Cho Sang-woo Explained | Squid Game Explained

Explaining Cho Sang-woo's approach to the games, and adding reasoning as to why he started acting like a little psychopath in Squid Game (2021). [Spoilers] In this video I analyze Cho Sang-woo's (Player 218 or The Man With The Triangle) upbringing and the societal pressure that was placed on him, which contributed to him taking on an extremely high-risk investment strategy. I translate (from Korean to English) every text Sang-woo receives, so you can understand how much trouble he is in. Discussing his relationship with Seong Gi-hun. Also, I sort of justify his strategy when playing the games. Oh, and I point out this really cool hidden derail about Number 1.

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This video was made by Bryce Edward Brown

[JJBeauregard]

Killing a defenseless Sae-byeok and betraying Ali sucked for sure but credit where credit is due: Along with all the panicking and simply dying characters, Sang-woo is the most realistic character of the show, hands down.

[nataliesquire]

The whole time while watching the show I couldn’t stop thinking how interesting of a character Sang-woo was. He did multiple good deeds earlier in the show but progressively lost his morality as the games called for it. He was already suicidal near the beginning so the fact that he essentially looses all morality until the very end (when he actually does go through with suicide) makes sense. He was at the end of his rope and the game was his very last chance to turn his life around. He was gonna do whatever he had to to win and that meant people would get hurt along the way because that’s the nature and entire point of the game.

[kalreviews]

Do I hate him? Yes. Do i think he's a well written character that allows for both hate and respect despite the bad actions taken? Honestly yes.

[rhinaeflores]

I never thought of Sang-Woo as a villain. I only saw him as someone who wanted to win the game, just like everyone else

[yerakwon]

“This isn’t a Sangwoo did nothing wrong video, I haven’t lost my marbles, unlike Ali” DUDE😭😭😭

[nnzulu]

Great analysis, and something to really point out in case anyone missed it is that Sang Woo graduated top of his class at SNU

[proxypat]

It’s a simple explanation, Sang-Woo was the most logical, practical and realistic character in the entire show. He wasn’t the typical bad guy since the start of the show, as everyone watched in the first 2 episodes he was helping almost everyone(for ex: Buying Ali food and giving him money for bus even tho he himself was crippling in debts) and was the most loved character. He started to change as the game progressed, as he learnt what actually was going on, he just did what it takes to survive, and that’s what the game was about. Other than that he is a very beautifully written character, a mother lover and also respectful friend(as he gives up I’m the end).

[ChiseledAdonis]

Let's be honest the vast majority of us would become his character.
The mix between logic and emotion, The reality of life versus death & The acceptance of the situation at hand would make us do what he did.

He's such a well-written character.
Great breakdown man

[lowlanz]

Many people say that Sangwoo killed himself only for the sake of his mom, but I really think he did it also for Gihun. At the last moments, Gihun after getting almost killed by Sangwoo gave up his money for Sangwoo. This made Sangwoo realize how he and Gihun had been friends since they were young, which like he said himself, made him feel very sorry for all the things he had done to Gihun. That's why he decided to give Gihun his prize money back by killing himself. Gihun understood that and wrote on the memo in the carrier "It's the money I owe Sangwoo". He knew that Sangwoo tried to give the money to him as an expression of apology. If Sangwoo only cared about his mom, which he had been since he did not tell Gihun about the Dalgona game, he would have tried to kill Gihun for the last time. However, he instead killed himself. That's the proof that he regretted his actions at the last moment and tried to pay Gihun back.
So I think we can't define him as good or bad. He gradually became what we call evil during the course of the game, but he wasn't a psychopath. He tried to justify some of his unnecessarily evil actions blaming it all to the game. However, if he didn't feel any guilt, he wouldn't have even tried to justify what he did. For example, Deoksu never bothered to talk about his evil actions. Killing Saebyeok was the point where Sangwoo went pure evil, because he admitted that he did it for money. It wasn't like he would have surely died if he didn't kill her first. However, he did regret all of that at his very last moments and did his best to make amends for it. He is a very dynamic and multi layered character I guess.

[Annika-fwgj]

Sang woos details:
Place of birth: *graduated*
Time of birth: *top*
Birth parents: *of*
Hospital he was born in: *his*
Current age: *class*
Form of employment: *at*
Amount of debt: *SNU*
Weaknesses: *business*
Strengths: *school*

[rosesdissection]

I personally loved Sang-Woo, especially when he started to turn more psychotic as the show went on. He was the most realistic in that scenario. He was going crazy there, desperate and killed one of his closest friends to survive. Honestly, who wouldn't have acted like him? He's not innocent, but he's not evil either. He's morally grey, and those are my favorite types of characters

[sophieamandaleitontoomey]

He’s far from a saint. He wasn’t a good person before or during the game.

