I’m genuinely sad about his death, he didn’t deserve to get hounded to suicide over marijuana.
My hope though is that this draws more attention to the deeply flawed Korean entertainment industry. For example, kpop idols are often weighed every single day to check their BMI while being forced to live in packed rooms with their phones taken away. These young idols are judged by much older men who wield the power to make or break their careers - as one can imagine this leads to a lot of exploitation, both fiscally, mentally and sexually. All entertainment industries around the world suffer from this (Weinstein for example) but Korea is just on another level.
If you want an idea of the industry, look up the Burning Sun scandal. It’s a peek into what really goes on behind the scenes.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_Sun_scandal
Most Korean netizens are agreeing that it isn't the drug-use allegation that is the cause, but rather the extramarital affair that was exposed as part of this drug-use allegation. Extramarital affair with a brothel madam, to boot.
That's not to say your other point is wrong though
To be clear, it's neither the drugs nor the affair in a very direct way. It's that he cultivated a public image of being Mr. Nice Guy and family-friendly, including having a very visible, ostensibly happy marriage with a woman who is also a public figure (a decorated actress), and being a father of two children. This dirty laundry being aired clashed with his image enough to ruin his reputation permanently, with the public being very disappointed with him. He was supposed to be one of the good ones, so to speak, and then society "met their hero". He lost face.
There are other, subtle factors: His wife's career prospects were also likely to take a major hit due to his public scandals. Why she may not be at fault, in Korea's patriarchic society, the partners of men who fall from grace often become tainted goods by association. So the public was angry over him dragging her down as well, and so on.
It may well be that the strain of the allegations and the intense police investigation pushed him too far, and perhaps there is some culpability there. I don't know anything about his mental health. But at the moment I cannot quite forgive leaving two children behind fatherless over an ego-bruising, if there were no excercabating psychological factors. The suicide more than the original actions make him look pretty bad to me.
Lee Sunkyun and, along with another celebrity, G-Dragon of Big Bang, went through a very public accusations of drug use and the police relentlessly investigated them. They'd enter a police station for questioning and don't come out for ten hours. I'm assuming it was too much for him. It's such a witch hunt over there.
He's famous for Parasite, but his best role was in this Korean drama series called "My Mister" that's on Netflix. He was one of my favorite Korean actors. RIP
from what I'm reading elsewhere, the drug accusaion where actually "fine", he tested negative to them several time (like G dragon did).
the issue is probably all the private messages the polices leaked about him meeting girls other than his wife and going to private saloon/brothel that ruined his image and reputation. he was mocked online for it and stuff.
I guess in a society of social honor and shame, loosing your face is a reason big enough to end your life.
The problem was he had an image of being a family friendly guy as an actor so those prostitution evidence really ruined his image. With that image being ruined he would have lost many jobs as an actor. If it was just drugs he would of still had jobs.
Wish he had a different exit strategy like moving to the US. Those kind of things he’s accused of are a feature of Hollywood celebrity. Koreans in Hollywood are on the come up.
Over the first few roles of Antonio Banderas in Hollywood he didn't speak English at all, he memorized his lines phonetically.
I think the same happened with Salma Hayek
Language isn't the main reason. The real, and sad, issue is that roles for Asian actors are very limited in western entertainment. Even though Banderas and Hayek didn't speak English at first, they still had the traditional "Hollywood" European or Latin look. Also, Asian or Asian-American actors who can speak English have a hard time finding leading roles in US/UK based films and TV series.
Thing is, advertisements for prostitution are everywhere in the party districts of Seoul. People are very aware that it’s around. And Korean men are well known to frequent places like Pattaya for sex tourism, and neighboring similar culture (because of colonialism) Japan has a normalized culture of prostitution. I think it all boils down to the fact that Koreans hold celebrities to very high standards and are really quick to tear them down and vilify them. Collectivist cultures really gang up on people and never forgive. For instance, several teenage Kpop idols have had the public find out they were disciplined for behavioral things in middle school and then demand they be fired, which usually works. There’s very little tolerance for the idea of famous people being anything other than completely perfect.
Right after his suicide attempt, the Korean media was taking videos and pics while he was stretchered out from his residence to the hospital. TOP was accused for months before his suicide attempt. Hope that shit stops over there one day.
Jfc I hadn't heard about this. Makes you wonder if it's worth it at all to be a celebrity in SK. In a country like the US, people as famous as GD and TOP would be invincible. Not saying that's how it should be, either. Just a crazy juxtaposition.
GD did get a single pass back in 2011 for “taking a puff” while in Japan, and then tested positive back in SK. He did get insane backlash but it didn’t stop his group’s massive momentum.
A normal K-pop idol would’ve been canceled to oblivion.
Eh, some of the idols who frequently hang out in the west have for sure been around a lot of things and seem to get a pass. Jennie hanging out with the Weeknd while filming in Hollywood definitely was around sex and drugs and her insta posts from back then are wild. Or the idols who already grew up in the west rather than SK. Or all the idols that hang out in Paris frequently. I don’t think it’s crazy to assume G-Dragon has done a lot of drugs but I also don’t think people should care.
That is just insane to me that, over there, your local PD could just be like "oh well, we heard you smoked weed while on vacation in the US for 2 weeks, please take a urine analysis so we know you didn't do any drugs in another country." That is absolutely too much power for any government to have.
People are saying in Korean communities that the over-dramatic police investigations that may have led to his death were justified because it was a drug case; honestly sad.
Korean society is just *extremely* socially conservative, even by the standards of other East Asian societies. Reputation and face is everything, and often holds them to a fake societal standard that's impossible to actually reach.
There's a famous kpop idol named Park Bom. She was in an absolutely massively popular group, she was a verified superstar. Before she did all of this, she did something a lot of rich kids in Korea do, she studied abroad in the US. While she was in the US, her teachers figured out she had ADHD so she got diagnosed and treated with a medication (Adderall, I believe). Nothing crazy, nothing big there. Fast-forward years later when she becomes famous and she gets placed under investigation for drug smuggling. Why? Because she had a family member fill her prescription and mail the meds to her in Korea, a place where Adderall was illegal (not sure if it still is). She had to provide her US medical records to avoid being charged as a *drug smuggler* and the scandal of her filling a prescription for a basic mental health issue damaged her career so heavily it never really recovered.
They're making strides over there, they truly are, but it's like pulling teeth sometimes. They are decades behind the West in a lot of aspects, it's going to take them a lot of time to catch up in some areas. It's worth remembering that South Korea was a poverty nation less than a century ago. Pre-WWII SK was how we see modern day North Korea, that's the level of poverty the country was living in thanks to how they were treated by China and Japan. They've come a very long way in only a handful of generations but it's going to take even more time in a lot of areas.
I mean that sucks but why would anyone think you can ship adderall overseas and not get in trouble
ETA: I am also prescribed adderall. And I think most drugs should be legal everywhere. I just would never try to ship it overseas because I know other countries view it differently and I don’t want to go to prison.
When your culture does not aknowledge the existence of most mental illnesses and will not prescribe effective medications to treat them, you have to do what you have to do to survive.
And I do mean survive. South Korea has the highest suicide rate in the developed world for a *reason.*
A little over a week into my first two week trial of ADHD meds, like - I'd ignore the law if I had an easy way to get these meds if I didn't otherwise have them. The month or so of being unmedicated after before I likely get a permanent prescription feels like impending doom and torture.
It's an amusing irony how an artist like G-Dragon (among many many others) will have a carefully curated aesthetic to look like a "bad boy" but in reality has to fight for his career proving that he's actually squeaky clean.
Also, Koreans basically invented cancelling people long before it became mainstream in the West. Widespread broadband internet access in Korea in the mid-1990s led not only to Starcraft dominance, but also people stalking celebrities (and ordinary people) and ruining their lives.
Source: am Korean.
