Can Sulli's tragedy be a "life-saving straw" to clean up the Korean entertainment industry?
The Korean entertainment industry in 2019 is actually very bad.
Since Li Shengli's nightclub incident at the beginning of the year, scandals involving political and entertainment collusion have frequently appeared in the newspapers, allowing us to see the obscurity and darkness in the small peninsula.
This controversy started from YG and quickly spread to the entire entertainment industry. The speed is jaw-dropping.
In just a few days, YG's market value plummeted and it was forced to sell the bowling and cafe designed by G-Dragon himself. Korean entertainment companies such as SM and JYP were all affected, and their stock prices all fell.
The chat group of Jung Joon Young, Choi Jong Hoon and others was made public, and the police determined that they were suspected of secretly filming and distributing videos of female relationships. Because the incident was so bad, it made headlines on almost all entertainment pages.
All artists who have been in contact with them have become suspects, and it has even affected Chinese celebrities such as Chen Bolin and Wang Dalu, who have issued statements to clarify their stance.
But the fire didn't end here.
As the incident escalated, the Prime Minister of South Korea issued a public statement to investigate Li Shengli, demanding that the complex interest relationship behind the incident and the bribery of police officers be thoroughly investigated.
"We will bet on the fate of the police, investigate thoroughly and deal with it in accordance with the law." The oath was resounding and even involved the incident of sleeping with Korean actress Jang Ja Yeon.
The people's voice is strong, the president has given orders to support it, and the media is on standby. Everyone is waiting for the truth.
But Li Shengli still "winned" – the police issued a statement that he was not guilty and "innocent", and his personal withdrawal from the entertainment industry became a bargaining chip for self-certification.
Li Shengli, who traded women for profits, finally squeezed into the end of South Korea's chaebol by virtue of his status as a broker and got a ride on the exploiters.
The matter came to an end here – Zhang Ziyan's case went unsolved, and the president could not defeat the artist, which became a joke around the world.
Even though Bo Yun is secretly treacherous, the Korean entertainment industry has calmed down on the surface.
Until Cui Xueli's death shocked the Internet and triggered endless speculation. The company stated that Shirley's suicide was due to depression and there was no intervention from any external factors.
However, the "snowflake theory" is rampant on the Internet, attributing her death to the public's online violence, even if the violence itself comes from her strange behavior and words and deeds, the company behind it, SM, has always remained silent.
No one knows what Sulli went through before she left, but this is not the first time a Korean female artist has committed suicide.
From Cui Zhenlin and Zhang Ziyan in the early years to Cui Shirley today, the reason for everyone's departure was depression, but the results were different.
But no one pursued it, or no results were obtained – the public was accustomed to the reality of female artists leaving, and ignored the process they experienced.
This tragedy belongs to Cui Jinjin, Zhang Ziyan, Cui Xueli, and countless female artists who have fallen into the quagmire.
If the chronic problems of South Korea’s chaebol class are not resolved, the problems will only continue to recur. As for who is next and where the hand of fate is pointing, no one knows.
I just hope that when tragedy strikes, the fragile artist can become strong and escape through the cracks.
Lee Hyori’s life has become a legendary example that cannot be copied
In fact, this was not the case in Korean entertainment in the early years. In other words, at the beginning of the Korean Wave's popularity, the fame and income of artists made them famous and became the fastest way to change the class.
The leader among them is Lee Hyori, the founder of Hallyu.
In the early 2000s, the Korean song "Ten Minutes" was playing in the streets and alleys of China. This was proof that Lee Hyori became popular in China. Compared with the lag in the arrival of Hallyu in China, Lee Hyori became famous in South Korea as early as the late 1990s.
Her fate was strange, even a little smooth.
In 1998, Lee Hyori debuted as the leader of the Korean girl idol group Fin.KL. Her first album became a hit, ushering in the era of Korean girl groups and becoming an iconic group.
At the end of 2002, Fin.KL ceased activities and the members developed independently, becoming a de facto disbandment. The company valued her and released her solo album "Lee Hyo Lee Vol. 1" in August of the following year, and she continued to be active in the entertainment industry as a solo female singer. The title song of this album "Ten Minutes" became popular in Korea as soon as it was released, and it is still her most famous song.
From 2004 to 2006, she collaborated with Shinhwa group member EIRIC Moon Jung-hyuk, actors Kwon Sang-woo, and Lee Joon-ki to shoot a trilogy of advertising music MVs for Samsung mobile phones, creating a precedent for advertising music MVs.
These are Lee Hyori's achievements, not her style. Compared with the conservative Korean entertainment industry in the early years, Lee Hyori's "healthy and sexy" trend is undoubtedly a powerful impact on the public's aesthetic experience.
No one is as sexy and confident as her, with a unique personal style, creating a trend of imitation of Korean entertainment actresses. Singer IU entered the entertainment industry with her as her idol, and even "Little Wild Horse" HyunA came out of the shadow of "Little Lee Hyori".
At this point, Lee Hyori has become the most valuable female singer in South Korea. The variety shows she attended or hosted not only received extremely high ratings, but also won the SBS Entertainment Awards.
