Recently, Tomato-kun learned another shocking thing: Moon Bin, a member of the popular Korean boy group ASTRO, passed away.
According to Korean media reports, at about 8 p.m. on April 19, Wen Bin was found dead at his home in Seoul by his agent, and the police said that Wen Bin's death was preliminarily judged to be suicide.
Wen Bin, born in 1998, is just 25 years old this year, debuted in February 2016, and has starred in several youth idol dramas, but more energy is on singing.
Wen Bin is also widely known to Chinese audiences, he also has a sister named Wen Xiuya, Wen Xiuya is also a trainee, is a member of the Korean girl singing and dancing group Billlie, not long ago the popular Korean drama "The Little Son of the Chaebol" OST "Like a star", she sang.
Xiuya once said that whenever she was sad, she would call her brother, and now when she learns the news of her brother's death, what kind of sadness Xiuya should be.
And April 20, or Wen Bin's mother's birthday, is a great blow to the fans who turned the meeting into a memorial service, or the mother who received the news of her son's death on her birthday.
While immersed in sadness, I believe everyone has also found a rule: Korean idol, seems to have become a real "high-risk occupation", we often hear the news of Korean celebrity suicide, which has become the most common social problem in South Korea.
In the past 10 years, more than 30 celebrities in South Korea have committed suicide, including actresses, and in 2019 alone, three well-known actresses, Choi Shirley, Goo Hara, and Jeon Sun-mi, committed suicide.
Just on April 11, 2023, Zheng Cailu also left us.
Of course, among the stars who committed suicide, there are not a few male stars, in addition to Moon Bin, there are Kim Ji-hoon, who committed suicide in 2013, and Kim Jong-hyun, the male star who committed suicide in 2017, and so on.
According to our understanding, the society of celebrities is very high, generally have a lot of income, a good life, various assistants hug each other, fans are crowded, think that their life will not be difficult, let alone fall into the situation of suicide.
But why do so many celebrities commit suicide in South Korea? Why does becoming an idol, become a high-risk profession in Korea?
As far as Tomato Jun's understanding of Korean society and the entertainment industry is concerned, there are essentially three reasons why Korean stars have become high-risk, and why Han Xing will end his life in an extreme way such as suicide:
The first reason is that there are layers of involvement, economic constraints, no freedom, and extreme pressure to survive
Some people say that there are two kinds of stars in the world, one is Korean star and the other is other stars.
This statement sounds exaggerated, but in fact it is not without reason.
People who are familiar with the world's entertainment culture should know that Hallyu has a strong influence in the world, and we summarized earlier, among the most beautiful faces of the world's "top 100" male stars and actresses rated by Europe and the United States, Asian stars are basically monopolized by Hanxing, which can also show the strength of Hallyu.
When we see that the top of the pyramid is full of Han stars, it basically proves that under the entire pyramid, there are countless low-level stars and trainees "running".
The reason why Hallyu can lead the world trend is inseparable from two characteristics.
The first is the monopoly of Korean entertainment culture.
In South Korea, there are three pillar industries of the economy: electronics, tourism and entertainment.
In recent years, South Korea's tourism industry has suffered serious losses; In terms of electronics, electronic industry giants such as Samsung have also been affected by electronic products from other countries.
The most profitable thing in South Korea today is the entertainment industry.
The rise and fall of South Korea's entertainment industry is related to the lifeblood of South Korea's national economy, and this sentence is not alarmist, in 2018, South Korea's cultural industry output was 93 billion US dollars, accounting for 6.7% of GDP.
Today, South Korea's annual exports of the entertainment industry alone account for 15% of GDP, which shows the importance of the Korean entertainment industry.
And there are many stars in China, from Korean trainees, such as Zhang Yixing, Song Qian, Lu Han, Huang Zitao (from SM Company) and so on.
But South Korea's entertainment industry is basically monopolized by four entertainment giants, which are JYP, CJ, SM, and YG. The positive result of monopoly is, of course, the relative development of the industry, but its negative impact is greater, manifested in the stars, that is, endless oppression.
This brings us to the second characteristic: the suffering of Korean trainees.
In South Korea, it is very difficult to become an idol, because of the monopoly of the industry, South Korea has a very mature star-making process. Because Korean young people are emerging in an endless stream, Han Xing's output basically comes from the ultimate involution.
