Over on SeoulBeats, the story is coming out that the late Jang Ja-yeon, the deceased supporting actor in “Flowers Before Boys” committed suicide because of rape and other kinds of abuse at the hands of entertainment industry executives. She left behind a handwritten account of her dealings with them, and it’s a sordid history.
And yes, she named names. The police haven’t yet released those names, but here’s hoping that this doesn’t get swept under the rug. Her manager is in the hospital after a suicide attempt of his own, according to the Soulbeats article. Interesting.
It’s tragic, and heartbreaking that it takes a suicide for something like this to come to the public eye. For Ms. Jang’s sake, let’s hope that this leads to a serious house-cleaning in the entertainment industry, and wish that some living performers and entertainers would be brave enough to step forward with their own stories, to make sure that the jerk-heads who treat other humans like property get what they deserve.
With this kind of a story making it to news sources, rather than getting swept under the rug, along with the public humiliations of higher-up executives in other major Korean companies (Lee Geon-hee, disgraced CEO of Samsung being the biggest name on the list). These days, it seems like those who have a lot of money and power are no longer getting away with as much as they used to. Let’s hope this trend toward actual transparency continues, and that more of the people who keep Korea from doing better than 40th on the Transparency International Corruption Perception list, and who treat the people around them like trash, get bumped out of their positions.
15/03/2009 at 9:31 pm Permalink
The plot sickens.
16/03/2009 at 12:22 am Permalink
It’s gross, but I’m glad it’s out in the open, for…what might be the first time.
17/03/2009 at 12:21 am Permalink
Y’know, any time this kind of celebrity-cum-prostitute story circulates (usually as hearsay and rumour), why is it that Lee Geon-hee’s name is always associated with it? He’s been linked with some big names, too. Kim Hye-soo, Jeon Do-yeon, and I believe Jeon Ji-hyun, too.
17/03/2009 at 12:23 am Permalink
Round up those bastards and kick them all in the balls!!! I mean kick them in the balls until they vomit semen and blood, and then extradite them to a North Korean labor camp. While we’re at it, track down that mother fucker Chun Doo Hwan and feed him to some god damned sharks, I’m tired of son’s a bitches like these getting away with whatever the hell they want.
This was a beautiful young woman who took her life for some B.S, and I am deeply sorry that someone would have even considered the act of suicide to be a form of protest. This way she can’t see her tormentors suffer in the wake of her own success, while they rot in prisons.
To Koreans on a general note: stop killing yourselves. Remember that guy who killed himself in Mexico about 7 to 10 years ago in protest of the ratification of the WTO, I hope you do, because nobody else does.
17/03/2009 at 12:51 am Permalink
Whoa there FDA! I didn’t mean to implicate Lee Geon-hee as one of the ones associated with Jang Ja-yeon: the reason his name came up is because he resigned last year in disgrace for financial corruption, rather than getting away with it, the way he probably would have a in the year 1993. I hope, like in his case, the entertainment bigwigs actually face consequences for their awful actions. I don’t mean to implicate him in the Ms. Jang case in any way. I think his son’s the one who’s been linked to all kinds of young hotties.
24/03/2009 at 9:12 pm Permalink
You write well and this information is welcomed. Thanks for posting this.
25/03/2009 at 5:31 pm Permalink
anna jane would like to comment that all eyes should be on the korean police , now that these news has came out , you people should be watching if the police accept any bribes to close this case