In a deeply emotional moment from Squid Game season two, the complex dynamics of family and survival are brought to the forefront as a mother and son face betrayal in a deadly contest.
The harrowing scene, where the son betrays his mother to save himself, has become a focal point for both actors involved, Yang Dong-geun and Kang Ae-sim, who recently shared their insights into the powerful portrayal of this fraught relationship.
Yang Dong-geun, who portrays Yong-sik (Player 007), reflected on the difficulty of embodying such a scene, admitting the emotional challenge of abandoning his on-screen mother to preserve his own life. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, the 45-year-old actor confessed that he struggled to convey the raw emotion required for the scene, especially as it involved a sense of betrayal.
"I didn’t really know exactly what emotion I was supposed to express. We shot this scene over and over again, take after take," Yang said, adding that the experience was made more difficult by his own distant relationship with his real-life mother.
“My mom in reality is very ferocious and scary—we don’t have the type of relationship where we share our inner thoughts or feelings, so it was strange to have that on set and to be able to act in a way that these two people have that relationship.”
Despite the emotional difficulty, Yang embraced the challenge, acknowledging how far removed his on-screen reality was from his personal life.
Kang Ae-sim, who plays Geum-ja (Player 149), added her perspective on the poignant mother-son relationship. Her character, despite being betrayed by her son, does not harbor resentment toward him. Instead, her focus remains on the survival of her child, underscoring the life-or-death stakes of the game.
“They are playing a game of life and death,” Kang explained. “Rather than feeling this resentment over his betrayal, I think her focus really is that her son is alive. And because he is alive, the other things that occurred in the process of the game are less important.”
