‘Child prostitution’ to chronic gambling: Controversies that plagued the Squid Game 2 cast

Squid Game season two saw a new bank of actors join Lee Jung-Jae’s Seong Gi-hun in his battle against the powers that be and the enigmatic masked leader, the Front Man.

As the new cast found more fame with the second season’s release, controversies and scandals from their pasts emerged online – some dating back to the 90s. Here are all the controversies from the Squid Game 2 cast.

1. Lee Jung-Jae

Via Netflix

We were introduced to Lee Jung-Jae in season one of Squid Game, but he has been a staple in South Korean show business since the early 90s. As a young actor, he had his driving licence revoked twice for driving under the influence and was arrested for assault on two occasions.

2. Lee Byung-hun

Way back in 2009, Lee Byung-Hun’s ex-girlfriend filed a lawsuit against him that claimed he deceived her into a sexual relationship with the false promise of marriage. She also alleged a pattern of chronic gambling, and TV host Kang Byung-Kyu was dragged into the public feud as well. Byung-Hun was cleared of charges in 2010.

Byung-Hun faced another controversy in 2014 when GLAM’s Dahee and model Lee Ji-Yeon demanded money from him after they secretly recorded a conversation where he was making sexual comments about them. Both women were ultimately sentenced to prison and GLAM got disbanded.

3. T.O.P

via Netflix

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Former BIGBANG member T.O.P, real name Choi Seung-hyun, has undoubtedly been one of the more jarring inclusions in Squid Game season two. In 2017 he was “prosecuted without detention” after someone reported marijuana use at his home. He was essentially blacklisted as a result, until Squid Game director Hwang Dong-hyuk gave him a chance for a comeback.

4. Lee Jin-Wook

In 2016, Player 246 actor Jin-Wook landed in some legal trouble when he was accused of sexual assault by a 33-year-old friend after they had drunk together at her apartment. In response, the actor filed a lawsuit.

Despite maintaining that the incident happened, and consent was never given, the Korea Times later reported that she had made false allegations.

“It is true she confessed to false allegations,” police reportedly said at the time. “She made the admission after we went through her statement and found no evidence of the alleged sexual assault.”

5. Song Young-Chang

Shortly after season two premiered, Song Young-Chang’s past resurfaced online as people discovered that he was arrested for child prostitution in the early 2000s. He had paid a 16-year-old girl to have sex with him twice in the back of a car in Goyang.

He only served 36 days before being released and moving to Canada, though he is still banned from appearing on major networks such as KBS, EBS, and MBC.

6. Park Sung-Hoon

Season two’s Cho Hyun-ju (Player 120) – a trans character looking to fund her surgeries with the prize money – was played by cisgender actor Park Sung-Hoon, which naturally caused quite a stir when it was announced.

Explaining the reasoning behind the casting, director Hwang Dong-hyuk told TV Guide: “When we researched in Korea, there are close to no actors that are openly trans, let alone openly gay, because unfortunately in the Korean society currently the LGBTQ community is rather still marginalised and more neglected, which is heartbreaking.”

Besides the casting controversy, Sung-Hoon also felt the wrath of Twitter after celebrating Squid Game season two with a pornographic spoof called Squirt Game. In South Korea, the production, consumption, and distribution of x-rated content is illegal.

Squid Game 2 is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook. 

Featured image credit: Netflix

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