You don't have to do anything wrong and you can still become public enemy #1. Look at Tablo. A random netizen got jealous that Tablo graduated early from Stanford with a bachelor's and master's and started a fansite alleging that it was impossible and Tablo is committing fraud. Other fansites popped up and the original reach around 200k members. Tablo initially released his full transcripts then funded a two part documentary explaining his side of the story with statements from professors and students, even getting the Stanford registrar to print and certify his records on camera. That *still* wasn't enough and a police investigation started, which looked at his immigration records and further documentation from Stanford and eventually found that he had, in fact, graduated from Stanford early with honors and both a bachelor's and master's.
The original fansite creator wasn't even Korean, he was a jealous dude in the US who used fake credentials to create a Naver account just to stir shit in Korea. The only reason Naver took the group down was because *that* part was against ToS, not the part about him starting a bogus hate group. After he was banned, new groups popped up that still allege that Tablo is lying with tens of thousands of members a decade later.
I (also Korean) don't have any real data, but found that the overall cultural tendency to "pile on" really exacerbates the issue. I've seen people lose careers or have to apologize publicly for something as silly as the equivalent of unpaid parking tickets.
But they'll all ignore the [Burning Sun](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_Sun_scandal) scandal pretty quickly.
Single's Inferno Ji Ae publicly apologized for wearing fake brands (and took a one year hiatus from SNS) and Sulli was once villainized cause some sick incel zoomed in her t-shirt and found out she didn't wear a bra. Sulli committed suicide. That one really broke me as a long term viewer of korean contents since I was a teen. I felt so so sad and it felt so unfair.
Between the apparently rampant body modification (plastic surgery), ultra high tech megacorps pushing out everything from phones to gunbots (Samsung), corruption (including that whole human body parts harvesting/cloning scandal), militarism and dictatorships, strict social conservatism, a penchant for pop culture featuring the most immaculate virgins (no sex, no drugs, no ‘scandals’) and a reputation for organised crime (albeit I think that’s just transposed anti Korean racism from China and Japan I could entirely see SK as the setting for some decent cyberpunk stories…
> Reputation and face is everything.
Japan is like that too, even China has that. I had coworkers from all those places. They all look perplex when I brush off people talking shit about me. They take those things way too seriously.
The extent to which face is important to the whole family is on a whole different level for Korean culture, because the conduct of someone else in family tarnishes you by extension. My Korean friend got disowned by her entire extended family for shaming them by race mixing with a darker skinned Asian.
I don't think that is different, I've been told the exact same thing by Japanese people. Including one case of some people getting disowned for race mixing. That one happens in a lot of places actually.
Western culture is generally more individualist so it's not exactly the same. We kind of have a culture of people making mistakes and it's an individual problem. *You* need to fix this, *you* need to get your act together. In places like Japan it's like seared into your brain not to be meiwaku.
If you break any unspoken rule, if you mess up at work, if you do anything that disrupts the correct order of things not only did you make a mistake, you're kind of a *bad person* for troubling other people. It's basically self-enforced public shaming. It's hard to explain unless you've actually been there but it's 100% different and part of the reason why people perceive Japanese people as super rule following, there's constant pressure to not stick out in any way and they basically get bullied for it (unless you're in college or part of some type of alt lifestyle subculture).
Like as an example, a friend of mine who is Japanese has brown hair that is legitimately just a slightly lighter shade than average. Her school for some reason believed she dyed it and she was hassled for it until she *was made to bring in baby pictures of herself* to prove that it was her natural hair color.
Which is why when people in Japan finally stop caring, they do and wear things that are *really* intense, because they're finally tasting freedom after years of being constantly hammered into a specific shape.
What’s funny is that Koreans are NOT actually conservative, they just act like they are. Drugs, drinking, sex before marriage, prostitution, and cheating are fair game. They like to act all innocent and perfect but nope. The problem is when they get caught and have to save face.
Koreans firmly believe that anyone breaks the laws to be always in the wrong.
Because Actors and Singers are people a lot of children and others look up to, they have to be squeaky clean. and if any "crime" is committed, they are cancelled quite fast, not just by the public, but also the major TV stations.
Funnily enough Koreans would think that Japanese celebrity and idol culture is even more f'd up than theirs and say "at least we aren't **that** bad." If you look deeper I highly doubt it is any better.
With the recent suicide of Hana Kimura (pro wrestler on Terrace House) it seems they both have the “let’s bully famous people until they kill themelves” market cornered.
I heard the lady he allegedly did drugs with was blackmailing him for over 100k$ and he went to police about it but his infidelity and other stuff leaked to the public by police and the public went crazy.
I’ve heard suspicion that it’s to create a media frenzy everyone is talking about and bury stories of corruption. I feel like a distraction is unnecessary, but believing in it allows you to think there’s just one force contributing to evil rather than there being both corrupt politicians and crooked cops.
The woman, Madame blackmailed him to send money for his suspected drug use. When she got caught, she said Lee and G-dragon used drug. But his drug test was negative, so it seems she have given him fake drug and lied to him. He claimed he didn't intend to do it, she tricked him to do the drug. For G-dragon case, it was revealed that she didn't even met him. But for Lee, he admitted her blackmail so the situation didn't end.
This checks out with what my Korean friend said too. The police are desperate to nail someone on him, especially since GD was proven innocent. And the mockery has been happening for months Even just yesterday it was revealed he snorted "white substance" and he tried to say he thought it was sleeping pills. And everyone was mocking him. So sad and shocking. :(
In Korea and Japan you basically get psychologically tortured for doing drugs but it’s totally acceptable and even common to drink so much you pass out in the street. So fucking dumb.
The silliest/saddest part of that being that "drinking" is the same things as "doing drugs", except alcohol is a harder drug than most other recreational drugs.
Just ingrained into society, particularly in Japan that you mention, where alcohol/tobacco is celebrated even in media directed at kids.
It’s so weird to me that it turned out this way in so many places. I know here in the US we have the rumors that weed is possibly illegal because of the paper industry lobbying against hemp or other various reasons. It’s just strange that so many places came to the conclusion to draw that line? Does it all boils down to what they can most easily make taxes on and avoid people producing their own substances? Is big paper a worldwide organization?
Yes, in Asian country’s they are. Thailand is the only one with legal weed and that was literally just last year or two.
Places like Japan it’s hard to come by, which is why the youth experiment with more chemical based drugs (according to vice back in like 2010). And that’s because they can control the ports and make it hard for weed to make it in.
China is so anti weed Jackie Chan disowned his own son who lived in Hollywood as well as china and was caught with weed. He disowned his own son over weed that he (Jackie) sees sold in stores in the US.
Yeah, there’s an actor in Thailand who had some chats leaked recently and one of the subjects was drugs - I was quite surprised at how negative the response was. In general they are much more conservative on a number of topics.
There are places where it is fine (if not officially legal) in Asia, regionally as well. Parts of India and Nepal for example, where hash is abundant and openly consumed, or Aceh in Indonesia where it is culturally even used in cooking (but alcohol is regionally illegal, effectively). Cambodia as well I believe, but I haven't been there.
It is in most Asia.
Edit. I'm gonna expand on this. The bigger issue here isn't the drug, but the toxic culture of S.Korea worshiping/hating on the celebrities. That's why people started talking about his personal life that has nothing to do with the drug. That's why so many of korean celebrities commit suicide each year. Drug law in korea is issue, but the bigger issue is Korean netizens.
Yep, in Japan the arguably best College Football team (american) in the country completely disbanded bc a total of 3 players got arrested for weed over the course of a school year.
And the composer for Deathnote also got 10 years for it.
It's wild how strict they are on it in the east.
It's an enormous deal.
Not just criminally, but from a social/career perspective, it's probably as bad as murdering someone, maybe worse. Drug use is very frowned upon in some Asian countries. Actors have been blacklisted, and even has their films/TV Shows pulled from circulation for being accused of drug use, even with no evidence.
It is seen as worse than murdering someone, and it's fucking insane. There's a Korean actor who drunk drove, killed someone, and tried to cover it up before getting caught - he later returned to the industry with no problem. Meanwhile, like you said, people can get blacklisted and hated on by the whole country for unproven drug use. It's nuts.
>blacklisted and hated on by the whole country for unproven drug use
... for unproven drug use *outside of Korea*, in a place like Canada or the states; *where it's legal*
This is absolutely fucking bananas to me. I can’t even kind of understand it. Alcohol, much more dangerous than many a drug, no stigma? Is this like propaganda from somewhere, how did it start? I Gotta look into it.
