 Should we be blaming the Korean media partially for the passing of Lee Sun-kyun? The internet debate rages on. R.I.P., we're talking about the death, the tragedy of Lee Sun-kyun, more known in America from parasite, but my mister Dr. Brain, other movies, TV shows, endorsements as well. And yeah, the internet is really talking about this because there have been several for many, many years, high profile cases of South Korean celebrities committing suicide, but there's a lot of blame to go around from a lot of corners of the internet. So make sure you like, subscribe, turn on your notifications. Andrew, I guess this is a tragedy, but a lot of people are blaming the Korean media right now, politicians, the police. I don't know if I've ever seen a situation where it wasn't the netizens being blamed. Yeah, because I think in previous situations, like a lot of the K-pop music stars that have passed away, part of it has been, you know, I mean, I think I guess that that happened, I guess in a way more often than actors. So I think that's why this one, especially involving the police investigation, it does raise some eyebrows because it kind of talks about this media storm that was surrounding him leading up to when he allegedly committed suicide. You know, so obviously a lot of people are like, Oh, the media and the police could have laid back and wasn't that serious instead of then him feeling like basically his life was over. Right. I heard that there was politicians involved, too. And it's almost crazy. It is. And I'm not saying this at all to be like facetious at all. RIP to Lee Sung-kyun. Almost like a movie because there's so many layers. Andrew, I saw a conspiracy theory connecting this. And this is from the Korean Internet all the way to the president. Wow. But potentially diverting media attention. Yeah. So I think on the outside, looking in in from an American standpoint, when you think about like people who are, you know, choose to off themselves or choose to, you know, do that to themselves. It's like a lot of the time you'll be like, OK, it's like depression or what what builds up to depression. And I think from the outside, you might think like, oh, man, it was just like he was just on for marijuana and ketamine charges, bro. Marijuana and ketamine, that's like a weekend in America. You know what I mean? Like those drugs are taken very seriously in South Korea. We understand that's like a different situation. But I feel like from the outside looking in, you're like, oh, that's not that bad. Why did you do that to yourself? You could have like made made it through it, you know, Lee. But then I guess on the inside, we don't know all the details about feeling blackmail, feeling backstabbed, embarrassed, embarrassing your whole family. He was he was pulled from his projects. Yeah. Yeah. Being pulled from his projects, his career going down, knowing that he'll never work in Korea again, as far as in the media, knowing that he could never live a regular life again, feeling like he was interrogated for like 20 hours straight. You know what I mean? So I guess like, we just don't know. I think we're all looking from the outside in. Right. Right. I'm not the most educated on this matter. I'm just doing the internet research like everybody else. Of course, there's people that are there's probably a hundred rings closer to the core of this than we could be, but I will say this. A lot of actors and creatives, but honestly, a lot of politicians and businessmen, they do the same things right in around the world. But it is true that I guess I feel like actors are in a different position in South Korea because they're viewed a little bit and this isn't a lot of Asian cultures, but particularly in South Korea, a little bit like diplomats or ambassadors. Like they have a it's not they're not just entertainers. Right. They're entertainers, but they're also under the scrutiny of like being exalted even beyond that. There's a lot of pressure and pride with being a outward facing entertainer in South Korea. Right. Right. He was part of Parasite, which won an Oscar. Right. Right. Right. So I don't know. I don't know. You know, like you said, until and we'll never get a metabolic gains brain scanner of his chemistry of what he was going through at that moment. But I think on the flip side, Andrew, I will say this. He was going through a lot. Yeah. Like a lot like they were launching. You know, I saw this internet comment that was saying basically they were going against him like he was El Chapo. Like, you know what I mean? Like almost like something on that tier. Yeah. It probably, you know, I don't know all the details because I wasn't following it. I only hear about it now, but like it's based on what I read. It seemed like the whole police and the media were making this a way bigger deal. Like he was almost like the kingpin. You know what I mean? But he wasn't the kingpin. He was not like selling it or whatever. You know, like he was just like a user and got caught up in some things. So I don't know conspiracies. Yeah. I'm not trying to get into it because I don't know. Yeah. Anyway, somebody said, uh, hey guys, uh, of course, like you said Western