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This article's content is marked as Mature Cho Hyun-ju contains mature content that may include coarse language, sexual references, and/or graphic violent images which may be disturbing to some. Mature articles are recommended for those who are 18 years of age and older. If you are 18 years or older or are comfortable with graphic material, you are free to view this page. Otherwise, you should close this page and view another page. |
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| “ | Everything was fine until I told people who I really am. People would look at me strangely, but I never had any big issues. But... once I told people I wanted to live as a woman... and started transitioning, everything changed. My mom cried a lot. And my father stopped talking to me. I got fired from my job, and lost all my friends. I wasn't done with treatment and procedures, but I wasn't earning any money, so my debt kept piling up. Although I felt liberated, my life... became so much harder. | „ |
| ~ Hyun-ju explaining her reason to press O. |
| “ | If you give up, I'll kill you before any of your damn gods can | „ |
| ~ Hyun-ju threatening Seon-nyeo so their team can survive. |
| “ | I found the exit. We can get out of here together. Come on, hurry. | „ |
| ~ Hyun-ju's last words before being killed by Lee Myung-gi |
Cho Hyun-ju (Korean: 조현주), also known as Player 120, is a major character in Netflix's K-drama Squid Game. She is a former sergeant in the Special Forces who was disbarred from the military and blacklisted from jobs due to being a transgender woman.
Afterwards, she joins the 37th Squid Game to earn money for her gender affirming surgery, alongside her eventual team members Kim Young-mi, Park Yong-sik, Jang Geum-ja, and Seon-nyeo. She later participates in Seong Gi-hun's plan to take down the Squid Game operation through armed rebellion.
She is portrayed by Park Sung-hoon.
Biography[]
Background[]
Details about Hyun-ju's early years, including her life before transitioning, remain scarce. What is known is that she once enjoyed the strong support of her family and friends. At an unspecified point, Hyun-ju enlisted in the military, where she climbed the ranks to become a sergeant. Before the 37th Squid Game, Hyun-ju began her transition as a woman. However, her family distanced themselves from her because of this, and her friends grew increasingly absent. Following her discharge from the army, Hyun-ju found herself isolated and unemployed. She relocated to Gwangmyeong for a fresh start, and looking to escape her mounting debts and pursue the surgeries necessary for her transition, Hyun-ju entered the 2024 Squid Games. She was chosen as the 120th contestant to win the prize money to fund her move to Thailand and rebuild her life.
37th Squid Game[]
Hyun-ju first appears at the photo booth before the initial game. Jang Geum-ja is initially judgemental about Hyun-ju's identity as a transgender woman, but Hyun-ju remains composed. Unlike many players who mock Gi-hun's warnings about the games' brutality, she instead listens attentively. After Player 444 is shot in the legs during "Red Light, Green Light," Hyun-ju steps in to help Gi-hun save him, carrying him across the finish line while completing the game herself. Despite surviving the round, the prize amount isn't enough for her goals, so she votes in favor of continuing the competition. In the next game, where teams of five form for the Six-Legged Pentathlon, Hyun-ju struggles to find a group, facing rejection due to bias. She is eventually invited to join a team by Kim Young-mi, alongside Park Yong-sik, Jang Geum-ja, and Seon-nyeo. Hyun-ju reassures a timid Young-mi, which gives her the confidence to participate.
During the event, Hyun-ju focuses on keeping Seon-nyeo from disrupting their team's progress. When Seon-nyeo has a religious meltdown after struggling with Paenginchigi, Hyun-ju snaps, slapping her twice and threatening to "end her before her gods do." The discipline compels Seon-nyeo to complete the challenge. When it's Hyun-ju's turn to kick the Jegi, she shyly asks the group not to watch her. She succeeds, and the team wins the round. Afterward, Hyun-ju votes to continue the games, causing tension with her teammates, especially Young-mi, who had promised to spend time together outside the competition. To explain her decision, Hyun-ju shares her story, revealing that she once thrived as a confident sergeant with a strong support system, only to lose it all after transitioning. She explains her dream of starting a new life in Thailand among a supportive transgender community. Her team accepts her, with Young-mi affectionately calling her "Unnie," a term that causes Hyun-ju to tear up. Later that night, she accompanies Kim Jun-hee and Geum-ja to the bathroom, where she gains more confidence after seeing herself in a mirror. However, her composure falters as she witnesses Jun-hee's own fear, likely triggering memories of her own struggles.
During the first round of Mingle, Hyun-ju saves Seon-nyeo by pulling her into a safe room, only to endure another of Seon-nyeo's religious outbursts. She survives the second round with her team and the third round off-screen. In the fourth round, Young-mi trips and falls and cannot make it into the room in time. Hyun-ju risks her life to rescue her but is ultimately saved by Lee Myung-gi, meaning Young-mi is unable to reach safety and is shot. Hyun-ju lashes out at Myung-gi, but he silences her, reminding the group that he had saved their lives and that Young-mi could not have been saved. In the final round, Hyun-ju survives alongside Park Gyeong-seok. However, because of Young-mi's death and possibly blaming herself for it, she decides to leave the games during the vote and is comforted by Geum-ja.