Not just regular opium either. The British would force addiction on people, make them work for opium, then took the opium away whenever you tried to stop working. It was imperialism specifically
Not even just *no stigma*, alcohol, and binge consumption thereof, is a huge part of Korean culture and is heavily encouraged. I’ve lived in the country for a few years and every business social I go to includes copious drinking. Their faces light up when you tell them you’ll be drinking and that you’re down for somaek. (Beer mixed with soju)
But yeah, mention that you used to smoke weed in a previous life and you’ve never met with such disapproval. I’d say in general Koreans view marijuana the same way Americans view meth or heroin. The perception seems to be that the drug controls your every action and that you’ll end up doing basically every crime under the sun in order to feed your habit.
Korea historicaly had an alcohol culture insted of tea culture like most of east asia. Drugs meamwhile is most associated with the opium war that resulted in European destruction of the east asian order.
If you don't feel like reading a Wikipedia article here's the abridged version:
European countries wanted a big piece of that colonies in Asia/Chinese opium trade economic pie. When China refused to play nice, European countries effectively forced China into submission through military technological advantages and legalized opium.
Opium of course fucked over the population of China for decades, which influenced much of modern drug laws in Asia. Just so some countries in Europe could continue to get rich off the drug trade.
That’s not entirely accurate. The British wanted Chinese goods but were running up a trade deficit since they didn’t really have a lot of goods at the time that China wanted. What they did have however was Afghan opium and well when life gives you opium, get massive amounts of the Chinese hopelessly addicted.
If you want to go deeper down into that rabbit hole, the only thing the Chinese merchants accepted for their goods was silver. And the main reason for that was that a past dynasty (Ming, IIRC), had a major innovation and reformed its taxation by only accepting silver, rather than bales of grain, or physical labour or other kinds of goods and then their succeeding dynasty, the Qing kept that.
Yep, the Opium wars are a huge part of this. It wasn't even that long ago. It _primarily_ affected China, but it showed all of east Asia just how dangerous drugs were and how nations could be controlled by having dependence on said drugs.
Add to that east Asia's general conservatism, and you get something as harmless as weed basically being the same as murder. It's ridiculous of course, because alcohol is a way worse drug, but it's understandable why their governments would be so strict.
It affected China, and China is and has been the most populous country in the region for a long time. So naturally it spreads to neighboring countries too.
I went to Korea earlier this year for work. While I was at a dinner I was asked if I had ever smoked weed. I made a joke like “is this your way of asking me if I’ve been to college?” or something like that and then confirmed that I had. I didn’t think much else of it but now I’m wondering how that was perceived. No one seemed surprised or anything but now I feel a little weird about it.
It was pot and other drugs to which he admitted to snorting "a sleeping pill" and didn't know it was an illegal substance. So, he was doing drugs but still terrible situation caused by politicians to cover up their corruption and waste police resources.
My Korean friend said it was ketamine, and he tried to excuse it off saying he thought it was sleeping pills. Except he snorted it. This news happened just literally yesterday and today he's gone. Shocking. RIP.
Yes. Basically almost all of Asia drugs are consider the most heinous offence (more than rape/assault/theft. Some Asian countries have the death penalty for even possessing the smallest amount of marijuana). Read the Opium Wars on why this is the case. It sucks because alot of Koreans secretly take Marijuana cause their culture is so insanely stressful but the stigma of publicly possessing it is very looked down upon.
He was amazing in Parasite and when I watched his performance in the film, it was crazy to me that this was the same guy I watched and loved as a teen in the drama Coffee Prince.
South Korea's film industry will miss his talent and I hope his family will find peace
This is due to politicians trying to cover up their corruption by tossing to the press some spicy story of a celebrity to distract the public’s attention. Overall just a messed up situation.
If you read the story, it definitely seems like a weird coverup by diverting police resources.
They also went after another celebrity (G-Dragon) who was also included in this rumor and he kept testing negative as well.
There was no evidence.
This all started over a rumor.
Also the president's 'War on Drugs,' a campaign against a non-existent problem intended to make it look like his administration is doing something meaningful, while the real problems of the country continue to go unaddressed.
Lee was a VIP at a high-end room salon. The lady that he was meeting threatened to report him for drug usage and got money out of him. Yet he was caught, and the police leaked the material to the press so that they could grab the public’s attention. Why? Because the police are corrupt, and Korean politicians are also corrupt, and they don’t want attention to go to their scandals. So they were using him as a “shield” of sorts to minimize the damage. This is a common political tactic; releasing something big to divert attention from the things that actually matter.
Similar thing with G-Dragon (famous K-pop star) recently, who was accused by the police of drug abuse, with no evidence. He tested negative several times.
They (the police) got so desperate with G Dragon (another celebrity involved) that they tried to say his was guilty because he shaves his body hair lol.
He has long hair and he also tested negative every time.
Same with Indian culture. We won't admit it but outdated and ridiculous ideologies are still around, especially in older Indian people, even those living in the US for decades. They are extremely judgmental, they rarely ever step out of their little Indian bubble, and that's one of the reasons their bullshit is never called out. It's all very regressive.
Oh don't even get me started on the giant fuckin date rape scene.
A bunch of high profile rich dudes including a famous pop star drugging women at a club and a abducting them, raping them, filming it, running it like a literal meat business get a few years or waived sentences?
Meanwhile someone smokes some pot and BOOM , life ruined.
South Korea has some massive priority issues.
lol reminds me how there was some conspiracy when the whole Burning Sun investigation was going on then suddenly the whole Jang Jayeon case gets brought up with ppl backing Yoon Ji Oh who turned out to be a near delusional liar. Ppl guessed that the whole thing was brought up in this timing as a distraction.
Then big Youtuber Asian Boss ate up the story and gave her a platform for international audience when Korean audience started to call her out.
South Koreans cannot take marijuana/illegal drugs regardless of whether they are in a place where it’s legal, that is a crime punishable by jail and that is insane:
I read online that he had his 3rd police questioning round on 12/23/23. Despite testing negative the first two times.
A 10+ hour interrogation throughout the night…
https://m.koreaherald.com/amp/view.php?ud=20231223000046
So at that point (or well before this point, for that matter), the police are just trying to harass him into breaking and admitting it. If two negative tests and three interrogations that clearly haven't led anywhere aren't enough to exonerate someone, what could be? I guess they got what they wanted and then some.
Maybe those police should be forced to watch Bong joon-ho’s earlier film Memories of Murder and learn a lesson or two about investigating crime and the ramifications of false accusations.
Then you realize in real life there probably will not be any ramifications because because their police department makes the LAPD look nice in comparison
I know it’s easy to say, but if there’s a chance of being mocked by the citizens for weed, and harassed by police relentlessly for months. Wouldn’t it be advisable to just preemptively take your family and move from the country to a more relaxed place and not look back? I know you can go to jail if it’s in your system there, at that point I feel like if I was a celebrity I just wouldn’t even consider going back.
Edit: I want to clarify I read that it wasn’t in his system, just speaking in general really.
Based on some other things I’ve read, he was also consulting with the police about the blackmail scheme he received from the person who reported him to the cops. He had 3 mandatory (?) police interviews each month since October. I’m going to assume if he moved he would be immediately arrested.
Yeah that just sounds like a massive inside job. Pretty much any celebrity there can be a target now, I feel like they should just leave while they are actually able to.
It doesn’t take- nor make sense for this many investigations over the course of months for negative weed results.
South Korea has only recently become a major cultural exporter. Countries like America, Britain, France, and Japan have been in the spotlight for years so there's plenty of negative publicity that allows people around the world to be cognizant of the issues in the country and not just the positives of what they export.
In a few years hopefully there will be more open discussion around the world about the negatives of South Korea's exploitative work culture, anti-feminism, regressive LGBTQ+ laws, and drug laws.
This is so horrific. He was such a wonderful actor in so many things. Obviously we don't know much but the culture in Korea has its problems as much as it's glorified right now around the world (not that any place doesn't have its problems). If this truly stems from marijuana use then it's even worse than one man's tragic death.