Wang Ziwen once cried in an interview about his experience as a trainee in South Korea. After going to South Korea, I had to practice every day, from 8 a.m. to 1 a.m., not only to practice, but also to be strictly controlled, and if there was a mistake, it would be punished, or punished for doing push-ups for 2 hours, and shouting slogans while doing it, "I will do better", until the other party is satisfied.
Wang Ziwen mentioned that what he was most afraid of was going to the toilet, because the entire leg was bruised and injured, and he couldn't squat, and the most basic physiological activity became the most difficult "practice".
In this way, Wang Ziwen said that he wanted to pack his bag and go home every minute, crying every time he called.
And the brief state during Wang Ziwen's practice period is almost the daily life of every Korean trainee.
Because the training process is very mature, the trainers have a high status, and their words are the golden rule for trainees to follow, and it is common for them to train strictly for more than ten hours a day and accept various punishments.
But even so, it does not mean that they will succeed, there are very few talented players who can stand out from rigorous training, and after going through such a way as the draft, the agency will select the best children through selection activities, and then immediately enter the internship period and start a new round of training.
Some of the trainees in this group will debut in a few months to get their first salary as an idol, while some will survive for five or six years or even longer, and will not enter the stage of actual income.
In the mainland, stars after their debut will have a lot of income as long as they get traffic, but this is not the case in South Korea.
Because of the monopoly position of entertainment chaebols, most artists will sign an "unequal contract" with them after their debut, this contract is something they cannot refuse, and those who generally refuse the contract will be completely hidden or blocked, basically saying goodbye to the road of stardom.
This contract, which generally starts at 10 years, generally stipulates that the artist needs to repay a "huge amount" to the company, similar to training fees, and only after the repayment is completed, can he sign a sharing agreement with the company.
The proportion of the share is generally seven or three, that is to say, seventy percent of the artist's income must be handed over to the company, and three percent will be kept for himself.
You know, Kim Dongwan, who was popular at the time, bought a very ordinary apartment for his parents 7 years after his debut, which shows the oppression of artists by Korean entertainment companies.
Most of these contracts are "deeds of sale", because the contract stipulates various terms, and incidentally, there are sky-high liquidated damages. For some little-known artists, the liquidated damages are about 300 million won (1.5 million yuan), while the famous Han Xing, the general liquidated damages are more than 20 billion won (about 10 million yuan).
This means that once the contract is signed, the artist will basically become a "bonded worker", and if they want to resign and leave, the sky-high liquidated damages will make them prohibitive.
Because of this, most artists in South Korea cannot refuse some of the excessive demands of entertainment companies.
According to South Korean media estimates, Liu Yaren, who was previously terminated for drug use, is speculated to pay more than 5 billion won (26.5 million yuan) in liquidated damages, which could be as high as 10 billion if claims are added.
These are also one of the important reasons why Korean stars are stressed, easily depressed, subjected to suppression and mental torture, and commit suicide at every turn.
The second reason is that the competition is cruel, the status is low, and it is easy to be attacked by the Internet
Korean entertainment stars, even after their debut, have very cruel competition.
South Korea's population is not large, more than half of them live in the Seoul economic circle, the market is so large, so South Korea's idols are working hard to gain maximum popularity.
But Korean stars don't earn much, even if they work around the clock.
Zhang Nara once revealed that in order to increase exposure, during the break in filming, he needed to run announcements, record variety shows, shoot advertisements, participate in meetings and various commercial activities, eat and sleep, only on vehicles or planes and other means of transportation, when the work is the hardest, sleeping two or three hours a day is a common thing.
Without enough sleep and rest, Korean stars, especially those who are not well-known, are exhausted at work every day, have almost no free time, and in the long run, the mental pressure increases, and they cannot resign like ordinary workers, and their mental health will be damaged.
Of course, just the pressure of work, most stars will not be driven to the brink of suicide, the cruelty that Korean stars really face, as well as the humble social status and the online violence of keyboard warriors.
Korean stars, especially Korean actresses, do not have a high social status. Behind the seemingly glamorous appearance, it is actually full of various unspoken rules, power transactions and even inhuman treatment.
In August 2011, the Korean artist who shocked the world's entertainment industry secretly filmed and leaked, which made people realize for the first time the evil of the Korean entertainment industry ecology.
Because the value created by South Korean chaebols exceeds 80% of South Korea's GDP every year, chaebols have supreme power in South Korea.
South Korea's leadership campaigns are generally sponsored by chaebols, and in order to build good relations with business and political circles, South Korean brokerage companies will not refuse the chaebols' requests for actresses to sleep with alcohol, which is an open secret in South Korea.