people were very confused because they said whether he took it or he didn't or he thought it was sleeping pills or was the actual thing. Or he was, he got set up from the top down or whatever. They were just like, I can't understand it because they have very different moral codes in Korea. And somebody said, by the way, guys, do not assume that drug misuse in Korea has treated the same level as it is in the West or especially the US. And somebody said, yeah, I mean, it is true that over there, cannabis is a really big deal to the point where I view it as a comical reaction. Whereas here right now in 2023 in Kensington, Philadelphia, people are shooting up dope on the street and police are right there and nobody even blinks an eye. Um, it is very different, right? Oh yeah. So different, you know, um, somebody said, listen, guys, the media has a way of pushing a decent man over the edge. And I think this is where a lot of the internet comments are right now. Right. Whether it's a combination of the police, the media, the politicians, the netizens, people feel like a good man who he may have indulged in whatever some, some behaviors, but he got pushed over the edge. Yeah. And it seems like it. Yeah. And I mean, being interrogated for 19 hours straight sounds like torture. Yeah. This comment said, listen, um, the, the path forward where there's no redemption. It does create a lot of great products, but the Achilles heel is once you fall off that path, there is no redemption and it is a product of the go hard or go, go home culture that also creates the great products that we love. Yeah. I think there's, I mean, there's definitely some correlation. It's definitely connected. I always say this and I'm not saying that it fully applies to this situation, but there could be some parallels. Andrew, a rocket ship, it either goes to the moon, but Andrew, there is also a very high likelihood that rocket ships explode. Right. Or they have like, you know what I mean? You can explode on launch. You can explode halfway there or you could explode back into this atmosphere. Once the rocket runs out of jet fuel, I don't know what it does for sure. For sure. Somebody said that cancel culture and bullying in South Korea is no joke. Basically saying that the internet, uh, bullying culture, because basically there was a lot of people coming out with the internet thing, uh, comments saying, you know, you get put on a pedestal, but the second you mess up, people can't wait to rip you from that pedestal. Yeah. I mean, um, like we said, there was other, um, opinions and this, this is from the South Korean internet as well, but translated into English. Somebody was saying it was orchestrated by the very top the South Korean president in the first lady because she's under criminal investigation. So they needed a big story to take everybody's attention away. So this is a, it's called what? A dog whistle. This is pretty big. Um, you hear this in America as well, right? Like sometimes they need to release this type of bad news or this type of, uh, this type of person got off. So they release this other piece of news. Right. So that's why it was feeling like a bigger deal than it really was. Yeah. I don't know guys. Let me know in the comment section below. Like I said, I'm not that close to this case at all. I'm just looking on the internet. I see this. I see that. There's so many videos, so many comments coming out of here and there. Somebody said Japan was very successful in reducing their suicide rates recently. People might want to look into their policies and methodologies. Um, yeah, I believe that South Korea is one of the highest suicide rates in the developed world. If not number one in terms of first world countries. Um, I guess somebody said so many talented people in Korea. But why do other Koreans treat them so harshly? And what do you think it is? Because, uh, obviously in Asia, in general people are, but, but I think it varies Asian country to Asian country, but like Confucian countries, they kind of treat superstardom like being the top student. You know how like the other top students are like, man, this guy got all A's, but the second this guy starts messing up, they also want to point out that that guy got caught in a cheating scandal to get those grades or he's not doing it so good in school anymore. Yeah. I just think a lot of things amounted, you know, I don't know what his mental fortitude was, you know, but it's did sound like a lot based off the details. You know, he was confused. He probably felt like he failed his family. He felt betrayed by someone he probably was, uh, in a relationship with he, uh, and then everything can crash now. I mean, listen, there's people who in the stock market crashes. They jump out of a window. All right. You're talking about also I've a lot of Ivy League kids every year. There's freshmen who stopped performing at the same level they're accustomed to in high school and they actually commit suicide. This is pretty common at Cornell in a way and it's not all just Asians. It's a lot of Asians do have a high rate of like being, you know, ashamed and stuff, which leads to, uh, suicide, but actually a lot of