| This article is about The TV Character. You may be looking for Webtoon counterpart, which is on the Sweet Home Webtoon fandom.. |
Pyeon Sang-Wook is one of the characters in Sweet Home. He is portrayed by Lee Jin-Uk.
For his webtoon counterpart, click here.
History[]
Sang-Wook is a contract killer with intimidating burn scars (a former detective in the webtoon). Years before the monsterization incident, his home was burned down while his father was still inside, and young Sang-Wook was unable to rescue him. The cause of the fire is "a prank". Justice wasn’t served as the perpetrator was released shortly after the incident. The man’s lack of remorse broke Sang-Wook’s faith in the system, so the boy confronted and killed the unrepentant man with a knife around a year after.
Thereafter, it appears Sang-Wook worked as a construction worker but he's also known as a hitman who "punishes evil with evil". He comments that he was exempted in the military, perhaps due to serving prison time. Shortly before the start of the series, an impoverished father asks Sang-Wook to find his daughter who was kidnapped by a pedophile, since the police refuse to handle the situation. He initially refuses the man’s offer of money, but is moved by his pleas and accepts. Sang-Wook finds the man who kidnapped the client's daughter, though never discovers the girl, and begins torturing him.
Throughout the Series[]
Season 1[]
Sang-Wook is first seen in Green Home's lobby where he drops duct-tape after bumping into Jung Jae-Heon in the lobby. Jae-Heon notices and sees that he has a plastic bag full of duct-tape before the elevator doors close.
Sang-Wook is then seen in an apartment torturing a duct-taped hostage whose screaming mouth he uses as an ashtray, showing the man an unseen photo on his phone when asked why. Later, Hyun-Su passes out on the floor in front of him, but Sang-Wook leaves him there to follow a trail of blood. This leads him to a bloody door belonging to Ji-Su’s apartment, who tells Sang-Wook that a strange woman attacked her door. After he examines and punches the door to test its resistance, he realizes that the woman was bashing herself into it.
Wandering a stairwell, Sang-Wook comes across Eun-Yu (who he briefly encountered earlier and was teased by) laying on the floor after falling down. She humorously pretends to be “resting” to avoid embarrassment, which draws his attention. He is then attacked from behind by the monsterized woman from before, who bites his right shoulder deeply. Sang-Wook overpowers the monster and identifies it by the imprinting of Ji-Su’s door number on its forehead. He then crushes its head by stomping it into the wall, saving Eun-Yu.
Blood-covered, Sang-Wook escorts a traumatized Eun-Yu to the first floor. The residents quickly identify that he has been bitten, and he is tasered unconscious from behind. Restraining and killing him fails when Suk-Hyun, armed with a knife and gas mask for the task, is head butted by Sang-Wook.
He returns to his captive’s apartment to find the man has escaped thanks to Jae-Heon and Ji-Su (believing the man to have been bound by a burglar). Sang-Wook studies a mocking message scrawled by the man on the TV screen as he binds his bite wound in duct tape.
Sang-Wook confronts Choi Yoon-Jae on the first floor, beating him until the pedophile manages to slip away, convincing the others his nose bleed is a sign of monsterization. This places Yoon-Jae safely in quarantine, and out of reach of Sang-Wook, despite suspicions from Jae-Heon that the former is hiding something.
It’s then revealed that Sang-Wook used the beating to pickpocket a set of keys with a distinctive red plush toy key ring from Yoon-Jae’s pocket. He is briefly confronted by a grieving resident who begs him to retrieve her daughter’s body outside, but he ignores her. He travels alongside Cha Hyun-Su upstairs, disturbed by Hyun-Su’s black-eyed monster state. After knocking the air out of him to return him to normal, Sang-Wook is attacked by a long armed monster and dragged through the flames. He loses consciousness and is rescued by Park Yu-Ri and An Gil-Seob, a caretaker and old man making their way downstairs with a flamethrower and crossbow.
Sang-Wook wakes up in the apartment of his rescuers along with Hyun-Su, but forcefully rejects Yu-Ri’s offer to treat him. He continues upstairs to Yoon-Jae’s apartment, frantically searching it for something. He comes across a mysterious door in the hallway that fits the key he had taken. Inside is a red lit photo room lined with graphic photography of Yoon-Jae’s victims, including the girl Sang-Wook was searching for. It is implied the victims have been killed.
Enraged, Sang-Wook makes his way back downstairs and is ambushed by Yoon-Jae with a mallet, taking two blows to the head before overpowering him. He brutally beats Yoon-Jae and bashes his face in with several blows of the mallet. As he worsens the blows and smiles, flashbacks trigger to the trial of the arsonist.
Sang-Wook drags the corpse outside as the residents watch. He collects the bodies of a girl (the daughter of the grieving resident) and a soldier who died earlier, dragging them back to the lobby. Sang-Wook then attempts to shut himself outside to die, but is stopped by Jae-Heon. They struggle briefly with the gate, but he collapses from his injuries.
