"Are You Human Too?" in controversy for violent scene

[waves-of-light.livejournal.com]

On June 4, the drama premiered its first episode, where the leading characters have an encounter for the first time.

In the episode, the female lead Kang So-bong (played by Gong Seung-yeon) secretly takes pictures of the male lead Nam Shin (played by Seo Kang-joon) to leak the pictures for money. The female lead, who is a part of the security team for the Chaebol male lead, uses a micro camera inserted in a wristwatch.

Nam Shin soon notices Kang So-bong and approaches her to break the spy camera and punch her on the face hard enough to make her fall on the ground.

The controversy grew as it turned out that Gong Seung-yeon, who played the female lead, revealed that she thought she was going deaf after shooting the scene. Even though the script directed a face punch, but the director allegedly directed the actor to actually punch because it didn’t look realistic enough.

As the violent scene dispersed through social media quickly, the debate is growing at a rapid pace. Especially because the drama has only aired the first two episodes so far, the chance is high for the controversy to affect the audience measurement.

Drama “Are You Human Too?” airs every Monday and Tuesday at 10 PM KST.




I did gasp when I watched the scene last night. Reading this today does not make me want to even continue with the new episodes. Who the fuck is this director?

source: KPopLove

Comments

[goshipgurl.livejournal.com]

Even though the script directed a face punch, but the director allegedly directed the actor to actually punch because it didn’t look realistic enough.

Wtf???
SKJ ain't shit for not refusing to do this. Fire both him and the PD.

[evilcoc0nut.livejournal.com]

[ty.livejournal.com]

me too, I always need more info than the first sensational article

[evilcoc0nut.livejournal.com]

[sjtaazrz.livejournal.com]

I'm inclined to believe you, but then I remember that soup scene from Lady in Dignity and how the director wanted the soup to be hot.


If the actress doing the throwing didn't use her influence and clout to insist on room temperature/cold soup, they could have seriously damaged the other actress's face. I think, "Of course, no one would be so reckless," but people actually are.

[jasmineakaiumi.livejournal.com]

why would you even need the soup to be hot?????? so baffling

[senshicalico.livejournal.com]

late af but some directors~~~ are convinced their actors need to be in actual pain to, you know, act like they're in pain -_- I think they're just sadistic fucks tbh.

[jasmineakaiumi.livejournal.com]

i feel like there must be some kind of power trip that comes with being a director... you hear so many stories about abuses of power like this.

[goldenrosalie.livejournal.com]

i think 'deaf' bit is because of angle. she wasn't punched directly in the face and in drama it definitely looked like most damage landed on her left ear.

[tsubaki874.livejournal.com]

I was watching the 7 min preview on DramaFever's YT and they included the scene in the preview... like... I feel so bad for Seungyeon.. I can't tell if the article is trying to defend SKJ or not, but he needs to be fired with the director, literally no reason for him to actually hit her. There's so many bad scenes in every drama, this punch did not need to be ~realistic~ at all.

[ashdevilrun23.livejournal.com]

What the fuck??

[snowphone.livejournal.com]

who thought it was okay to have a scene like that in the show in the first place

[weneedmedicine.livejournal.com]

There goes my excitement.

[weneedmedicine.livejournal.com]

Even if the punches weren’t real, I don’t feel comfortable with the male lead punching the female lead. I know they’ll somehow try redeeming him in the end instead of keeping him in the coma where he belongs.

[sjtaazrz.livejournal.com]

The article dances around whether or not he actually hit her in the face. I'm going to need clarification on this.

I also think the way this storyline could be framed could be a big problem. Korea is already having it's issues with spycams and people feeling like it isn't being taken as seriously for women. So, if this female character is secretly recording him, and the drama frames the man punching her like "yeah! Proper response," that's incredibly troubling.

[mlmello.livejournal.com]

mte. it
it's really dangerous.

[chikage-chan.livejournal.com]

This was my biggest concern too.

