2021 Korean dystopian drama squid game ' has become a global hit, and as it prepares for season two, the show's creators are introducing a transgender character in the hopes of further empathizing with their country's LGTBQ community.
Series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk has already caused controversy by casting Park Sung-hoon, an actor with no gender confusion, to play the transgender character Hyun-joo.
Player 120 (Park Sung-hoon), aka Hyun-joo, takes part in a dangerous game to win prize money and use the cash to fund gender reassignment surgery.
Director and screenwriter Hwang crowded As for how great this character is, he took a moment to criticize his country for not being very trans-friendly.
“The people who come to the game, squid game They're usually people who are marginalized or ignored by society, not just economically, but also from marginalized groups,” Huang told an interpreter at last week's press conference about season two. explained through.
The director explained, “In Season 1, the representative character was Ali, a foreigner working in South Korea, one of the country's most representative ethnic minorities.''
However, he later harshly criticized South Korean society for not welcoming homosexuals and transgender people.
“Currently, unfortunately, sexual minorities are not a group that is widely accepted in Korean society. I wanted to create a character that could express that.”
“In South Korea, unfortunately, being a sexual minority is still not very widely accepted and is still considered to be far outside the norm,” he continued. “And we hope that by creating a character like Hyun-joo, through her choices, actions, and way of life in-game, we can raise awareness of these issues we face today.”
Hwang went on to say that they had to hire straight actors because there aren't actually any transgender actors in South Korea.
Director Hwang said, “I was seriously considering casting a trans actor,'' but added, “When I conducted a survey in South Korea, I found that there were very few actors who were openly trans, let alone gay. “Unfortunately, that's how it is in Korean society.” Right now, the LGBTQ community continues to be marginalized and ignored, which is heartbreaking… It was almost impossible for us to find people we could truly cast. ”
Hwang claimed he had “complete trust” in the actor he cast for the role.
The series has been a huge hit on the streaming service Netflix since its release in September 2021. In addition to reaching number one in viewership in the United States, it also achieved similar status in 94 other countries, quickly racking up 1.65 billion hours of initial viewing. 4 weeks alone.
The series tells the story of a divorced father who is addicted to gambling and in debt, but is given the chance to erase his debts by participating in a game with a large prize at stake. However, once he gets involved, he discovers that the game is a sadistic and dangerous affair in which losing players are brutally murdered in strange and unusual ways.
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