"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

[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.