The player behind Squid Game’s most shocking twist just got one of his own.
O Yeong-su, the 81-year-old actor who played the frail mastermind Oh Il-nam, has been cleared of inappropriate conduct allegations by a South Korean appeals court.
The case stemmed from a 2017 incident in which a woman accused him of unwanted contact during a local theater tour. He was convicted earlier this year and handed an eight-month suspended sentence, but he appealed — and the court overturned the ruling.
The Suwon District Court said there was reasonable doubt in the case, citing the long gap between the alleged event and the report. Judges noted that the woman’s memory may have been distorted over time and highlighted that O had completed a behavioral education course. While the court acknowledged his prior apology to the accuser, it concluded that doubt outweighed evidence of guilt.
Women’s rights groups quickly condemned the verdict. Advocacy group Womenlink called it “another ruling that conceals abuse of power in the theater world,” arguing that South Korea’s justice system continues to side with powerful men. The alleged victim also released a statement, saying that the verdict does not erase the pain or invalidate her story.
O Yeong-su, meanwhile, thanked the court for what he described as a “wise judgment.” His reputation had been under fire since his 2022 conviction, which cast a shadow over his late-career rise following Squid Game’s global success. The Netflix phenomenon made him the first South Korean actor to win a Golden Globe, turning him into a global figure almost overnight.
The acquittal closes one of South Korea’s most publicized celebrity trials, but it reopens questions about how fame, memory, and justice intersect in the country’s entertainment scene — where public sympathy can shift as quickly as the plot of the show that made O famous.
