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[HanCinema's News] Lee Jung-jae Wins Best Actor Emmy for "Squid Game"

On September 12th, the 74th Emmy Awards were held in Los Angeles. Normally the Emmys honor American television shows, but this year South Korean dramas had a representative with "Squid Game" which had been a major global sensation throughout 2021. The survival themed competition drama had five nominations. One was for outstanding drama series, with the other four being individual acting nominations. Lee Jung-jae was the only lead actor nomination, and also the only winner.

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Lee Jung-jae played the role of Gi-hun, a luckless man who joins the titular "Squid Game" due to a precarious financial situation. Park Hae-soo had a nomination for supporting actor. He played the role of Sang-woo, an old friend of Gi-hun's whose precarious financial situation is due to white collar crime rather than blue collar bad habits. Oh Yeong-su in another Emmy-nominated role played Il-nam, an old man whose motives for joining the game are ambiguous due to his apparent dementia.

The sole female acting nomination went to Jung Ho-yeon, who played a North Korean defector. Lee Jung-jae and Park Hae-soo were already major actors before "Squid Game" and Park Hae-soo recently appeared in a major role in another recently released Netflix drama, "Narco-Saints" which came out on September 9th. Lee Jung-jae also had his directoral debut in August with "Hunt" which has earned over four million admissions at the South Korean box office.

Neither Oh Yeong-su nor Jung Ho-yeon have appeared in any other roles since "Squid Game" last year. Nor have they been confirmed for an upcoming roles in a Korean movie or drama. However, both were in attendance alongside Lee Jung-jae and Park Hae-soo at the awards ceremony in Los Angeles.

Written by William Schwartz

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