The second season of Squid Game directed and written by Hwang Dong-hyuk has unsurprisingly performed very well for Netflix becoming its third most-watched season ever with 152.5 million views. It was also the streaming platform’s biggest TV debut ever with 68 million views in just four days.

Indeed, much was riding on the series with marketing for the second season having kicked into gear months before it dropped on Netflix in December. Some viewers and critics have been disappointed that it ended on a cliffhanger leaving viewers having to wait for season 3 that drops later on this year. But given the strong numbers it continues to generate; it has given Korean content a further boost globally after it has struggled to maintain the level of momentum it achieved following the success of Parasite and the unprecedented popularity of season one.  

Akin to the first season, it has put the spotlight on cast, which includes a range of talent; from K-pop artists to veteran actors and rising stars. This week we will introduce these faces through their work in Korean content beginning with Im Si-wan (The Attorney) before turning to Kang Ha-neul (Midnight Runners (2017)), Lee Jin-wook (Miss Granny) (2014)), Yang Dong-geun (Wild Card (2003)), Park Gyu-young (Celebrity (2023)) and Kim Ae-Shim (Open the Door (2023)).

Im Si-wan, player 333 (The Attorney)

Im Si-wan who is player 333 has worked in different areas of the Korean content industry having debuted as a singer for the K-pop IDOL group ZE:A in 2010. He ventured into acting with roles in dramas including Moon Embracing the Sun (2012) and Man from the Equator (2012). It was his supporting role in Yang Woo-suk’s The Attorney that saw him secure multiple nominations for Best New Actor including at the Blue Dragon Awards playing one of the students who is on trial for taking part in a book club during the 1980s and is falsely accused of being a communist by the Chun Doo-hwan government. The film is loosely based on the 1981 “Burim” case in which former President Roh Moo-hyun put together a legal team to defend the students when he was working as a lawyer in Busan.

In the film, they are defended by the attorney Woo-seok played by Song Kang-ho who would also play a leading role in A Taxi Driver that was also set in the turbulent 1980s. Song’s role – along with Im’s acclaimed supporting role – were pivotal in the film’s commercial success connecting with viewers selling over 11 million tickets in what is a moving and gripping film. It also saw Im take on more leading roles that came later with A Melody to Remember (2016), The Merciless (2016) and Emergency Declaration (2022).

Kang Ha-neul, player 388 (Midnight Runners)

Each actor has his/her own persona, Kang Ha-neul stands out for his charisma and his infectious smile that is on display as player 388. He started his acting career in theater featuring in musicals including Thrill Me in the late 2000s and later made his debut in Lee Joon-ik’s Battlefield Heroes (2010). He would be reunited with the director for Lee’s lauded independent feature Dongju: The Portrait of a Poet (2016). He would also appear in a range of titles; from the musical drama C’est Si Bon (2015) to the comedy Twenty (2015) and period film Empire of Lust (2015) and more recently stared in the romantic comedy Love Reset (2023).

One of his most successful films to strike a chord was Midnight Runners (2017) starring alongside Park Seo-joon. Directed by Jason Kim, the pair play students at the Korean National Police University. On a night out in Gangnam in Seoul, they witness a young woman being kidnapped by thugs in a van and despite insistence from their superiors to let the local police handle it as a missing persons case, they use the skills and knowledge they have learned at the academy to locate the woman before she disappears forever.

Kang is central to the film’s comical and entertaining tone. Korean crime thrillers can often be gritty and violent, and while it does delve into some dark themes, it never loses its sense of humor and rhythm – much like Veteran (2014) and The Outlaws (2017).

Lee Jin-wook, player 246 (Miss Granny)

The actor Lee Jin-wook who plays 246 in Squid Game rose to fame following roles in dramas such as Air City (2007), Glass Castle (2008-2009) and Nine (2013). He made his first performance in a feature film in Hwang Dong-hyuk’s Miss Granny about a seventy-year-old widow (Na Moon-hee) who wakes up in the body of her twenty-year-old self (Shim Eun-kyung).  Lee plays a handsome TV producer who takes an interest in the now young woman who acts differently compared to those of her generation after he bumps into her in a pharmacy and then later sees her singing karaoke to a group of pensioners.

The comedy was a hit with audiences resonating with both the young and old accruing more than 8 million tickets during the lunar new year box office season of 2014. It would also turn into one of the most significant Korean films of the early 2010s as it led to more than half a dozen remakes including 20 Once Again (China, Taiwan) (2015) and Sweet 20 (Vietnam) (2015) as Korean studios like CJ ENM were turning their attention to overseas markets.

Yang Dong-geun, player 007 (Wild Card)

With plenty of experience on both the big and small screen, Yang Dong-geun is an established figure in the world of Korean entertainment having also worked in the music industry as well-known hip-hop artist. He featured in television dramas as early as the 1980s as a child actor in Three Families Under One Roof and was starring in films in the late 1990s and 2000s with titles such as White Valentine (1999) and Kim Ki-duk’s Address Unknown (2001) that opened the Venice Film Festival in 2001.

In 2003, he starred in Kim Yoo-jin’s crime thriller Wild Card (2003) as a detective who works with his partner (Jung Jin-young) to hunt down a sadistic serial killer and his accomplices who prey on young women in Seoul. While the narrative doesn’t break new ground as a Korean thriller, the two endearing detectives are central in its effectiveness as an entertaining buddy cop film pulling audiences into the story echoing Kang Woo-suk’s Two Cops (1993).

Park Gyu-young, Squid Game guard (Celebrity)

Unlike the other actors profiled here, Park Gyu-young doesn’t play someone competing to win the jackpot, her character is a North Korean defector who works as a guard shooting the contestants who lose the games. Park has worked primarily in television and limited series financed by Netflix. She appeared in more than a dozen dramas in the 2010s in supporting roles including Bring It on Ghost (2016), Rain or Shine (2017-2018). She then took on leading parts in It’s Okay to Not Be Okay (2020) and the Netflix series Sweet Home (2020-2023).

Reflecting her growing status as a leading star, she played the central role in the Netflix series Celebrity as a make-up saleswoman whose life is transformed by the world of social media as she becomes an influencer and sees her fame skyrocket, but such an ecosystem also has a much darker side as it turns into a thriller. Given Korea’s celebrity culture and the ubiquitous nature of social media, it was a drama that attracted attention when it dropped on the streaming platform further raising Park’s profile.

Kang Ae-shim, player 149 (Open the Door)

A seasoned performer, Kang Ae-shim’s career spans decades having featured in countless dramas including The Extraordinary Attorney Woo (2022) and has also starred in films in supporting roles such as Concrete Utopia (2023) and Rebound (2023). Her part in Squid Game, however, as the mother of player 007 (Yang Dong-geun) is one of her most prominent roles to date.

Kang also featured in the film Open the Door directed by Jang Jang-jun (Rebound) about a Korean man, Chi-hoon (Seo Young-joo) who visits his brother-in-law (Lee Soon-won) in the US. They start drinking whisky reminiscing about the past when the family’s dry-cleaning business was doing well but told over four chapters the conversation turns sour as Chi-hoon is struggling to deal with the death of his mother (played by Kang), the owner of the business who was murdered.

The film made its premiere at the Busan International Film Festival in 2022, and it also screened at the London Korean Film Festival. It was theatrically released in October 2023 selling 19,000 tickets.

Written by Jason Bechervaise

Editted by Shim Eun-ha