unknown, but if it was purely a story decision,Sweet Homeended up wasting one of its best characters.
Sweet Home
Cast
Sweet Home follows the story of Hyun-soo, a reclusive high school student who moves into the Green Home apartment complex after losing his family. When a mysterious epidemic turns people into monstrous creatures, Hyun-soo and the residents of Green Home must band together to survive, confronting their inner demons and the horrifying threats outside.
Squid Game is a South Korean series released in 2021 that follows numerous financially struggling participants who are invited to partake in children’s games with deadly outcomes. As they compete, they vie for a substantial cash prize, all while navigating lethal challenges orchestrated by mysterious figures.
