How am I supposed to root for someone who, when he was outside the script, exploited a vulnerable girl who was a teenager when they first met? Dude hid himself from the public for 3 whole weeks before he would even hold a press conference. And he only held one because the advertisers were pressuring him to make a statement. He was legally bound to do so. That was his one chance at explaining himself and he blew it completely. All he did was cry, rambled about how he was such a huge star, as if he was above everyone else. The fame really went to his head. And just because he thought his fans loved to see him cry in his dramas, he thought he could employ the same tactic in real life? The masses aren't idiots, bro. Except his fans.
He pressured a young woman be crushed by debt she couldn't possibly repay. Nevermind that his company loaned her that amount, are you so in need of money that he couldn't even extend her time? Why did he have to make her sign a contract where she agreed to repay 700 million won in one year? She thought she would be able to repay that amount if she got some acting jobs, but what did he do? He refused to renew her contract! So where is she going to get that money to repay him?? Would he be able to pay 700 million won if he was broke?
Studies have shown that groomed kids become troubled adults. The narcissism of dating a child hailed by the industry as an acting prodigy, thinking she could "match" him, and then discarded her when she became an adult. Ghosted her completely when she got into a DUI, all the while sending her legal notices.
The plot of this drama doesn't matter because the person carrying it has no moral standing. Every scene feels tainted. Skip it.
ACTING/CAST
Performances are irrelevant when the main actor spent weeks hiding before finally holding a press conference while his PR team and hired shill like Lee Jin Ho manufactured fake videos, where his depraved fans viciously attacked a dead woman. And the only acting he did at that press conference fell short. How did this guy even receive all those awards?
The rest of the cast needs their pay and royalties, I get it. Sucks to be them to be stuck with a problematic person like this, but they said nothing other than looking out for themselves. "Oh please air this, everyone worked so hard."
Why doesn't the cast find issue with the one person who ruined this? How did people treat Sae Ron when she had her DUI?
They blamed her for everything but here, no one even blamed the one guy who had caused something this serious. LMAO.
Watching them pretend to be decent people on screen is nauseating.
South Korea, how could you call yourself a modern and democratic country when your behaviour towards women are stuck in the Korean 3 Kingdoms and Silla era?
MUSIC
Even if the songs were good, you'd have to separate art from an main actor who has shown zero remorse for all the things he had done to a poor girl. Love bombed her at 15, wrote an inappropriate letter to her at 17, sending her selfies, bombarded her with pictures from the military, and then discarding her like a used cum bag. Don't bother. Mute it all.
REWATCH VALUE
Zero. Less than zero. There's no watch value in this, let alone a rewatch value. Once you know what happened behind the scenes, every episode becomes a reminder of how the South Korean entertainment industry protects powerful men and buries victims. Literally. Scrub it from your watch history. The only valuable thing you can do with this drama is never click play in the first place.
The internet doesn't forget the letter he wrote her. The late night dakdoritang escapade, when he supposedly had a girlfriend? And yet he spent his military leave day with an underage Saeron? His hags can claim all sorts of things but he's the adult here. He's the one who should've drawn boundaries, and yet he invited her, ate her food, sang "YOU ARE THE ONE" (which was the OST for The Moon Embraces the Sun btw or The Sun Embraces the Moon, who tf cares, I never even watched that drama). Lying about all sorts of things, crying 3 weeks later after the scandal broke, whining 6 months after the scandal about how he actually had a girlfriend, that there was no way he was able to meet her because he was in a "DMZ area" during his military training days, or that he was filming that flopped movie REAL and hence it was impossible for him to have met her - all these are lies.
If he had gotten special permission to use his phone, he'd likely would've gotten approved. Everyone knows the military issues special treatment and societal hierarchy is real. It's not even a secret in South Korea. South Korea's military has a history of controversies around special treatment for celebrities, the wealthy, or well-connected individuals. This issue has been widely reported for years and accepted as facts. This guy lmfao was 30 when he enlisted, he's likely one of the most senior recruits in his team, everyone would've called him 'hyung', who would bully him? A 30-year-old celebrity recruit would likely be treated with deference by most peers due to age alone, plus fame/wealth adding another layer.
"I-I had a girlfriend! There was no way I'd love another girl!" the main actor cried through his SNS lawyer, and yet according to his official agency's so-called timeline, he started dating Saeron when she was 19, in the summer of 2019. That's exactly when he was discharged from the military. So there was this girl he loved so much in the military, but he broke up with her as soon as he was discharged so he could date Saeron? Is this not problematic? Not to mention he spent his military leave days with Saeron and not with his girlfriend. Not to mention that he spent 730+ days in the military but he wrote just 150 diary entries for this so-called ghost girlfriend which he never sent, only "showed" it to her? LMAO who would believe this? Only his fans.
Another scene he loved to play was how he was filming the flopped movie REAL, claiming he had no time to see her and publishing a pre-shooting plan for everyone to see. That was not an audited and verified DPR. It was a pre-shooting plan. By then the director for that film had been changed to Lee Jae Hyun aka Lee Sarang his cousin (alleged half brother) so if he said "Hey bro, I need to take a few hours off, I'll come back right away and film!" why would his own relative say no? On that film set, who's on top of the hierarchy? HIM AND HIS BRO. Who would go against them? His excuses are flimsy shit and he's a total monster who used a 12 billion won lawsuit to intimidate and silence the victim's family, draining them of financial resources because he knew they could not afford to fight a long legal battle like he can.
Why would anyone continue to support this trash is beyond me. Unless you're also a pedo defender.
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