After the bathroom altercation, Seong Gi-hun initiates a plan to overthrow the staff and confront the Front Man. Hyun-ju, now in the "X" camp, agrees to join in on the rebellion. During the dorm massacre, she feigns death to avoid detection by the Pink Soldiers, later using her military training to kill several of them with precision. She becomes a major player in the revolt, taking charge of the group and destroying cameras to hinder the staff's surveillance. However, the rebellion ends up running low on ammunition near the Front Man's office. Hyun-ju sends Kang Dae-ho to retrieve more ammo from the soldiers' corpses in the dorm room, but when he fails, she returns to the dorm to find him trembling in fear and apologizing. As pink soldiers arrive, Hyun-ju prepares to fight but is persuaded by Geum-ja to stand down. She reluctantly complies and lays low.
After the failed revolt, she saw guards bringing a coffin into the dormitory; after they laid down the coffin, Hyun-ju decided to check what's inside, only to receive a minor shock upon seeing Gi-hun inside. After realizing that he was still alive, she asked to put him in to bed to recover, in which Gi-hun later wakes up. Gi-hun asked as he looked around the dorm about the other rebels, to which Hyun-ju shakes her head, telling him they're all dead (except Gyeong-seok, although she had no way of knowing this), including Park Jung-bae.
Fate[]
Shortly afterwards, Hyun-ju found the exit which required all 3 different types of keys; after opening it to confirm that the door was an exit, she selflessly decided to bring the others with her (Jun-hee, her baby, and Geum-ja). She ran back to their room and excitedly reported finding an exit and that they should follow her. Before the three could escape to safety, Hyun-Ju was fatally stabbed in the back two times by Lee Myung-gi, leaving Jun-hee and Geum-ja devastated at the loss of their dear friend, with Geum-ja covering her eyes as a form of respect to bring Hyun-ju peace.
Trivia[]
- She shares similarities with Ali Abdul: both are kind, caring and selfless characters who are determined to save anyone, both helped Gi-hun in Red Light, Green Light, and both were killed by a main character in the fourth game.
- Hyun-ju was intended to be portrayed by Roh Jae-won, but Park Sung-hoon replaced him. Jae-won would portray Nam-gyu instead.
- For some reason, Hyun-ju is the only player with a flashback to the day she met the Recruiter on the TV, she's not seen in a public place like city or subway stations like everyone, as her location appears to be in the middle of nowhere.
- It's possible Hyun-ju's anger towards Myung-gi after Young-mi got killed is her projecting her own guilt because she voted O before the Mingle game.
- Hyun-ju is the only female member of the rebellion team and, alongside Seong Gi-hun, Kang Dae-ho and Park Gyeong-seok, one of the four survivors when the rebellion is thwarted.
- Hyun-ju is the only Hider to have killed Seekers onscreen, two of them to be exact, giving her the highest Seekers kills out of all Hiders.
- In an interview, Park Sung-hoon revealed a few pieces of information about Hyun-ju:
- It's possible that she fell for the Jeonse deposit scam, which would explain why her debt is 330 million won, similar to Park Min-su.
- Her original name was Cho Hyun-jun.
- The "Congratulations Room" that she saw (which was never revealed to the viewers) was just a wall in the set.
- In the behind-the-scenes footage, when she stabs Yeong-sam, the knife is seen bending. This is because the Seekers' knives were made out of rubber.
- Hyun-ju killing Yeong-sam is rather karmic since he mocked Dae-ho by claiming that he was a Special Forces member, yet he met his demise at the hand of a real Special Forces member.
- Something that makes Hyun-ju's death sadder is that she likely died thinking that the Seeker who ended her life would kill Jun-hee, Geum-ja, and the baby as well, which would have been the case if that Seeker were Nam-gyu. Fortunately, it was Myung-gi, and he hid them away from Nam-gyu, knowing that they would all die if he knew where they were.
- Despite being rather lethal and having a high kill count (10), higher than many antagonists, she's one of the most admirable and kind-hearted characters in the series, as most of her kills were justified for the greater good or to defend others. The fact that she spared Player 039 when he decided to leave further reinforces that she only kills when necessary.
- Even if she didn't get killed by Myung-gi, she would have a hard time in Jump Rope, as she was stabbed in the legs by 202.
- Hyun-ju might be the physically strongest player in the 37th competition, considering that not only she managed to kill two Seekers in Hide-and-Seek, but she also got stabbed in the legs by 202 and yet still managed to overpower him.
- Park Sung-hoon being casted as Cho Hyun-ju is somewhat controversial among the fans, as while his performance is critically acclaimed, there are some people who wished that Hyun-ju is played by a real transgender actor.
External Links[]
- Cho Hyun-ju on the Near Pure Good Wiki
- Cho Hyun-ju on the Squid Game Wiki
- Cho Hyun-ju on Wikipedia
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Players Gi-hun's Strike Team Others | ||