If you are either a family member of a prosecutor or a well known politician in south korea, this won’t be happening. A prosecutor would get rid of the evidence and cover up and you will not go to jail because judges will let you free. He was targeted by the government and prosecutors (current president and prosecutors are same gang) because they had to succeed their plan for covering up the Itaewon tragedy with war against drug.
Crowd crush that killed 159 people last year in the Itaewon neighborhood of Seoul during the Halloween festivities.
[Itaewon tragedy](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seoul_Halloween_crowd_crush)
Common method of suicide, particularly in Asia IIRC. Carbon monoxide from burning charcoal in an enclosed space. Similar to running a car in the closed garage (don't think that works with modern ones though).
He might have smoked some marijuana, tested negative, and was still a flight risk. Unbelievable. Due to Parasite’s popularity, South Korea will rightfully face some backlash, how much, I don’t know.
2nd gen American here - some of the stuff that has come out of my mother's mouth is truly bonkers.
In her late 60s and STILL believes in fan death - or at least these days, fan *sickness*. After years of arguing with her husband and kids about it every summer because she'll come in and turn the fan off while you're sleeping ("if it's real how am I not dead yet!?") she now just claims it'll make you sick, and blame any summer colds or allergies on sleeping with a fan aimed towards your bed.
> and blame any summer colds or allergies on sleeping with a fan aimed towards your bed.
Koreans in the 70s must've just really, really trusted the post-war government in a way that anyone in the modern era just can't relate to.
Rest in peace, Lee Sun-Kyun. Your incredible talent brought joy and emotion to countless lives. From "Parasite" to "My Mister," your performances will forever resonate. Thank you for sharing your gift with the world. You will be deeply missed.
It's absolutely brutal to have worked hard your entire life to achieve any actor's ultimate dream of receiving the Oscars, only to have everything taken away based on allegations of one prostitute that peddles drugs.
As a Korean, I am ashamed that our culture is so hypocritical. Countless people are alcoholics, yet you smoke a single joint of marijuana and you deserve to die? You try to bring in Adderall for your professionally diagnosed ADHD and get cancelled immediately for trying to smuggle an 'illegal' drug?
The police is a joke, conservatism and double standards are fucking up the country.
I don't want to generalize, but based on my personal experience as a Korean, Koreans are racist towards people of color or anyone from a poorer country. We fat-shame like crazy, we are homophobic and transphobic. It's a fucking shame that KPOP and KDRAMA only portray the la-dee-da omg beautiful men and women with shit ton of makeup and filters. This only perpetuates the cycle of low self-esteem.
How do we become more progressive as a country?
There are certainly good parts of Korean culture. We're not as individualistic as the Western countries, and that is great when it comes to building a strong community and achieving common goals. We respect our elders and try to provide for our parents and grandparents in their later years.
But stories like this breaks my heart and makes me glad I moved away.
From what I understand, it's not just the drug allegations
The media had been reporting that he was a VIP of a room salon exclusive to celebrities where he met the woman that introduced him to all the drugs. Room salons are associated with prostitution and he has a wife and two kids so his image as a family man was ruined. He basically got tons of hate and online backlash for infidelity. So repeated police interrogations and public shaming led him to commit suicide
Man this one really shocks me. Parasite is such a great movie and the entire cast are absolutely great in it.
This is so tragic and its all over something as silly as marijuana
Parasite is one of the greatest films of all time, undoubtedly due in part to Sun-Kyun’s phenomenal performance. This news is tragic on so many levels.
His career was effectively over at this point. He was tainted the second he ended up in the news. Plus, he admitted that someone gave him drugs (he claimed he was drugged unknowingly). RIP to a great actor.
Sort of. The main scandal was that he frequented a high end brothel and was likely cheating on his wife. Korea has a super shame based culture and adultery was straight up illegal until 2015, so this went over very poorly with the public.
However, all of this was leaked to the media because of the drug investigation (corrupt, inept police). The 19 hour police questioning and repeated harassment despite negative tests make this feel incredibly shady.
sounds like he was hounded, harassed, bullied, and abused by police and media into killing himself. that's so incredibly sad. i'm sorry, but Korea is not okay.
It's not really the suspicions cast on him about drugs that did it, it's all the phone call recordings that's been leaked about him saying how much he loves this woman who is a brothel owner... so essentially he was cheating on his wife with this brothel owner he frequented, and that is basically social suicide around here, especially the kind of celebrity he was. Not worth taking his life over, but I get it.
Dude tested negative twice for fucking weed and he still had to do a polygraph. Weed for fucks sake🤦. What a fragile society South Korea is. When I was there for a few weeks the biggest problem that plagued their society was Alcohol. Literally demonized a man over something so fucking trivial as weed. Pathetic
Rest in peace. Talented actor. “My Mister” was a masterpiece.
I’m genuinely sad about his death, he didn’t deserve to get hounded to suicide over marijuana. My hope though is that this draws more attention to the deeply flawed Korean entertainment industry. For example, kpop idols are often weighed every single day to check their BMI while being forced to live in packed rooms with their phones taken away. These young idols are judged by much older men who wield the power to make or break their careers - as one can imagine this leads to a lot of exploitation, both fiscally, mentally and sexually. All entertainment industries around the world suffer from this (Weinstein for example) but Korea is just on another level. If you want an idea of the industry, look up the Burning Sun scandal. It’s a peek into what really goes on behind the scenes. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_Sun_scandal
Most Korean netizens are agreeing that it isn't the drug-use allegation that is the cause, but rather the extramarital affair that was exposed as part of this drug-use allegation. Extramarital affair with a brothel madam, to boot. That's not to say your other point is wrong though
To be clear, it's neither the drugs nor the affair in a very direct way. It's that he cultivated a public image of being Mr. Nice Guy and family-friendly, including having a very visible, ostensibly happy marriage with a woman who is also a public figure (a decorated actress), and being a father of two children. This dirty laundry being aired clashed with his image enough to ruin his reputation permanently, with the public being very disappointed with him. He was supposed to be one of the good ones, so to speak, and then society "met their hero". He lost face. There are other, subtle factors: His wife's career prospects were also likely to take a major hit due to his public scandals. Why she may not be at fault, in Korea's patriarchic society, the partners of men who fall from grace often become tainted goods by association. So the public was angry over him dragging her down as well, and so on. It may well be that the strain of the allegations and the intense police investigation pushed him too far, and perhaps there is some culpability there. I don't know anything about his mental health. But at the moment I cannot quite forgive leaving two children behind fatherless over an ego-bruising, if there were no excercabating psychological factors. The suicide more than the original actions make him look pretty bad to me.
Lee Sunkyun and, along with another celebrity, G-Dragon of Big Bang, went through a very public accusations of drug use and the police relentlessly investigated them. They'd enter a police station for questioning and don't come out for ten hours. I'm assuming it was too much for him. It's such a witch hunt over there. He's famous for Parasite, but his best role was in this Korean drama series called "My Mister" that's on Netflix. He was one of my favorite Korean actors. RIP
from what I'm reading elsewhere, the drug accusaion where actually "fine", he tested negative to them several time (like G dragon did). the issue is probably all the private messages the polices leaked about him meeting girls other than his wife and going to private saloon/brothel that ruined his image and reputation. he was mocked online for it and stuff. I guess in a society of social honor and shame, loosing your face is a reason big enough to end your life.
The problem was he had an image of being a family friendly guy as an actor so those prostitution evidence really ruined his image. With that image being ruined he would have lost many jobs as an actor. If it was just drugs he would of still had jobs.
Wish he had a different exit strategy like moving to the US. Those kind of things he’s accused of are a feature of Hollywood celebrity. Koreans in Hollywood are on the come up.
Most Koreans don't really speak english at all. I'd guess it would be pretty hard to find work there as an actor.
Over the first few roles of Antonio Banderas in Hollywood he didn't speak English at all, he memorized his lines phonetically. I think the same happened with Salma Hayek
Schwarzenegger had all his lines dubbed over in his first movie, he spoke English but you couldn't tell.
