This top male star is also going to be ruined by drugs?

This time

He may have "stepped on" the legal red line.

Authors: Chen Jiali, Tian Liang, Yu Chijiang

South Korea's top male stars face "collapse".

According to Korean media reports, 36-year-old South Korean actor Yoo Ah-jin was investigated by Seoul police on suspicion of repeatedly illegally using propofol.

At present, the police have collected Liu Yaren's hair and sent it to the National Scientific Search Institute of South Korea for drug identification. In addition, the police also took measures to restrict Liu Yaren's exit.

On February 8, Liu Yaren's brokerage company UAA issued an official statement in response, saying that Liu Yaren recently accepted the police investigation on propofol and "is actively cooperating with all investigations related to this, and will actively explain the problematic part, sorry to worry everyone."

Liu Yaren is not a "beautiful man" in the traditional sense. He is the youngest winner of the Blue Dragon Award and Baeksang Art Award in South Korea, and is also considered to be the "Needle of the Sea God" at the Korean box office.

Koreans have always loved and hated him. I love that he is not handsome enough but his acting skills are amazing, and I hate him for always "stepping on thunder" on various sensitive issues.

This time, he may be "stepping on" the legal red line.

Rebellious "acting"

Before his debut, Liu Yaren was a somewhat rebellious and withdrawn child. In high school, he majored in art, but dropped out because he felt depressed.

At the age of 18, Liu Yaren was discovered by scouts on the street and became a trainee as a singer.

However, after training for a long time, the company felt that he had no singing talent, so it put him aside to train other new generations. Liu Yaren, who was snubbed, saw that being a singer was hopeless, so he took on a youth growth drama called "Yulin Growth Diary", playing a small supporting role with almost no sense of existence.

Although the debut film was just "playing soy sauce", it made Liu Yaren realize his desire to perform. He began to ponder acting, watched a lot of movies, and figured out the movements and expressions of the actors.

Liu Yaren profile picture.

After his official debut, Liu Yaren took on some film and television dramas, and the response was not great.

In 2010, he played the male number two with a defiant appearance and a shy heart in the TV series "Sungkyunkwan Scandal". This is the first time he has challenged a multi-layered character. The audience spotted a new actor who performed restrained and accurately, labeling him as an "acting school".

"Sungkyunkwan Scandal" stills.

Liu Yaren's acting skills have improved all the way and were soon listed as one of the "Four Little Students of Zhongwu Road", but his works are not as good as one.

"Fashion King" is rough and the response is mediocre. In "Jang Yuzhen: Born for Love", he partnered with the vase beauty Kim Tae-hee, and there were few sparks.

I finally came across a TV series "Secret Meeting" with good scripts, directors and actors, but because it was about the "yearless love" of the classical music industry, it lacked a mass base and soon drowned in many idol dramas.

In the same period, Kim so-hyun and Song Joong-ki have all starred in blockbuster movies, only Liu Yaren has always been in an embarrassing state of having acting skills and no good drama.

This state lasted for two years, until he met the two movies "Veteran" and "Mourning", poured years of depression into these two roles, and finally lived his inferiority with low self-esteem.

On November 26, 2015, Liu Yaren defeated Song Kanghao of the same drama to win the Blue Dragon Award for Best Actor with the role of Shizi in "Mourning".

A still from the movie "Mourning".

In the same year, the movie "Veteran" starring him won the annual box office championship in South Korea, and at the same time won the third highest box office result in Korean film history at that time.

"Veteran" stills.

In the "Most Anticipated Actor in the Next Decade" selected by the Korean media that year, Liu Yaren ranked first. Some netizens even called 2015 the "Year of Liu Yaren".

At the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, the movie "Burning" sent Liu Yaren to the "international stage".

It is said that "Burning" was like a fire that "lit" the premiere scene. After the screening, the applause of the audience lasted for more than 5 minutes.

After the score of the main competition unit, "Burning" became the top seed contestant for the award, and Liu Yaren, one of the protagonists of the film, was also regarded as the favorite candidate for best actor.

Although Liu Yaren eventually passed the Cannes Prize, many people thought that it was just because he was not lucky enough.

A still from the movie "Burning".

In October 2020, Liu Yaren won the Best Actor at the Blue Dragon Film Award again with the crime thriller "Silent".

Just didn't expect that Liu Yaren, who was in the limelight, would "pour" in front of propofol.

Korean media said that although the final investigation results have not yet been announced, the incident may have a considerable impact on Liu Yaren.

The film and television series "Victory and Defeat" and "The Last Fool" that he participated in were originally scheduled to be launched on Netflix this year. On February 9, Netflix said it would discuss related issues after understanding the situation.

This afternoon, the official Weibo of the sketch brand under Hangzhou Jiangnan Cloth Clothing and Accessories Co., Ltd. issued a notice: announcing the termination of the contract with Liu Yaren.

Liu Yaren profile picture.

"Milk needles" are abused

What kind of drug is propofol that Liu Yaren is suspected of illegally using?

"Propofol is actually a general intravenous anesthetic drug, which can put people to sleep for a short time, and is mostly used for clinical anesthesia, painless gastrointestinal endoscopy, painless abortion, and use in intensive care wards." Professor Fan Bifa, director of the pain department of China-Japan Hospital and president of the pain physician branch of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association, told the "Global People" reporter.

It is understood that because this drug is milky white liquid and similar in appearance to milk, it is commonly known as "milk needle".

Fan Bifa said that after the patient was injected with propofol, he slept quickly and woke up relatively quickly, which may cause some people to have special pleasure. The effect is very different from morphine-like drugs.

