PUBLISHED ONJanuary 03, 2025 9:55 AMBYCandice CaiHe might not have showcased his talent in Squid Game 2, but it turns out Park Sung-hoon plays a mean game — of five stones, that is.
The South Korean actor, who plays transgender character Hyun-ju in the hit Netflix series, was among several cast members who appeared in a promotional video for the streaming platform.
The other stars in the clip include Lee Jung-jae, Yim Si-wan, Wi Ha-jun, Yim Si-wan, Kang Ha-neul and Yang Dong-geun.
The video, which dropped on New Year's Eve, showed the celebrities playing different childhood games from around the world, including parts of Asia, Europe and the Americas.
Jung-jae, 52, who reprises his role as main protagonist Seung Gi-hun, tried his hand at Tumbang Preso, which involves knocking a can over with a slipper. Here's a spoiler though, he failed. Co-star Jo Yu-ri, who plays pregnant participant Jun-hee, appeared to do much better, hitting the target after several tries.
Singapore was mentioned in the clip as well, after two of the games, goli panjang and batu seremban (also known as 'five stones'), were credited as originating from "Malaysia and Singapore".
When it came to goli panjang, which involved rolling marbles to hit a line of other marbles, 34-year-old Ha-neul, who plays a former South Korean Marine with an unfortunate case of cold feet in the show, also did not manage to score.
39-year-old Sung-hoon, on the other hand, impressed with his nimble fingers and catching skills, breezing through the four stages of the five stones game. The actor looked surprised by his feat as he voiced: "Thank you, Malaysia."
K-pop idol Si-wan, too, did a pretty good job playing mak kep, a Thai version of five stones, conquering it after a few false starts.
Other Asian games played include sepak takraw, the game of kanche from India, as well as the Indonesian spinning top game known as gasing.
Both Jung-jae and Sung-hoon appeared to have trouble with the latter, but eventually managed to get the top spinning for a full five seconds.
According to reports, the second season of the South Korean dystopian survival thriller has been a hit since it was released on Dec 26 on Netflix. It has attracted over 68 million views and broke viewership records in the first week of its premiere.
It is also the biggest debut for an original series by the platform.
The third season of Squid Game is expected to air sometime in 2025.
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