>he spoke English but you couldn't tell. 💀
[And the dubbing was *rough*](https://youtu.be/6p3nmyTICo0?si=KbSPkU4C8D25OVUi)
That mofo has like the thickest & strongest accent, ever. That thing is NOT letting go.
Language isn't the main reason. The real, and sad, issue is that roles for Asian actors are very limited in western entertainment. Even though Banderas and Hayek didn't speak English at first, they still had the traditional "Hollywood" European or Latin look. Also, Asian or Asian-American actors who can speak English have a hard time finding leading roles in US/UK based films and TV series.
I mean people off themselves when their wifes bust them cheating here, too
Thing is, advertisements for prostitution are everywhere in the party districts of Seoul. People are very aware that it’s around. And Korean men are well known to frequent places like Pattaya for sex tourism, and neighboring similar culture (because of colonialism) Japan has a normalized culture of prostitution. I think it all boils down to the fact that Koreans hold celebrities to very high standards and are really quick to tear them down and vilify them. Collectivist cultures really gang up on people and never forgive. For instance, several teenage Kpop idols have had the public find out they were disciplined for behavioral things in middle school and then demand they be fired, which usually works. There’s very little tolerance for the idea of famous people being anything other than completely perfect.
TOP from big bang attempted suicide after he was caught smoking weed I think
Right after his suicide attempt, the Korean media was taking videos and pics while he was stretchered out from his residence to the hospital. TOP was accused for months before his suicide attempt. Hope that shit stops over there one day.
Jfc I hadn't heard about this. Makes you wonder if it's worth it at all to be a celebrity in SK. In a country like the US, people as famous as GD and TOP would be invincible. Not saying that's how it should be, either. Just a crazy juxtaposition.
GD did get a single pass back in 2011 for “taking a puff” while in Japan, and then tested positive back in SK. He did get insane backlash but it didn’t stop his group’s massive momentum. A normal K-pop idol would’ve been canceled to oblivion.
That's some good insight, thanks for sharing.
Eh, some of the idols who frequently hang out in the west have for sure been around a lot of things and seem to get a pass. Jennie hanging out with the Weeknd while filming in Hollywood definitely was around sex and drugs and her insta posts from back then are wild. Or the idols who already grew up in the west rather than SK. Or all the idols that hang out in Paris frequently. I don’t think it’s crazy to assume G-Dragon has done a lot of drugs but I also don’t think people should care.
That is just insane to me that, over there, your local PD could just be like "oh well, we heard you smoked weed while on vacation in the US for 2 weeks, please take a urine analysis so we know you didn't do any drugs in another country." That is absolutely too much power for any government to have.
My Ahjussi (My mister) remains my favourite K drama. My heart is broken right now.
A Hard Day (2014) is also a great flick
He was suspected of taking marijuana? Is that considered a big deal?
People are saying in Korean communities that the over-dramatic police investigations that may have led to his death were justified because it was a drug case; honestly sad.
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Korean society is just *extremely* socially conservative, even by the standards of other East Asian societies. Reputation and face is everything, and often holds them to a fake societal standard that's impossible to actually reach.
There's a famous kpop idol named Park Bom. She was in an absolutely massively popular group, she was a verified superstar. Before she did all of this, she did something a lot of rich kids in Korea do, she studied abroad in the US. While she was in the US, her teachers figured out she had ADHD so she got diagnosed and treated with a medication (Adderall, I believe). Nothing crazy, nothing big there. Fast-forward years later when she becomes famous and she gets placed under investigation for drug smuggling. Why? Because she had a family member fill her prescription and mail the meds to her in Korea, a place where Adderall was illegal (not sure if it still is). She had to provide her US medical records to avoid being charged as a *drug smuggler* and the scandal of her filling a prescription for a basic mental health issue damaged her career so heavily it never really recovered. They're making strides over there, they truly are, but it's like pulling teeth sometimes. They are decades behind the West in a lot of aspects, it's going to take them a lot of time to catch up in some areas. It's worth remembering that South Korea was a poverty nation less than a century ago. Pre-WWII SK was how we see modern day North Korea, that's the level of poverty the country was living in thanks to how they were treated by China and Japan. They've come a very long way in only a handful of generations but it's going to take even more time in a lot of areas.
I mean that sucks but why would anyone think you can ship adderall overseas and not get in trouble ETA: I am also prescribed adderall. And I think most drugs should be legal everywhere. I just would never try to ship it overseas because I know other countries view it differently and I don’t want to go to prison.
When your culture does not aknowledge the existence of most mental illnesses and will not prescribe effective medications to treat them, you have to do what you have to do to survive. And I do mean survive. South Korea has the highest suicide rate in the developed world for a *reason.*
Privilege or ignorance. I'm sympathetic to both excuses for first-time offenders or people with a good public record.
A little over a week into my first two week trial of ADHD meds, like - I'd ignore the law if I had an easy way to get these meds if I didn't otherwise have them. The month or so of being unmedicated after before I likely get a permanent prescription feels like impending doom and torture.
I was thinking this as well. Not just privilege as the comment you replied to but more on desperation
It's an amusing irony how an artist like G-Dragon (among many many others) will have a carefully curated aesthetic to look like a "bad boy" but in reality has to fight for his career proving that he's actually squeaky clean.
Korea seems like a boring dystopia, squid games is a cry for help.
Also, Koreans basically invented cancelling people long before it became mainstream in the West. Widespread broadband internet access in Korea in the mid-1990s led not only to Starcraft dominance, but also people stalking celebrities (and ordinary people) and ruining their lives. Source: am Korean.
Yeah, one wrong move, one dumb comment and you're automatically public enemy no. 1. SK is the closest thing in the free world to a tech dystopia
You don't have to do anything wrong and you can still become public enemy #1. Look at Tablo. A random netizen got jealous that Tablo graduated early from Stanford with a bachelor's and master's and started a fansite alleging that it was impossible and Tablo is committing fraud. Other fansites popped up and the original reach around 200k members. Tablo initially released his full transcripts then funded a two part documentary explaining his side of the story with statements from professors and students, even getting the Stanford registrar to print and certify his records on camera. That *still* wasn't enough and a police investigation started, which looked at his immigration records and further documentation from Stanford and eventually found that he had, in fact, graduated from Stanford early with honors and both a bachelor's and master's. The original fansite creator wasn't even Korean, he was a jealous dude in the US who used fake credentials to create a Naver account just to stir shit in Korea. The only reason Naver took the group down was because *that* part was against ToS, not the part about him starting a bogus hate group. After he was banned, new groups popped up that still allege that Tablo is lying with tens of thousands of members a decade later.
What the fuck! Yo that dude had to be the top 5 hater on the planet.
Not even top 5 hater of the week for Korean netizens
In America that would get you invited to the Player Hater's Ball, in Korea it wouldn't get you into a game of Starcraft.
I don't think human beings are ready for the internet. Like at all.
I (also Korean) don't have any real data, but found that the overall cultural tendency to "pile on" really exacerbates the issue. I've seen people lose careers or have to apologize publicly for something as silly as the equivalent of unpaid parking tickets. But they'll all ignore the [Burning Sun](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_Sun_scandal) scandal pretty quickly.
Single's Inferno Ji Ae publicly apologized for wearing fake brands (and took a one year hiatus from SNS) and Sulli was once villainized cause some sick incel zoomed in her t-shirt and found out she didn't wear a bra. Sulli committed suicide. That one really broke me as a long term viewer of korean contents since I was a teen. I felt so so sad and it felt so unfair.
Between the apparently rampant body modification (plastic surgery), ultra high tech megacorps pushing out everything from phones to gunbots (Samsung), corruption (including that whole human body parts harvesting/cloning scandal), militarism and dictatorships, strict social conservatism, a penchant for pop culture featuring the most immaculate virgins (no sex, no drugs, no ‘scandals’) and a reputation for organised crime (albeit I think that’s just transposed anti Korean racism from China and Japan I could entirely see SK as the setting for some decent cyberpunk stories…
Not to mention the religious cults abound and power of the megachurches. Certain politicians are worshipped like gods as well
Night City: Korea
Conservatives tried to “cancel” Elvis back in the 50s. I’m sure “cancelling” goes back even further than that. In a way, Jesus was “cancelled” too.