The consequences of propofol abuse are serious.

"Too much and too fast administration may lead to respiratory depression and even sudden death of the patient, and individuals must not inject casually." Fan Bifa said that for whatever purpose, propofol should only be used in anesthesiology and intensive care wards.

Propofol can cause temporary respiratory depression and circulatory depression. Its drug insert also states: For patients with heart, respiratory, renal or liver damage or patients with reduced and weakened circulating blood volume, the use of propofol injection should be cautious.

The culprit who took the life of superstar Michael Jackson that year was believed to be propofol. Maury, Jackson's personal doctor, admitted that he had injected 25ml of propofol at Jackson's repeated requests. This may have been the predisposing factor for Jackson's sudden death from a heart attack.

In South Korea, the "special effect" of propofol has been circulating since 2009, mainly in the entertainment industry.

According to the Chinese Journal of Pharmacy, Medication and Health, most Korean artists come into contact with and inject propofol during cosmetic surgery.

According to the report, artists work chaotically, often stay up late, and pay more attention to plastic surgery than ordinary people, so many people can't resist the temptation of propofol. Some cosmetic surgeons and dermatologists use propofol when performing laser or high-frequency wave skin facelifts, or injecting carbon dioxide into adipose tissue to lose weight.

At the time, propofol was not yet classified as a drug in South Korea, and it was rumored that propofol "eliminates fatigue and is harmless," leading to its uncontrolled use.

In order to prevent abuse, in 2011, the Korea Food and Drug Certification Agency determined that propofol is a "psychotropic drug" and is strictly prohibited for use other than therapeutic purposes, and violators will be prosecuted for drug abuse.

According to South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo, illegal use of propofol psychotropic drugs is punishable by up to 10 years in prison or a fine of up to 100 million won (about 540,000 yuan).

The Korean entertainment industry "drug" chaos

However, legislation still failed to stop the abuse of propofol in the Korean entertainment industry.

Just 3 years ago at this time, in February 2020, the famous South Korean movie star Ha Jung-woo, who has won "Best Actor" many times for films such as "Horror Live", was investigated by the police for drug use. He also had a hand left behind to use propofol in a plastic surgery hospital in his brother's name.

Ha Jung-woo plays a TV host in "Horror Live".

At the time, his company explicitly denied his drug use, and his lawyer explained that he was only injecting propofol for skin treatment on the advice of a doctor.

As the investigation unfolded, it wasn't until more than a year later that he and his lawyers admitted in court that he had illegally injected propofol without medical need. In the end, the court fined him 30 million won (about 160,000 yuan).

In addition, Park Shi-yeon, who played the Three Madonna in the Chinese TV series "Pauline Lantern", has injected propofol 185 times since 2011.

Park Si-yeon plays the Three Madonna in "Pauline Lantern".

In 2013, Park Shi-yeon, Lee Seung-yeon, Rose Ren-ae and other popular stars were found to have injected drugs for a long time and were sentenced by the court to 2 years in prison with a 2-year reprieve.

South Korea once called itself a "drug-clean country," meaning that the number of drug-related crimes per 100,000 people was no more than 20. The term was also used in a 2014 report by the Korea Criminal Policy Institute.

After 2015, the number of drug crimes in South Korea increased significantly. Later, South Korea could no longer call itself a "drug-free country" and a "drug-free country."

By 2020, South Korean police arrested as many as 18,000 drug-related suspects, which means that there are 28 drug offenders per 100,000 people, and drugs are spreading rapidly.

Drug use is often accompanied by other crimes.

Lee Shengli, a member of the popular Korean boy group Bigbang, has opened a number of nightclubs, the most famous of which is "Burning Sun". At the beginning of 2019, South Korean media exposed "Burning Sun" as suspected of organizing prostitution, drug trafficking, bribery of police and the National Tax Agency.

At first, Li Shengli's YG Company said that he did not participate in the actual operation of the nightclub and was an innocent victim. The results investigation showed that not only was he involved, but the scale of the case was far larger than people thought.

SBS TV exposed the mobile phone chat records of Li Shengli and a number of popular boy group artists. They insulted women in a chat group called the "Old Driver Group": "Let's simulate the plot of those movies that sexually assault women in the car!" "Didn't you already do that before?" The chat is unpleasant.

The incident also alarmed then-President Moon Jae-in. In March 2019, after hearing reports of several cases, he said: "The procuratorate and the police want to gamble on the reputation of the organization and thoroughly investigate the truth!" ”

In June 2021, Li Shengli was sentenced to one year and six months in prison on nine charges. According to Korean media reports, Li Shengli was released from prison this morning, two days earlier than the original date.

A South Korean nightclub DJ who has been in the industry for many years told the "Global People" reporter that nightclubs used to be a place to discover good music, but now they are overcapitalized, making it a place to evaluate customers' appearance or financial resources. Especially in recent years, the emergence of some social cases suspected of violence, sex crimes, tax evasion, drug addiction and other social cases has made Korean society's attitude towards nightclub culture more negative.

South Korean drug stars are far more than the people mentioned in the article. In recent years, there have been reports of celebrity drug use in South Korea every year.

On January 29 this year, Korean media reported that in 2022, South Korean police arrested more than 12,000 drug traffickers alone, breaking the highest historical record. South Korean Prosecutor General Lee Won-suk recently admitted that compared with five years ago, the number of drugs seized in South Korea has increased by 8 times.

In such a grim situation, entertainment stars, as public figures, should guard the bottom line instead of stepping on the "red line".

Director system: Lv Hong

Producer: Zhang Jiankui

Editor-in-chief: Xu Chenjing

Editor: Su Rui   

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