[keytfelt.livejournal.com]

So in the drama, it's definitely seen as a bad thing. Without trying to "defend the drama" (because I didn't like this part of the storyline), the main guy is trying to get as much bad press as he can, basically by being a super asshole and setting up this secret recording thing (without the female lead's knowledge) so that people would record it and be outraged.

Again, not saying it was appropriate or necessary, but don't worry, it's not treated as something that's okay for him to do in the show.

[sjtaazrz.livejournal.com]

I appreciate the context, thank you.

[jasmineakaiumi.livejournal.com]

I thought the exact same thing.

[keytfelt.livejournal.com]

Ok WTF, director. Why would you ever think that's okay? And it's disappointing because I really enjoyed week 1's episodes, I love robot boy already.

[tsuyoi-hikari.livejournal.com]

Since Seung-yeon already has Circle in her resume so its okay if this drama flops.

[suggestivepeach.livejournal.com]

But wasn't Circle pretty much a ratings flop as well? It was well received among a small bunch, but other than that, I don't think a lot of people watched it. I really want her to have a popular drama under her belt.

[tsuyoi-hikari.livejournal.com]

I always said an actor is safe if they actually have quality dramas under their belt. My bench to rate an actor by their quality works but I totally understand and agree with your POV as well.

Circle was shown on cable TV but this drama is on a public TV and it has flopped with the 2 episodes in 'NR' so far. Hopefully the ratings will pick up soon

[goldenrosalie.livejournal.com]

i think some readers skimmed through article without quite noticing that this punch wasn't IN her face. it was ON her face and basically landed on left side of her head aka her ear.
this is why deaf comment actually makes me think that this article may be valid. i wouldn't say that in drama i got impression that she was hit for real but then again it was switching between angles too fast so it was hard to tell. either way it was so offputting and did nothing but send shivers down my spine. i won't be continuing it whether it was real or not. it doesn't change the fact that i don't need violence against women in my media and i don't want to support it in any way

[rainstormraider.livejournal.com]

First of all who the eff wrote a scene like that and who is the director who directed the scene and what kind of actor goes along with and punches their co-star?
Fire them all.

[mjspice.livejournal.com]

WTF???

[by-venoms-sting.livejournal.com]

After taking some time to like process everything I’ve come back to this post to say this is still horrible.

Like that entire plotline had me feeling a certain kind of way and it being validated a bit with this post was a lot to take in.

I hope Gong Seung-yeon is fairing alright if this true. What a terrible experience to go through.

You know I’m way calmer writing this comment than the first one I wrote (and deleted) but I feel like that one was better written/more concise? Lol.

[chimpansee.livejournal.com]

These Quentin Tarantino teas. I fucking hate when directors/actors do this kind of bullshit because otherwise ~it's not realistic enough. It's not realistic because you're making a film/drama! Do your job properly and it'll be realistic, jfc.

[iviih.livejournal.com]

The fans of the show are defending it by saying the guy wanted to make his family look bad, not that he is really a woman beater. But he still beats her, so??? Still violence, no matter the reason.

Some are saying "but he is not the lead, the robot will be the lead " yeah but we know the main girl will fall in love with the robot version, probably not knowing he is a robot. So she will fall in love with the guy who punched her, but changed for better after a truck accident.

I'm not here for this.

[lizanka23.livejournal.com]

i'm so done with gratuitous depictions of violence towards women. they could have just alluded to what happened...

[suggestivepeach.livejournal.com]

:(
And to think I was really looking forward to this drama. I still might check it out if things improve and after reading other people explain the context, I understand a bit better, but I still don't feel comfortable with such a graphic depiction of violence against women. I hope GSY isn't too shaken by this incident.

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

The original punch may have been in the script but don't you get the feeling that the director's call, actress's statement, and now this article are noise marketing? If they're trying to create a controversy for ratings, I hope it backfires.

[andromaeda.livejournal.com]

The clip was posted on the DramaKBS account on YouTube, it doesn't look like he punched her in the final take they used but it does look like he shoved the side of her head. Honestly it looks like he really could have hurt her.