Sang-Wook wakes later being treated by Yu-Ri, who he chokes in his confusion. She tells him off, his assault triggering her asthma. He is stopped by the dead girl’s mother on the way to the residents’ makeshift graveyard (formerly indoor garden), who offers payment. Sang-Wook ignores her and goes to the garden to bury the keychain, the plush toy having belonged to the little girl. He then burns the photos of her and money he was given for the job.
Jae-Heon joins him, and reveals Sang-Wook had dropped his phone during his execution of Yoon-Jae - having read his texts with the young girl’s father, the residents know his actions were reasonable. He encourages Sang-Wook to stay, though Sang-Wook agonizes that he failed the job. Sang-Wook cites that he does not believe God likes him, and Jae-Heon should pray for the girl.
Later, Sang-Wook smokes and watches unimpressed as the residents train for a monster attack. He meets Jae-Heon in the market shop, sitting beside an untouched bottle of alcohol. Jae-Heon admits he is a former alcoholic who found God, and is resisting. Jae-Heon encourages a wary Sang-Wook, and gives him control of the shop housing the residents' only food. Jae-Heon cites that the shop is a good place to be alone. Sang-Wook is later seen sitting behind the shop's front desk, humorously staring down a resident who is sneaking alcohol.
He is recruited to rescue Hyun-Su from the spider monster, holding his own against a barrage of monsters with only a mallet. Sang-Wook even helps carry a pained Ji-Su. In the aftermath, Yu-Ri confronts him for showing no regard for his own safety, saying it is discouraging to others to see. He brushes off her concern for manners, but seems moved by her assertion that they must maintain their humanity. He asks her to help treat his bite wound, though she looks shocked at the severe healed burns on his back.
Sang-Wook receives rations from the residents, awkwardly standing in the hallway with Hyun-Su. Mr. A demands the two outsiders sit with him. He scolds them for not eating and Sang-Wook for thinking his scars are scary (showing his own surgical scars), to which Sang-Wook is the first to eat.
When Kang Seung-Wan has a panic attack and attempts to rob the food stores, Sang-Wook intervenes and punches him. When Seung-Wan returns a second time, Sang-Wook is irritable, but is surprised when Seung-Wan sincerely apologizes for his behavior, and admits he deserved to be hit. Sang-Wook apologizes for hitting him in return. Jae-Heon, eavesdropping, teases Sang-Wook that his manners have improved significantly.
With food running low, Lee Eun-Hyeok asks Son Hye-in to join the search party. He asks if Son Hye-in understands what kind of person he is. Eun-hyeok asks if Sang-Wook has ever saved someone's life before. This seems effective in persuading him. When Ji-Su collapses from appendicitis, Sang-Wook argues an injured Jae-Hyeon down from going with the group, who now need medical supplies instead. Sang-Wook drives, but the vehicle is thrown shortly thereafter by the Protein Monster, and he crawls from the wreckage. Seeing gas is leaking from the vehicle, he hammers open the back door and finds the unconscious Yu-Ri. Cutting her free with a piece of glass and slicing his hand, Sang-Wook drags Yu-Ri to a concrete barrier. He shields her as the car explodes.
Later Sang-Wook bandages his hand, watching over an unconscious Yu-Ri. Mr. An arrives to deliver asthma medicine to Yu-Ri. He snatches a cigarette from Sang-Wook's hands and tosses it in his face, scolding him for being an ‘ignorant idiot’. Yu-Ri assures the startled Sang-Wook that it is Mr. An's way of thanking someone. Sang-Wook returns to the shop, and finds Jae-Heon drinking heavily, which Sang-Wook stops. Jae-Heon derails his intervention by asking what Sang-Wook grabbed during his first birthday ceremony. Sang-Wook admits he doesn't know, as every photo he had burned with his father. Jae-Heon comments that God overestimates what humans can take, and offers Sang-Wook the glass instead, who downs the drink.
Sang-Wook encounters Eun-Yu in the hall with a cigarette. She demands his lighter, to which he sarcastically asks if she's bullying him. He demands she ask him politely, which she does, and he tosses her the lighter, telling her he's quit smoking.
When it's revealed another group might be hunting survivors, Sang-Wook accompanies Hyun-Su to cut the SOS sign made earlier down. On the way down, they realize the monsterized security guard is using the elevator. Both rush to get downstairs, but Sang-Wook is grabbed by a monster. He encourages Hyun-Su to keep going as he fends it off. Jae-Heon is killed soon after by the security guard. Sang-Wook is seen grieving in the burial garden, pouring out the alcohol on Jae-Heon's grave, telling him he can now drink as much as he wants.