everybody like commit suicide. A lot of men actually commit suicide, uh, statistically speaking. So, man, it just feels like, you know, everything he built was coming to a halt and that it was never going to, he was never going to live this down, you know, whether or not he was innocent or not, because in a, in a way, cause he did test negative on the drug test, even if he was innocent, just how it felt was probably just that his life was over. Right, right, right. And he was like deep, like, you know how like a lot of things in life, they kind of like you get through this ditch and then sometimes it's so hard to push out of the other end. But sometimes that ditch feels like it's just like just keep going to drop and drop and drop at the bottom of the ditch. Um, somebody just ended it this way. Somebody said, my mister is my favorite drama. This is a quote from my mister life in a way is a struggle between internal and external forces too. No matter what happens, you will be able to withstand if anything, if you have sufficient internal forces. This is my favorite quote from the drama. Sorry. The external force at this time was too much for you. Rest in peace. Lee Sun-kyun, thank you for your work. Uh, that's a hell of a quote. Honestly, to quote my mister too. Um, ultimately, you know, there's so many takeaways. So many people have so many hot takes. Some people were saying, we need to question the drug laws. We need to question police releasing sensitive information that should stay private. We need to question. This that thing, the internet bullying needs to have more restrictions. There were so many commentaries, obviously to be fair to enter. Some people blamed Lee Sun-kyun himself for his decisions, right? Right, right. I mean, you know, he did make certain decisions that led him into this situation where things could go terribly wrong. Right. Um, and I guess that that's what has everybody so wrapped up in this, right? Yeah. I think ultimately this is my takeaway. RIP, uh, he's leaves behind two children, a wife. Um, I think that the one hope that I have is that they change the laws to make sure that these investigations aren't as public because here's the thing, Andrew, politicians and I'm not saying the craziest conspiracy theories are true or not. Politicians will use celebrity news. If everybody knows they follow that celebrity to divert from their situations. Yeah. And they don't, they are not like they say and the politicians, they oftentimes control have a potentially, um, control like the legal system a lot more than an actor does. Oh, yeah. Like an actor has the attention of the world or the global market, but they don't control the infrastructure mechanisms. Yeah. I mean, it's tough, you know, uh, if you made me bet if, if a politician and an actor commits the same crime, who's going to jail? I think it's the actor. I think the politician wins because the politician is more entrenched. They're on the inside. Yeah. So, um, but I will say this. I'm not going to tell Asia how to treat drug laws either. You know what I mean? I think over there, Andrew, in the West, we are experiencing probably drug problems. Oh, yeah. So, so I'm not going to be like, we'll just loosen them. Let everybody let Asia turn into. I don't know. That's not a good idea either. I don't think that's the solution. I do think how the media handles things and things being public and the investigation probably was too harsh. I don't know how many did someone get killed or something like this sounds crazy. Like the amount of attention on these charges from what I read sounds uncalled for. I'm not saying he shouldn't lose even his job over these allegations because people lose jobs over all types of allegations, you know, and it's fair because you work a corporate job. You can lose your jobs are very serious over there. So I'm saying that. But like to get all this, I don't know. It sounds it sounds what do you think? Last point about Asia's culture of shame because a lot of people, like I said, you know, a lot of I've said this before Andrew, like, you know, like when you come from an academic Asian family, it is true. Bees are really frowned upon because if you get bees, you can't go to the hyper elite institutions or get scholarships and go to the league. Yeah, you can go to the whatever that MBA is of academics, which is like, you know what I mean, et cetera, certain professions, fields, et cetera. Like, so I guess that same pressure, it does produce diamonds, but sometimes the end of the pieces of coal that if they're pressurized turning the diamond, sometimes those pieces of coal just disintegrate to. Yeah. So I just don't know. I mean, I wish that they could play with the sliders. I don't know if they need a fundamental shift of how they do it. There's a lot of pros and a lot of cons to every methodology of how every system culture runs their algorithm. But you know, I think cases like this, RIP, Lee Sun, they cause a time to step back and reexamine. But how much will really realistically change? I'm not sure. Let us know what you think in the comment section below. We encourage the debate until next time. We're going to hop out boys. We out. Peace.