"You moved away, who will take care of my mother?"
This was originally just a question that seemed a bit overbearing, but placed in the presence of a 65-year-old South Korean man, Choi Sang-ki (pseudonym), became a reason to kill.
In 2019, after asking this sentence to his wife Park Chae-young (pseudonym), he did not hesitate to strangle his wife, who had been with him for 35 years and had just been completely healthy because of cancer.
After this matter was publicly reported, it caused great social repercussions, and also exposed the fact that the status of women in traditional Korean society is extremely unfair.
One
In 2019, 59-year-old Park Chae-young was diagnosed with breast cancer after going to the hospital for an examination because she felt unwell.
She and her husband have been married for 35 years and have never gone out to work, but they have kept the house in order, so the relationship between the husband and wife has always been harmonious.
Graphics and text have nothing to do with each other
But after discovering that his wife was sick, her husband, Choi Sang-ki, remained sullen - not because he was worried about his wife's health, but because he felt that once his wife fell ill, there would be no one to worry about the family's affairs.
But fortunately, although Park Chae-young is not working, she has been paying for medical insurance.
So after she fell ill, she received an insurance benefit, which eased the family's financial pressure.
Stills from "Kim Ji-young in 1982"
In March, she started treatment, and everything was satisfactory and her condition was improving.
However, the doctor reminded Park Chaeyoung that he must pay more attention to rest and not be too tired.
Considering that living with the elderly and children would inevitably worry about various trivial matters, Park Chae-young decided to temporarily move out of her home in Seoul and rent an apartment in Gangwon Province to recuperate.
The reason why Park Chae-young chose Gangwon Province is also because he is good for his condition, and hopes that he will get better as soon as possible and be able to continue to run the house.
But for her decision, her husband Choi Sang-ki is completely incomprehensible, and he feels that his wife's decision to move out of the house is very selfish:
In addition to the additional expenses required to rent a house, what is more important is that after the wife leaves the house, the chores of the family are left unattended, especially if her mother, who is in her 80s, really needs to be taken care of.
Stills from "Kim Ji-young in 1982"
But as a husband, Choi Sang-ki never considered that Park Chae-young, who was ill at this time, was the one who needed the most care.
As a result, the two had several heated arguments.
Two
On June 21, 2019, Choi Sang-ki came to his wife's rented apartment after making sure that Park Chae-young really did not plan to move back home.
After the two met, a more fierce quarrel broke out, during which Cui Shangji questioned his wife many times:
"You moved away, who will take care of my mother?"
"Why did you come out to rent a house?"
"Where did you get the money to move out?"
Park Chae-young, who had been putting up with her husband, finally broke out under his pressure, and she roared angrily: "This money is the insurance money I got after breast cancer surgery, this is my own money, what does it have to do with you?" ”
This sentence also completely angered Cui Shangji, who lost his mind and grabbed his wife's throat and kept pressing questions: "You moved away, who will take care of my mother?" ”
Graphics and text have nothing to do with each other
Although Park Chae-young, who has been with her for 35 years, kept begging for mercy while being strangled by the neck: "Help, let me go!" ”
But Choi Sang-ki never let go until he strangled Park Chae-young, who was still ill, alive.
Seeing his wife motionless, Choi Sangji realized that he had made a big mistake, but he had no chance to regret it.
Just because Park Chae-young wanted to move out to recuperate independently and kill the killer, Choi Sang-ki was also desperate and wanted to commit suicide to apologize.
But after several attempts, he did not have the courage to seek death, and finally chose to turn himself in and confess everything to the police.
According to Cui Shangji himself, it was because his wife said "I spend my own money, what does it have to do with you", which made him completely lose his mind, and finally ended up ruined.
Stills from "Kim Ji-young in 1982"
The case was finally heard over a period of six months, with a final decision reached at the end of that year.
Because Choi Sang-ki deliberately strangled Park Chae-young, according to South Korean law, the maximum sentence is 30 years.
But considering that he has been conscientiously making money to support his family for 35 years since he married Park Chae-young, the killing is also the result of emotional out-of-control, and Choi Sang-ki has been blaming himself and regretting it.
In the end, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Three
Despite this, this result has not been recognized by the South Korean public.
Most netizens left messages on the Internet and cursed: "Your wife is also your mother's baby, you didn't feel sorry for her cancer, but you want to kill her because she can't take care of your mother?" ”
"You scumbag, why on earth are you married? Is it just because there is no money to hire a babysitter? ”
In fact, the personality of Korean housewives is generally very docile, which is due to the generally high status of men - whether in society or in the family, they are basically in a dominant position.
And in the workplace, their predecessors have a clear relationship, and the predecessors are quite domineering, so the juniors are often humiliated, resulting in nowhere to be angry, and they will go home to vent on their wives.
Korean men do not allow their wives to dye their hair, even cut their hair, nor allow them to pierce their ears and get tattoos, and more importantly, women have to take care of all the housework in family life without any feedback and help, and men take it all for granted.
This is also the main reason why Park Chae-young wanted to move out to live because of her illness, but she was fiercely opposed by her husband - because she moved out, all the housework at home, it can be said that no one did it.
In the year that Park Chae-young was killed, there was a blockbuster movie in South Korea: "Kim Ji-young born in 82".
The film tells the story of Kim Ji-young, an ordinary Korean woman in her 30s, who is under great pressure in a depressing life.
But the heroine of this story, Kim Ji-young, is actually very lucky, after all, she has a happy native family, and the husband she meets is also warm.
It's just that after the broadcast of this drama, it caused great controversy in South Korea, and the evaluation of male and female audiences showed a polarized situation.
Female readers expressed the following feelings:
"As long as you are a woman living in the Republic of Korea, you can always find yourself in a book."
At the end of the same year, the author of the book, Cho Nam-ju, released a new book, "Her Name Is", which condenses the real experiences of more than 60 women in South Korea.
One of them, 68-year-old housewife Zhen Sook, once said in her story:
"I am my father's daughter, my husband's wife, my children's mother, and now Soobin's grandmother... So where is my own life? ”
Perhaps, this sentence was also once the words of Park Chae-young, who was strangled by her husband, and has not yet had a chance to say it.