Hyun-ju is the only one brave enough to follow Dae-ho (Kang Ha-neul) after he fails to return from collecting more ammo. As more soldiers breach the players’ quarters in the season’s final moments, she prepares to use the ammo Dae-ho gathered and take a stand against them on her own. The only reason she doesn’t is because Jang Geum-ja (Kang Ae-shim), who has become a mother figure of sorts for several players, urges her not to, wanting her to hopefully have the chance to live another day.
Despite how badass and heroic Hyun-ju is when it truly matters, it’s unfortunate that she has to risk her life in these games in order to afford gender-affirming care. The cost has to be substantial for her to willingly vote to stay after learning how deadly these games are. As an American, it isn’t terribly shocking to see someone put themselves through literal hell in order to afford the healthcare they need, especially a type of healthcare that is currently under undue scrutiny here in the States.
South Korea has yet to legalize same-sex marriage, and their Supreme Court has only recently ruled that same-sex relationships are entitled to the same healthcare benefits as heterosexual relationships. Hyun-ju not only reflects this lack of acceptance with her story in the show, but also in the actor who plays her.
Hyun-ju is played by cisgender male actor Park Sung-hoon. Even though he does an incredible job at portraying this character as the compelling woman she is, the show has faced scrutiny for not casting a trans actor in the role. And rightfully so. One of the main arguments used by TERFs (trans-exclusionary radical feminists) and other anti-trans groups are that trans women are just men who want to dress as women to “invade our spaces.” This is far from the truth of trans women’s experiences, but casting cis men in trans roles doesn’t do much to help this harmful stereotype.
That being said, Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk did intend to portray this role as authentically as possible when the role was first being created. Hwang told TV Guide that his search proved more challenging than he expected, and it was “near impossible” to find a trans actor who could play the role. “When we researched in Korea, there are close to no actors that are openly trans, let alone openly gay,” he says. “Because unfortunately in the Korean society, currently the LGBTQ community is rather still marginalized and more neglected, which is heartbreaking.”
As easy as it is to say “well maybe he just didn’t look hard enough,” it’s also important to recognize that the U.S. is in a different place when it comes to seeing the trans experience portrayed accurately on screen. And while we seem to be ahead of South Korea in this regard, we’re still nowhere close to where we should be. Even though both the U.S. and Korea still have a long way to go in terms of trans representation on screen, seeing an otherwise unproblematic trans character feature so prominently in Netflix’s most popular series is arguably a very good thing, and I can’t wait to see Hyun-ju’s story continue in season 3.