When the murderous group arrives, Sang-Wook evades them, sneakily following Seo Yi-Kyung. Using the gun she hides, he intimidates two of the invaders, but they realize he doesn't know how to use it (the safety is on). He admits he never served in the military, and uses the gun as a club. Yi-Kyung appears and kills the other invader. Together, they discover Kim Yeong-Su in the vents, having been rescued by a friendly monster from the invaders. Sang-Wook carrying the boy on his back, they finish off several of the invaders, with Sang-Wook using his fists and an axe. During the chaos, Sang-Wook discovers a traumatized and wheezing Yu-Ri, who has just stabbed a would-be rapist-murderer to death. He retrieves her medication and administers it. Yu-Ri cries that she has just killed a human being, to which Sang-Wook gently tells her it doesn't matter, as he wasn't human by his actions.
In the final episode,[ Sang-Wook confronts Jung Ui-Myeong at the elevator. Protective of the group, he assures the stranger that he would find a way to kill him if he had to. He lets him go at Hyun-Su’s assurance. Later, he’s seen finding Yu-Ri’s empty inhaler discarded on the floor, and realizes she’s sick.
Sang-Wook rushes the half-conscious Yu-Ri on his back through the apartments to the lobby, intending to find her care outside. Ui-Myeong suddenly knocks them down with great force. He tells Hyun-Su he does not trust them to leave (and inform the military of their presence). Seeing Sang-Wook’s desperation to reach Yu-Ri, Hyun-Su gives him the car fob and tells him to go.
As Sang-Wook and Yu-Ri make it halfway to the car, bullets rain through them, as Ui-Myeong fires on them, then the other residents. Yu-Ri says “don’t look back”, so Sang-Wook carries her to the passenger seat and collapses against the car door. Some time later we see them clinging to life, Yu-Ri repeating that she had killed someone. Sang-Wook assures her the man was not a human due to his inhumane actions, but Yu-Ri is afraid that her memory of killing will be the last thing she remembers. Sang-Wook insists she should not think about it, and she asks he also not think of “it” (his earlier murders). He smiles and agrees, then holds her hand until they appear to pass a few moments later.
Much later, in the aftermath of Hyun-Su’s confrontation with the military, Ui-Myeong possessing Sang-Wook’s body is seen driving a military vehicle containing Hyun-Su away from Green Home, his facial scars healed.
Personality[]
Initially dismissive and distant to strangers, relying on his scars and demeanor to keep people at bay. Some of Sang-Wook’s comments and behaviors indicate he has a very low opinion of himself and his work, despite how he treats others. He attempts to kill himself by locking himself out of the apartments and comments to Jae-heon that God wouldn’t want to hear from him. Yu-Ri notes that he has very little self-preservation. He also asks Eun-hyuk if he understands “what kind of person” Sang-Wook is.
While Sang-Wook seems to value kindness and generosity, he operates from the experience that the world is an unjust, selfish place, and finds immense satisfaction in removing particularly evil people from it. At the beginning of the show, he has no faith in any system to do good, and assumes the Green Home situation will deteriorate.
Sang-Wook seems deeply affected by the crimes of the man he pursued to Green Home, but keeps his feelings around others defensively at arm’s length. A very observant, contemplative man, often watching people and walking the stairwells and halls of Green Home before the monsterization. After the monsterization onset, he continues to isolate himself, with Jae-heon suggesting to him that the former shop as a good place to be alone.
Sang-Wook seems impressed and baffled by the residents' good will and refusal to despair, as he finds most in Jae-heon and Yu-Ri. He seems most attached to their characters progressively. He very quickly molds himself to Yu-Ri’s expectations of better behavior, speaking more respectfully and asking others to return the favor. He even stops chain smoking after realizing it endangers Yu-Ri with her asthma.
Physical Appearance[]
A tall, intimidating man who looks like he is in his forties but is actually 32 years old, with ragged burn scars starting at his right cheek, down his neck, stretching onto his upper arm, and whole back. Wears cheap suits with gaudy shirts in an old school yakuza style and later a black windbreaker jacket for most of the series. The actor noted that Sang-Wook is not someone who cares much for his appearance. His hair is greased back in the first few episodes, but he doesn’t bother with it as the show progresses.
A noted feature of the character in both comic and show is almost supernatural physical strength - while in the comic he is an enormous muscular man, in the show the strength is more incredible from his lean physique. There’s no indication this strength due to monsterization, and just appears to be natural to him. Sang-Wook is able to dent a thin metal door, crush a monster’s skull with his foot, and fight off several medium size monsters without help. Based on comments from the actor, Sang-Wook's strength may be enhanced by his ignoring physical pain or very high pain tolerance.
Appearances[]
- Season One
.
Episode 1
Notes and Trivia[]
- In the webtoon Yu-Ri and Sang-Wook become romantically involved over time, but given their show canonical deaths, that may not come to fruition
- In the webtoon he survives till the end.
- He was a former cop who was fired due to assaulting and interogating criminals.
- In an interview, Sang-Wook's actor stated that Sang-Wook does not listen to music, sleeps little, and is a day laborer when not on a contract
- Opposite his character, the cast have stated in an interview that Sang-Wook's actor Lee Jin-Uk is easily frightened and would try to let the monster in and befriend it rather than fight it
- The actor responded that he would probably be successful, as he has a "great personality" and could befriend anyone
Gallery[]