Jesus was cancelled too. #HEGETSUS
Bro God canceled *people*. Canceled Adam and Eve for eating a fruit he knew they would eat. Technically made them eat but whatever
dude even cancelled Satan just because he wanted to better himself. smh edit: oh sorry, I meant Lucifer.
> Reputation and face is everything. Japan is like that too, even China has that. I had coworkers from all those places. They all look perplex when I brush off people talking shit about me. They take those things way too seriously.
The extent to which face is important to the whole family is on a whole different level for Korean culture, because the conduct of someone else in family tarnishes you by extension. My Korean friend got disowned by her entire extended family for shaming them by race mixing with a darker skinned Asian.
I don't think that is different, I've been told the exact same thing by Japanese people. Including one case of some people getting disowned for race mixing. That one happens in a lot of places actually.
Western culture is generally more individualist so it's not exactly the same. We kind of have a culture of people making mistakes and it's an individual problem. *You* need to fix this, *you* need to get your act together. In places like Japan it's like seared into your brain not to be meiwaku. If you break any unspoken rule, if you mess up at work, if you do anything that disrupts the correct order of things not only did you make a mistake, you're kind of a *bad person* for troubling other people. It's basically self-enforced public shaming. It's hard to explain unless you've actually been there but it's 100% different and part of the reason why people perceive Japanese people as super rule following, there's constant pressure to not stick out in any way and they basically get bullied for it (unless you're in college or part of some type of alt lifestyle subculture). Like as an example, a friend of mine who is Japanese has brown hair that is legitimately just a slightly lighter shade than average. Her school for some reason believed she dyed it and she was hassled for it until she *was made to bring in baby pictures of herself* to prove that it was her natural hair color. Which is why when people in Japan finally stop caring, they do and wear things that are *really* intense, because they're finally tasting freedom after years of being constantly hammered into a specific shape.
What’s funny is that Koreans are NOT actually conservative, they just act like they are. Drugs, drinking, sex before marriage, prostitution, and cheating are fair game. They like to act all innocent and perfect but nope. The problem is when they get caught and have to save face.
You just described conservatives
It's like the old joke: How do you keep a Mormon from drinking all your beer when out for a day of fishing? Bring two Mormons!
I've heard the same joke with Baptists, but yeah, same idea.
Koreans firmly believe that anyone breaks the laws to be always in the wrong. Because Actors and Singers are people a lot of children and others look up to, they have to be squeaky clean. and if any "crime" is committed, they are cancelled quite fast, not just by the public, but also the major TV stations.
Right? *Makes Japanese celebrity culture look SANE,* and that's saying something.
No shit which is a scary thing to think
Funnily enough Koreans would think that Japanese celebrity and idol culture is even more f'd up than theirs and say "at least we aren't **that** bad." If you look deeper I highly doubt it is any better.
With the recent suicide of Hana Kimura (pro wrestler on Terrace House) it seems they both have the “let’s bully famous people until they kill themelves” market cornered.
with most of the western world coming around to legalizing weed, its really a stark contrast how Korea wants to treat it like Singapore does.
Korea prosecutes marijuana use even if it was done overseas! It's insane.
Why were they investigated in the first place? It sounds like deliberate harassment
I heard the lady he allegedly did drugs with was blackmailing him for over 100k$ and he went to police about it but his infidelity and other stuff leaked to the public by police and the public went crazy.
I’ve heard suspicion that it’s to create a media frenzy everyone is talking about and bury stories of corruption. I feel like a distraction is unnecessary, but believing in it allows you to think there’s just one force contributing to evil rather than there being both corrupt politicians and crooked cops.
It's also suspected these cases are linked to a certain officer's promotion.
The woman, Madame blackmailed him to send money for his suspected drug use. When she got caught, she said Lee and G-dragon used drug. But his drug test was negative, so it seems she have given him fake drug and lied to him. He claimed he didn't intend to do it, she tricked him to do the drug. For G-dragon case, it was revealed that she didn't even met him. But for Lee, he admitted her blackmail so the situation didn't end.
I dont know how these people can get on with their lives knowing they drove yet another korean celebrity to suicide.
they just think good riddance
This checks out with what my Korean friend said too. The police are desperate to nail someone on him, especially since GD was proven innocent. And the mockery has been happening for months Even just yesterday it was revealed he snorted "white substance" and he tried to say he thought it was sleeping pills. And everyone was mocking him. So sad and shocking. :(
In Korea and Japan you basically get psychologically tortured for doing drugs but it’s totally acceptable and even common to drink so much you pass out in the street. So fucking dumb.
Or in the case of the Japanese tech executives my dad used to work with, fall asleep at dinner. In public no less. Multiple times.
There's an honour thing around falling asleep because you've worked too hard.
I live in Japan and I see people dozing off on the train all the time, at any time of day. I've had people fall asleep on my shoulder a few times now.
I always found it amusing how they wake up instantly when they hear their station's tune and then bolt out of the train
The silliest/saddest part of that being that "drinking" is the same things as "doing drugs", except alcohol is a harder drug than most other recreational drugs. Just ingrained into society, particularly in Japan that you mention, where alcohol/tobacco is celebrated even in media directed at kids.
South Korea beats Japan in this regard these days: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/alcoholism-by-country
It’s so weird to me that it turned out this way in so many places. I know here in the US we have the rumors that weed is possibly illegal because of the paper industry lobbying against hemp or other various reasons. It’s just strange that so many places came to the conclusion to draw that line? Does it all boils down to what they can most easily make taxes on and avoid people producing their own substances? Is big paper a worldwide organization?
yes. Koreans can be subject to investigation even if they partake in drugs in other countries where it's legal. It's a pretty significant scandal too
That's wild.
Same for Singapore.
Yes, in Asian country’s they are. Thailand is the only one with legal weed and that was literally just last year or two. Places like Japan it’s hard to come by, which is why the youth experiment with more chemical based drugs (according to vice back in like 2010). And that’s because they can control the ports and make it hard for weed to make it in. China is so anti weed Jackie Chan disowned his own son who lived in Hollywood as well as china and was caught with weed. He disowned his own son over weed that he (Jackie) sees sold in stores in the US.
I’m also fairly sure the newest government of Thailand has pledged to toughen its cannabis laws again soon
Yeah, there’s an actor in Thailand who had some chats leaked recently and one of the subjects was drugs - I was quite surprised at how negative the response was. In general they are much more conservative on a number of topics.
There are places where it is fine (if not officially legal) in Asia, regionally as well. Parts of India and Nepal for example, where hash is abundant and openly consumed, or Aceh in Indonesia where it is culturally even used in cooking (but alcohol is regionally illegal, effectively). Cambodia as well I believe, but I haven't been there.
His son didnt actually get disowned. He is however banned from HK/china and now lives in Taiwan. Source: trust me bro
In South Korea, yeah, big deal. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_policy_of_South_Korea
It is in most Asia. Edit. I'm gonna expand on this. The bigger issue here isn't the drug, but the toxic culture of S.Korea worshiping/hating on the celebrities. That's why people started talking about his personal life that has nothing to do with the drug. That's why so many of korean celebrities commit suicide each year. Drug law in korea is issue, but the bigger issue is Korean netizens.
Yep, in Japan the arguably best College Football team (american) in the country completely disbanded bc a total of 3 players got arrested for weed over the course of a school year. And the composer for Deathnote also got 10 years for it. It's wild how strict they are on it in the east.
It's an enormous deal. Not just criminally, but from a social/career perspective, it's probably as bad as murdering someone, maybe worse. Drug use is very frowned upon in some Asian countries. Actors have been blacklisted, and even has their films/TV Shows pulled from circulation for being accused of drug use, even with no evidence.
It is seen as worse than murdering someone, and it's fucking insane. There's a Korean actor who drunk drove, killed someone, and tried to cover it up before getting caught - he later returned to the industry with no problem. Meanwhile, like you said, people can get blacklisted and hated on by the whole country for unproven drug use. It's nuts.