But he is probably the best character on the show due to how layered and complex he is. His character development is absolutely spectacular.

[kamrang]

Great analysis. One thing I think you missed though is the severity of Sang-Woo's blatant gambling addiction. Notice the only game he wasn't mentally capable of getting ahead in was actually the most mentally involved, and least physical, game in the tournament: Marbles. This should have been Song-Woo's jam given his intelligence and ability to calculate risk, but he bet his marbles away extremely recklessly like a professional degenerate. This makes it pretty easy to see how he could lose so much money in the stock market – which is essentially a high stakes gambling table. There's clearly a diagnosable illness in his addiction – something he also shared with Seong Gi-Hun.

[benshihadeh]

I love how quick people are to vilify him when those same people, if put in his situation, would do a hell of a lot more evil things to survive.

[bojackhorseman]

I honestly never hated SangWoo. He did what he did to survive man. It was either him or Ali. And especially when its a life or death game, you cant play friends with anyone. Its every man for himself. He did what he had to do.

[atkim]

Sang Woo's (and Gi Hun by association) socioeconomic upbringing plays a critical role in the tragically flawed decisions that ultimate seduce him into the games. Both grew up in a working class neighborhood to single mothers. That they're the product of single moms already stigmatizes them af in Korean society. Side note: when Sang Woo's mom brags to her customer that her son has high standards in women (and the woman that the customer might set him up with might not meet his standards), this is a MAJOR FLEX. A working class single-mom fishmonger is telling someone that her son is too good for some woman out there. But that's the tragedy. All his life Sang Woo was hyped up, by his mom, by Gi Hun, and likely many in his neighborhood that he was their golden child, their pride and joy. Boys who grow up there are supposed to have a future like Gi Hun - high school education followed by blue collar labor work at a factory (e.g. car factory). SW beat the odds and not only went to the "Harvard of SK", but finished 1st in his business school. That's a tremendous weight of expectations to live up to.

I speculate that SW did not originally set out to become a billionaire through illegal means (he's not the Korean Wolf of Wall Street). He likely started making a few bad investments but was ashamed that the "golden child of samsandong" wasn't more successful, and doubled-down by making ever riskier investments to make up the early losses. When those investments also flopped, he grew desperate and began embezzling from clients to make even riskier gambles. He had to live up to others' expectations at any cost. Thus began the downward spiral toward his eventual debt, reaching rock bottom when he puts his mom's house and shop as collateral.

[everyrose]

A beautiful direction´s detail I noticed during the episodes was the postures of Sang-woo and Gi Hun, while Gi Hum was always looking fallen, shoulders down and gaze like sad or lost, Sang-woo, even in the intense moments, kept a straight and elegant posture.

[quintenbouwers]

People are really forgetting SangWoo saved the whole teams ass at Tug of War lmao

[atkim]

Here's my take on Sang Woo. He's not the villain but one of Squid Game's biggest victims. Il Nam and the VIPs are the villains, because more so than the "horse betting" I think they enjoy watching man descend down to their basest instincts. When most players die, they die rather pathetically - whimpering for their lives or dying after betraying their personal morals. Very few die with dignity intact. This is probably by design. Il Nam wins because he brought out the worst from within them. If Il Nam is Palpatine, Sang Woo (and Front Man before him) is his Vader. Front Man is more accurately a Vader because despite being a victim himself he deludes himself into adopting some bullshit fairness doctrine; justifying the existence of the games.

I saw a video explaining that if Sang Woo is one of Il Nam's biggest victims, because there was no limit to how low he would go to win it all, Jiyeong was the opposite - she dies in game 4 not only with her dignity but sacrificing herself for another. She was the least corrupted by the games.

Sorry if any of this was already mentioned in the video, I posted before hitting play.

[technocore]

The thing I found interesting about Sang Woo is that his motivation (imo) was pride (compared to most others which was to save either themselves or someone else). Because of his pending arrests how was winning the game going to save him? Regardless of his ability to repay what he stole he was going to jail. His rage, which you can see burning in his eyes ALL the time (great acting), is partly because of the shame of failing to meet everyone’s expectations but I think the anger at not achieving the success he felt entitled to was a bigger driver.

What I also find super interesting is how everyone hates Sang Woo for killing Ali and San-Beyok (which, yeah I get it) but Gi-Hun did the same thing to Oh-Il Nam and would have killed Sang Woo in his sleep if San-Beyok didn’t stop him. It’s all how the director/writer chooses to frame it.