Squid Game 3: Loved Park Sung-hoon as Hyun-Ju? Here's why the Queen Of Tears baddie deserves all the hype

Fans of Squid Game fell in love with Hyun-ju in season two, and now are shedding buckets in the finale of the series. Without giving out the spoilers, let us say it is heart-breaking. Actor Park Sung-hoon’s fan base has gone up significantly after his fabulous performance as Hyun-Ju. He plays a former Marines soldier for the army of South Korea. His decision to undergo gender reassignment surgery changes his life in terms of relationships, and he finds himself in the Squid Game. A cisgender man playing a transgender is always a sensitive issue especially in the current social milieu, but Park Sung-hoon did a great job. It is not wrong to say that he is the heart and soul of Squid Game season two and three.

While creator Hwang Dong-Hyuk deserves an applause for making Hyun-ju so relatable, intelligent, kind, sensitive and heroic, Park Sung-hoon takes it a notch further. He brought out the character’s masculine and feminine qualities with aplomb on screen. The body language was immaculate and his eyes even when he is dead did the talking.

After Squid Game 2 and 3, people began to revisit his past characters like Jae Jun of The Glory and Eunseong of Queen Of Tears. While the former is the quintessential psychopathic narcissist, Eunseong has his moments of vulnerability – especially at the climax of Queen Of Tears. You will see millions of edits of Park Sung-hoon as Jae Jun proving the popularity of the character. If we consider how every actor was terrific in The Glory, his talent shines through even more.

Korean dramas have a huge fan base, and we see new actors debuting every year. A number of idols also venture into acting cheered on by their legion of fans. You need to deliver your best to stand out, and he is doing that with finesse. It is always a joy to watch an actor who looks effortless on screen, and Park Sung-hoon is filling that space in Korean dramas. We have seen many good performances from young actors and actresses in the past five years, but he has shown some real skills.

From heroes with flower boy looks to ones with more masculine personas, the Korean drama space is quite versatile. Park Sung-hoon will surely bag more mainstream hero roles with his acting chops.