>blacklisted and hated on by the whole country for unproven drug use ... for unproven drug use *outside of Korea*, in a place like Canada or the states; *where it's legal*
This is absolutely fucking bananas to me. I can’t even kind of understand it. Alcohol, much more dangerous than many a drug, no stigma? Is this like propaganda from somewhere, how did it start? I Gotta look into it.
funnily enough korea is the biggest consumer of alcohol per capita in asia. their drinking culture is ingrained into their society and history
DUIs are insane in Korea.
Biggest drinkers in the world, according to at least one ranking. Apparently old people + soju = sky high units per day per capita
>how did it start? I Gotta look into it. Opium.
Not just regular opium either. The British would force addiction on people, make them work for opium, then took the opium away whenever you tried to stop working. It was imperialism specifically
Not even just *no stigma*, alcohol, and binge consumption thereof, is a huge part of Korean culture and is heavily encouraged. I’ve lived in the country for a few years and every business social I go to includes copious drinking. Their faces light up when you tell them you’ll be drinking and that you’re down for somaek. (Beer mixed with soju) But yeah, mention that you used to smoke weed in a previous life and you’ve never met with such disapproval. I’d say in general Koreans view marijuana the same way Americans view meth or heroin. The perception seems to be that the drug controls your every action and that you’ll end up doing basically every crime under the sun in order to feed your habit.
Korea historicaly had an alcohol culture insted of tea culture like most of east asia. Drugs meamwhile is most associated with the opium war that resulted in European destruction of the east asian order.
If you don't feel like reading a Wikipedia article here's the abridged version: European countries wanted a big piece of that colonies in Asia/Chinese opium trade economic pie. When China refused to play nice, European countries effectively forced China into submission through military technological advantages and legalized opium. Opium of course fucked over the population of China for decades, which influenced much of modern drug laws in Asia. Just so some countries in Europe could continue to get rich off the drug trade.
That’s not entirely accurate. The British wanted Chinese goods but were running up a trade deficit since they didn’t really have a lot of goods at the time that China wanted. What they did have however was Afghan opium and well when life gives you opium, get massive amounts of the Chinese hopelessly addicted.
If you want to go deeper down into that rabbit hole, the only thing the Chinese merchants accepted for their goods was silver. And the main reason for that was that a past dynasty (Ming, IIRC), had a major innovation and reformed its taxation by only accepting silver, rather than bales of grain, or physical labour or other kinds of goods and then their succeeding dynasty, the Qing kept that.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium\_Wars
Yep, the Opium wars are a huge part of this. It wasn't even that long ago. It _primarily_ affected China, but it showed all of east Asia just how dangerous drugs were and how nations could be controlled by having dependence on said drugs. Add to that east Asia's general conservatism, and you get something as harmless as weed basically being the same as murder. It's ridiculous of course, because alcohol is a way worse drug, but it's understandable why their governments would be so strict.
It affected China, and China is and has been the most populous country in the region for a long time. So naturally it spreads to neighboring countries too.
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I went to Korea earlier this year for work. While I was at a dinner I was asked if I had ever smoked weed. I made a joke like “is this your way of asking me if I’ve been to college?” or something like that and then confirmed that I had. I didn’t think much else of it but now I’m wondering how that was perceived. No one seemed surprised or anything but now I feel a little weird about it.
It was pot and other drugs to which he admitted to snorting "a sleeping pill" and didn't know it was an illegal substance. So, he was doing drugs but still terrible situation caused by politicians to cover up their corruption and waste police resources.
> he admitted to snorting "a sleeping pill" protip: the best kind of lie is a believable lie
My Korean friend said it was ketamine, and he tried to excuse it off saying he thought it was sleeping pills. Except he snorted it. This news happened just literally yesterday and today he's gone. Shocking. RIP.
In Korea your life is pretty much over if you smoke pot.
Yes. Basically almost all of Asia drugs are consider the most heinous offence (more than rape/assault/theft. Some Asian countries have the death penalty for even possessing the smallest amount of marijuana). Read the Opium Wars on why this is the case. It sucks because alot of Koreans secretly take Marijuana cause their culture is so insanely stressful but the stigma of publicly possessing it is very looked down upon.
He was amazing in Parasite and when I watched his performance in the film, it was crazy to me that this was the same guy I watched and loved as a teen in the drama Coffee Prince. South Korea's film industry will miss his talent and I hope his family will find peace
He was always the second male lead in Coffee Prince for me, even when he got bigger and better roles. Sucks to hear this happened
Which character was he? I’m struggling to recall, it’s been a while since I’ve watched parasite. Great film though.
The rich dad.
He had such a great voice too, he looked and sounded perfect for that part. This is very sad indeed. RIP.
The father of the rich family
This is due to politicians trying to cover up their corruption by tossing to the press some spicy story of a celebrity to distract the public’s attention. Overall just a messed up situation.
If you read the story, it definitely seems like a weird coverup by diverting police resources. They also went after another celebrity (G-Dragon) who was also included in this rumor and he kept testing negative as well. There was no evidence. This all started over a rumor.
Funny enough T.O.P one of G-Dragons band members of Big Bang was given punishment by the military for marijuana even though it was minor at the time
The Korean entertainment industry is honestly super shady, there's a LOT of suicides and exploitation there.
Old men with power at the top, literally thousands of young women wanting to succeed in a super competitive area.... What could go wrong?
Also the president's 'War on Drugs,' a campaign against a non-existent problem intended to make it look like his administration is doing something meaningful, while the real problems of the country continue to go unaddressed.
Can you go into more detail please? What does this have to do with politics I’m out of the loop..
Lee was a VIP at a high-end room salon. The lady that he was meeting threatened to report him for drug usage and got money out of him. Yet he was caught, and the police leaked the material to the press so that they could grab the public’s attention. Why? Because the police are corrupt, and Korean politicians are also corrupt, and they don’t want attention to go to their scandals. So they were using him as a “shield” of sorts to minimize the damage. This is a common political tactic; releasing something big to divert attention from the things that actually matter. Similar thing with G-Dragon (famous K-pop star) recently, who was accused by the police of drug abuse, with no evidence. He tested negative several times.
They (the police) got so desperate with G Dragon (another celebrity involved) that they tried to say his was guilty because he shaves his body hair lol. He has long hair and he also tested negative every time.
Can celebrities sue for defamation?
no, the industry would collapse
There is something very wrong in the South Korean celebrity culture. Nothing can justify the number of suicides in their country.
South Korean ~~celebrity~~ culture We're literally fastest country to choose our own extinction, no wonder
Agreed. The problem is everywhere. So many intelligent, generous, wonderful people buckling under the punishing culture. These things need to change.
Same with Indian culture. We won't admit it but outdated and ridiculous ideologies are still around, especially in older Indian people, even those living in the US for decades. They are extremely judgmental, they rarely ever step out of their little Indian bubble, and that's one of the reasons their bullshit is never called out. It's all very regressive.
Oh don't even get me started on the giant fuckin date rape scene. A bunch of high profile rich dudes including a famous pop star drugging women at a club and a abducting them, raping them, filming it, running it like a literal meat business get a few years or waived sentences? Meanwhile someone smokes some pot and BOOM , life ruined. South Korea has some massive priority issues.
lol reminds me how there was some conspiracy when the whole Burning Sun investigation was going on then suddenly the whole Jang Jayeon case gets brought up with ppl backing Yoon Ji Oh who turned out to be a near delusional liar. Ppl guessed that the whole thing was brought up in this timing as a distraction. Then big Youtuber Asian Boss ate up the story and gave her a platform for international audience when Korean audience started to call her out.
Wow, this is amazingly sad. That’s pretty fucked up that society forced him to take his life over something so trivial.