In 2006, when she signed a contract with a record company, her net worth reached an unprecedented 2.2 billion won in three years. Her advertising endorsements ranged from daily necessities to fashion brands, making her a very well-known female artist in South Korea.
With his strong personal ability to attract money and his smart investment acumen, Lee Hyori made a lot of money. When artists in the Korean entertainment industry were worried about money, she had already achieved financial independence and achieved independence.
There is a lot of money, and love comes quickly.
Lee Hyori was once asked on a variety show about how she used to relax and release stress when her work was so intense in the past. Facing the camera, she was as candid as ever and said nonchalantly: "Drinking and having a boyfriend." This broke the public perception and made people see her boldness.
This is also true. In his early years, Lee Hyori was under great pressure at work and his relationships came randomly. Having a new boyfriend in two years became the focus of the media. In the process, I also encountered a scumbag who cheated money and sex.
But when she finally met true love, she didn't show any so-called aloofness or shrinking back. Instead, she bravely won over this unpopular man.
When news broke that she married Lee Sang-soon in 2013, many people's first reaction was: How is this possible? South Korean media directly ridiculed that this was a combination of "beauty and the beast" and a model of "marrying an ugly man".
But Lee Hyori saw the man's precious shining points – his indifference to money and respect for life, which made her realize the gentleness of his heart. Li Shangshun's seriousness in facing life and the complementarity of their personalities obviously made this marriage possible.
When the public ridiculed the gap between the two, Lee Hyori lived a cool life and spoke frankly: "My brother is not a man of the world, but I only have money. Even so, my brother does not hate me."
These words made the people around him burst into laughter, and invisibly dispelled the rumors that Lee Sang-shun was greedy for wealth and appearance.
After getting married, they moved to Jeju Island and lived a secluded life. They grow vegetables together and raise dogs together, completely losing their celebrity aura and running their own lives.
They have many dogs. In fact, the first time she fell in love with Li Shangshun was because of dogs.
"The first time he said he wanted to adopt a stray dog, for a month he kept checking on the adopted dog. Seeing his cautious look, I felt he was a good person."
After all, no one who loves dogs is too bad-hearted.
Today's Korean entertainment industry is full of eccentricities, Hallyu culture has spread to the world, and celebrities and idols have become dream machines, but Lee Hyori is still the "national fairy" in the hearts of the South Korean people, a willful existence who claims to be "extremely rich".
When invited to perform, she once asked fans to sign their names all over her body, and she performed freely on the stage with the handwriting, and was praised for her incomparable charm.
In her free time, she would give yoga classes to the citizens of Jeju Island, set up a stall at the market, shave dogs, or pick the persimmons she planted with Lee Sang-soon, and invite friends to have a party in her courtyard.
She completely lived out her life and lived up to everyone's ideal life – having love, money and time, all based on her personal strength, happy and sassy.
The fate of Korean entertainment actresses is extreme. Ideal or reality, you can only fill it yourself.
Korean entertainment actresses actually have very few choices, as can be witnessed from various information disclosed on the Internet.
From the early years when economic companies controlled songs, star creation, and personality, to today's overall image style and team relationship positioning, it is more or less clear that celebrities have become quick-finished products in the entertainment industry.
Few people can have their own will and create their own style. This has also become the reason why the public is very resistant to celebrities after their personalities have collapsed and their reputation has been damaged.
Although Sulli's depression is partly caused by the harsh criticism from the Internet, the deeper tragedy is the Korean entertainment system that she cannot escape. The biggest difference between her and Lee Hyori is that Sulli is known for her beautiful appearance and a peach-like complexion. Therefore, one's self-character is suppressed, and one's behavior is framed within the "pure" positioning. Once one transgresses, the consequences will be a backlash in the public's reputation.
But Lee Hyori didn't. On the one hand, she was in the early days of Korean entertainment. The company's development positioning and artist system were not mature enough, and the chaebol's voice was not what it is today, giving her the opportunity to live the life she wanted. On the other hand, it also comes from her boldness and avant-garde, which created countless trends and became the object of imitation. She is unique and cannot be surpassed.
This is destined to her personal status and high exposure, and will not let her sink into the gloomy entertainment scandal.
But now the industrial chain of Korean entertainment is becoming more and more complete. In just a dozen years, the stars launched have gone from the first generation to the fifth generation. Countless combinations have risen and fallen in the market. In the blink of an eye, a new world has emerged.
Under Korean beauty, everyone looks similar, has similar style, has similar positioning, and even speaks the same words. They have become industrialized market products and put on their own personality shell.
If Lee Hyori’s fame is a gift from God, then Cui Sulli’s fate is more like a tragedy brewed by the times.
But whether it becomes a gift or a tragedy, apart from the chosen person, what is more important is the external environment and the interests involved.
Only the traders know whether South Korea's strict trainee system and industrialized star-making system are right or wrong.
But what we have witnessed for many years in Korean entertainment star-making is the unreplicable Lee Hyori and the fateful "Sulli".
Do artists still have a chance to break through the siege, become a star like Lee Hyori, and live a willful life?
No one knows, no one can give an answer.
But we should still hold on to hope. After all, compared to the tragic ending, what we yearn for in our hearts can lead to a more energetic life.
I just hope that extreme fate will show more mercy.