Signed a contract, especially actresses without any background, if they are not from the brokerage company threatened to beat, some are even forcibly sent to the big guy.
South Korea has made a set of statistics, 45.3% of Korean actresses, have been asked to accompany alcohol, 62.8% of actresses, have been asked to "sexual reception", of which only 48.4% of actresses explicitly refused, but then, their careers have completely fallen into a trough, and the economy has suffered huge losses.
Because of this kind of actress who committed suicide by trading unspoken rules, we should be most familiar with Zhang Ziyan and Li Eunzhu.
Zhang Ziyan committed suicide in 2009, and before committing suicide, she left a long suicide note, unveiling the shady scene in the Korean entertainment industry. She cried in her suicide note that she was even forced to attend the reception occasion for several days for her parents, and once she was tricked into going to the hotel and found that there were 4 men, which made her feel devastated on the spot.
In order to make Zhang Ziyan better serve the big guys, the agency even made her undergo sterilization surgery, and between 2005 and 2009, she was forced to sleep with 31 people, including large business owners, senior news media officials, showbizers and politicians.
Li Eunzhu committed suicide in 2005, she looked pure, but suddenly began to shoot large-scale films, and later Li Eunzhu committed suicide, only then did the news media reveal that she was forced to shoot.
Not only that, Li Eunzhu was also taken away by the chaebols, sexually assaulted for 8 hours until he was bruised all over his body, which was shocking.
Even though Zhang Ziyan's suicide note clearly wrote about her experience before her death, her justice has not been upheld so far, and 570,000 people in South Korea have requested a reinvestigation of Zhang Ziyan's case, but the big guy just said "I am not familiar with Zhang Ziyan" and retreated.
Later, the South Korean court even ruled that Zhang Ziyan's suicide note was not written by herself, so it had no legal effect.
From this point of view, in South Korea, where the chaebols are in charge, it is almost impossible to redress grievances.
It is precisely because of this that the South Korean chaebols abuse actresses even more brazenly.
Incredibly, on the one hand, actresses are asked for various receptions; On the other hand, in South Korea, where there is a serious antagonism between men and women, they are morally bound to the extreme.
Most female artists are inferior in life, and the slightest mistake will be abused by Korean netizens.
In South Korea, there is a very harsh phenomenon of online violence, keyboard warriors will use the Internet to vent their dissatisfaction, female artists as long as the performance is not to their liking, will be attacked on the Internet.
In 2018, there were as many as 15,926 cases of reputational damage and insult crimes caused by online violence in South Korea, and the well-known Cui Xueli, Gu Hara, Liu Eunzhu, Song Youting, and Cui Zhenzhen all suffered from a large number of online violent remarks, and suffered from severe depression leading to suicide under the pressure of public opinion.
South Korean netizens will use the form of "moral judges" to specifically select actresses who have gossip scandals or starred in large-scale movies to carry out organized online violence, and even threaten their real lives.
Those actresses who have suffered unfair treatment are often greeted by extreme online violence, which has mostly become the last straw that crushes their psychological defenses, and eventually leads to the occurrence of extreme choices.
Reason 3: South Korea's "suicide culture"
Han Xing's suicide is not a specific phenomenon in the specific group of "Korean stars".
Because celebrities are well-known, information about their suicides is easy for us to obtain, but in fact, in South Korea, the problem of suicide has long been very serious.
In the past 10 years, South Korea has often ranked in the top three in the world's suicide rate rankings and tied for first place in Asia.
South Korea is the third largest in the 2023 global suicide rate ranking, with nearly 300,000 South Koreans choosing to end their lives by suicide every year.
South Korea's Mapo Bridge is full of encouraging slogans, because this bridge, famous for enjoying the night view of Seoul, is a veritable "suicide bridge", and many Koreans choose to end their lives here.
South Korea's small population, overtime culture prevails, from study to work, the ultimate involution, strict social hierarchy, pressure from all aspects of social life, so that Koreans are physically and mentally exhausted, extremely stressful, it is easy to cause depression, thus giving up the idea of life.
The survival ecology of Korean stars in the entertainment industry is only a concrete embodiment of the social environment.
This suicide of Wen Bin once again sounded the alarm for South Korea, but South Korea is not unaware of the problem of suicide, but always likes the ostrich mentality, because in South Korea, by the strength of individuals, this phenomenon will be difficult to change.
(Movie Rotten Tomatoes Editorial Office: Miao Miao)