Cho Sang-Tae is the father of Cho Yong-Pil, whose deep resentment for people related to his late wife’s best friend, Go Mi-Ja, has led to a plethora of fractured and broken relationships. The character is played by Yoo Oh Sung in Welcome to Samdal-ri.
Cho Sang-Tae is the adorable father of Cho Young-Pil who leads a simple life as a widower in Samdal-ri of Jeju Island.
He has two polar opposite sides to his persona, and one caters to the people in general and the other one only comes into effect whenever he encounters the people he resents deeply.
The two sides
Cho Sang-Tae is an upstanding citizen of Jeju Island and works as a contract worker in the civil affairs team. He is shown to be kind to strangers and helps out the elderly wherever he can.
His relationship with his son is also really sweet. Ever since his wife’s passing, his son Cho Young-Pil has stayed by his side and at home with him, refusing to go away until he gets remarried.
Sang-Tae refuses to get married and has quite a jolly, fun dynamic with his son. However, beneath this nice exterior, he houses a deep resentment, which caused his son, as well as others a lot of hurt in the past.
Pain that causes more hurt
Sam-Dal’s mother Go Mi-Ja and Sang-Tae’s late wife Bu Mi-Ja were best friends forever and also worked together as havens as adults.
When Bu Mi-Ja died because of drowning, Go Mi-Ja couldn’t save her. Ever since her passing, Cho Sang-Tae developed great resentment for Go Mi-Ja, blaming his wife’s passing on her.
This resentment festered into something even worse. His son could never be separated from Sam-Dal, as the two grew up together and went from best friends to lovers.
However, Sam-Dal is a constant reminder of Go Mi-Ja, and in turn, of his wife’s death to Sang-Tae. Although not in great detail, the show has revealed Sang-Tae to have been the one to ask Sam-Dal to break up with Yong-Pil.
The hate that remains
Sam-Dal did break up with him eventually, and the two have been broken up for eight years now. At the time, she pleaded with him too many times to not let her be away from her beloved, but he didn’t budge.
Now that an unexpected career blow has made Sam-Dal return to Jeju temporarily, Sang-Tae’s resentment has flared more than usual, as has his fear that she and his son might be dating again.
He continues to resent Go Mi-Ja, and her family, and every unintentional encounter with anyone from their family forces him to change his direction or immediately swerve, sporting a cold shoulder.
Also Read: Go Mi-Ja: Welcome to Samdal-ri character explained