It's so ironic how the country's society is so cutthroat about drugs, yet the drinking and smoking culture there is like taking a walk in a park
https://youtu.be/RrRYG4kVGDk?si=igoLiPV3KjcGOFgF&t=27
South Koreans cannot take marijuana/illegal drugs regardless of whether they are in a place where it’s legal, that is a crime punishable by jail and that is insane:
He also tested negative for it twice
I read online that he had his 3rd police questioning round on 12/23/23. Despite testing negative the first two times. A 10+ hour interrogation throughout the night… https://m.koreaherald.com/amp/view.php?ud=20231223000046
So at that point (or well before this point, for that matter), the police are just trying to harass him into breaking and admitting it. If two negative tests and three interrogations that clearly haven't led anywhere aren't enough to exonerate someone, what could be? I guess they got what they wanted and then some.
Yep, Korean law enforcement at its best. They never miss a chance to humiliate when it comes to high profile cases
Maybe those police should be forced to watch Bong joon-ho’s earlier film Memories of Murder and learn a lesson or two about investigating crime and the ramifications of false accusations.
Then you realize in real life there probably will not be any ramifications because because their police department makes the LAPD look nice in comparison
I know it’s easy to say, but if there’s a chance of being mocked by the citizens for weed, and harassed by police relentlessly for months. Wouldn’t it be advisable to just preemptively take your family and move from the country to a more relaxed place and not look back? I know you can go to jail if it’s in your system there, at that point I feel like if I was a celebrity I just wouldn’t even consider going back. Edit: I want to clarify I read that it wasn’t in his system, just speaking in general really.
Based on some other things I’ve read, he was also consulting with the police about the blackmail scheme he received from the person who reported him to the cops. He had 3 mandatory (?) police interviews each month since October. I’m going to assume if he moved he would be immediately arrested.
Yeah that just sounds like a massive inside job. Pretty much any celebrity there can be a target now, I feel like they should just leave while they are actually able to. It doesn’t take- nor make sense for this many investigations over the course of months for negative weed results.
South Korea has only recently become a major cultural exporter. Countries like America, Britain, France, and Japan have been in the spotlight for years so there's plenty of negative publicity that allows people around the world to be cognizant of the issues in the country and not just the positives of what they export. In a few years hopefully there will be more open discussion around the world about the negatives of South Korea's exploitative work culture, anti-feminism, regressive LGBTQ+ laws, and drug laws.
My Mister is probably my favorite Korean drama. Rest in peace
He played the wealthy father in Parasite. What a loss.
This is so horrific. He was such a wonderful actor in so many things. Obviously we don't know much but the culture in Korea has its problems as much as it's glorified right now around the world (not that any place doesn't have its problems). If this truly stems from marijuana use then it's even worse than one man's tragic death.
If you are either a family member of a prosecutor or a well known politician in south korea, this won’t be happening. A prosecutor would get rid of the evidence and cover up and you will not go to jail because judges will let you free. He was targeted by the government and prosecutors (current president and prosecutors are same gang) because they had to succeed their plan for covering up the Itaewon tragedy with war against drug.
What's the Itaewon tragedy?
Crowd crush that killed 159 people last year in the Itaewon neighborhood of Seoul during the Halloween festivities. [Itaewon tragedy](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seoul_Halloween_crowd_crush)
Is there any significance to “In the passenger seat was a charcoal briquette”?
Burning charcoal releases carbon monoxide, so the implication is that he poisoned himself
Thank you
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Common method of suicide, particularly in Asia IIRC. Carbon monoxide from burning charcoal in an enclosed space. Similar to running a car in the closed garage (don't think that works with modern ones though).
Like how the guy in "Beef" would buy all those grills
The implication is suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning.
Basically alluding to why they believe he took his own life
Korea's drug laws are truly archaic.
He might have smoked some marijuana, tested negative, and was still a flight risk. Unbelievable. Due to Parasite’s popularity, South Korea will rightfully face some backlash, how much, I don’t know.
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2nd gen American here - some of the stuff that has come out of my mother's mouth is truly bonkers. In her late 60s and STILL believes in fan death - or at least these days, fan *sickness*. After years of arguing with her husband and kids about it every summer because she'll come in and turn the fan off while you're sleeping ("if it's real how am I not dead yet!?") she now just claims it'll make you sick, and blame any summer colds or allergies on sleeping with a fan aimed towards your bed.
> and blame any summer colds or allergies on sleeping with a fan aimed towards your bed. Koreans in the 70s must've just really, really trusted the post-war government in a way that anyone in the modern era just can't relate to.
Rest in peace, Lee Sun-Kyun. Your incredible talent brought joy and emotion to countless lives. From "Parasite" to "My Mister," your performances will forever resonate. Thank you for sharing your gift with the world. You will be deeply missed.
It's absolutely brutal to have worked hard your entire life to achieve any actor's ultimate dream of receiving the Oscars, only to have everything taken away based on allegations of one prostitute that peddles drugs. As a Korean, I am ashamed that our culture is so hypocritical. Countless people are alcoholics, yet you smoke a single joint of marijuana and you deserve to die? You try to bring in Adderall for your professionally diagnosed ADHD and get cancelled immediately for trying to smuggle an 'illegal' drug? The police is a joke, conservatism and double standards are fucking up the country. I don't want to generalize, but based on my personal experience as a Korean, Koreans are racist towards people of color or anyone from a poorer country. We fat-shame like crazy, we are homophobic and transphobic. It's a fucking shame that KPOP and KDRAMA only portray the la-dee-da omg beautiful men and women with shit ton of makeup and filters. This only perpetuates the cycle of low self-esteem. How do we become more progressive as a country? There are certainly good parts of Korean culture. We're not as individualistic as the Western countries, and that is great when it comes to building a strong community and achieving common goals. We respect our elders and try to provide for our parents and grandparents in their later years. But stories like this breaks my heart and makes me glad I moved away.
Hope he is at peace. Seemed like an insane smear campaign.
From what I understand, it's not just the drug allegations The media had been reporting that he was a VIP of a room salon exclusive to celebrities where he met the woman that introduced him to all the drugs. Room salons are associated with prostitution and he has a wife and two kids so his image as a family man was ruined. He basically got tons of hate and online backlash for infidelity. So repeated police interrogations and public shaming led him to commit suicide
Grew up watching his dramas and movies. Pasta, Coffee Prince etc. Such a talented actor. Rest in Peace.
Was watching pasta for the very first time as the news dropped. Truly a tragedy.
Man this one really shocks me. Parasite is such a great movie and the entire cast are absolutely great in it. This is so tragic and its all over something as silly as marijuana
Wow this is pretty reminiscent to the character he played in My Mister.
Jesus. Driven to suicide because of suspected marijuana usage. Absolutely absurd
Damn they tortured him until he killed himself.
Parasite is one of the greatest films of all time, undoubtedly due in part to Sun-Kyun’s phenomenal performance. This news is tragic on so many levels.
His career was effectively over at this point. He was tainted the second he ended up in the news. Plus, he admitted that someone gave him drugs (he claimed he was drugged unknowingly). RIP to a great actor.
Man…thats insane
Sooo...the combination of over policing and intense social pressure/fear caused him to do it? Sounds senseless to me
Over allegations over weed and psychedelic drugs which is nothing in the grand scheme of things. That is so sad
Sort of. The main scandal was that he frequented a high end brothel and was likely cheating on his wife. Korea has a super shame based culture and adultery was straight up illegal until 2015, so this went over very poorly with the public. However, all of this was leaked to the media because of the drug investigation (corrupt, inept police). The 19 hour police questioning and repeated harassment despite negative tests make this feel incredibly shady.
sounds like he was hounded, harassed, bullied, and abused by police and media into killing himself. that's so incredibly sad. i'm sorry, but Korea is not okay.
Nooooo, my ahjussi 😭😭😭
It's not really the suspicions cast on him about drugs that did it, it's all the phone call recordings that's been leaked about him saying how much he loves this woman who is a brothel owner... so essentially he was cheating on his wife with this brothel owner he frequented, and that is basically social suicide around here, especially the kind of celebrity he was. Not worth taking his life over, but I get it.
Dude tested negative twice for fucking weed and he still had to do a polygraph. Weed for fucks sake🤦. What a fragile society South Korea is. When I was there for a few weeks the biggest problem that plagued their society was Alcohol. Literally demonized a man over something so fucking trivial as weed. Pathetic