Squid Game 2: Park Sung-hoon sorry for posting porn parody; T.O.P pokes fun at his past

Park Sung-hoon has earned himself positive reviews for his performance in Squid Game 2, but he may have undone all his hard work.

On Monday (Dec 30), the 39-year-old briefly shared the poster for a Japanese AV (adult video) parody of the Netflix drama, with women in bras under the classic green Squid Game jumpsuits on the front. The back cover shows various sexually explicit scenes.

He quickly deleted the Instagram Story, but the internet never forgets.

Netizens responded to the Instagram Story with disgust. Some South Koreans called Sung-hoon a "disappointment" and "a national embarrassment".

One comment on anonymous forum Theqoo read: "I saw the uncensored cover, and it’s way beyond being just provocative — it’s violent."

A post on X read: "Wtf is wrong with this whole cast full of disgusting men."

The second season of Squid Game, which started airing on Netflix on Dec 26, previously faced criticism for casting Song Young-chang, who was convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2000, as well as Oh Dal-su and Lee Jin-wook, who were accused of sexual harassment and sexual assault respectively.

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Oh Young-soo, who appeared in season one, was also convicted of sexual misconduct in March 2024.

Sung-hoon's agency BH Entertainment said in a statement to the press: "Park Sung-hoon uploaded [the poster] by mistake while checking a post he received in his DMs. The actor himself was also surprised.

"He is sorry to have made a mistake at a time like this. We will take special care to make sure this does not happen again."

However, netizens were sceptical of the explanation and wondered if Sung-hoon had saved the image to his phone, which led his agency to make a further statement on Dec 31.

"He received the photo as a DM and saved it to his photo album in order to deliver it to a company representative," they said.

In the show, Sung-hoon plays Hyun-ju (Player 120), a transgender woman who risks the dangerous games to pay for gender reaffirming surgery.

[embed]https://www.instagram.com/p/DDLSRIzT-Q3/[/embed]

T.O.P pokes fun at his past

Another cast member who has been criticised for his performance in Squid Game 2 is rapper T.O.P.

In what appears to be self-caricature, the former BigBang star plays Thanos (Player 230), a washed-up rapper and drug addict who is constantly popping pills.

In his real life, the 37-year-old was convicted of using cannabis and received two years' probation in 2017. He also announced in 2023 that he had left BigBang.

There was a divide in how Thanos was received by K-netizens — who bemoaned "a criminal" like T.O.P for being cast in Squid Game 2 — and international fans, who felt he was being treated unfairly by his countrymen.

On X, fans pointed out that various international Netflix accounts were posting photos and videos of Thanos while Netflix Korea remained silent.

#THANOS be collecting the 💕’s of all the Netflix accounts across the world. Except one. No mention of him on Netflix Korea. Crazy isn’t it? #ChoiSeunghyunForSquidGame pic.twitter.com/bhmzoqsiG2

— 🐼AudgeLuvs5Bangs💙🦋 (@Audge_bangVVIP) December 31, 2024

The South Korean press was also brutal in their reviews, with MBC even calling T.O.P's performance "unbearable".

Meanwhile, western media was much more appreciative. The Wrap crowned Thanos as one of the 13 Best TV performances of 2024, while Entertainment Weekly called him "unpredictable and vibrant".

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drimac@asiaone.com