Sunny Day

Also, Kim Soo Hyun’s Philippines FC post a message a few days ago.
“Trending Party Rest Days.
Here's a gentle update regarding our rest days this week.
On June 20 (Fri) and June 21 (Sat), we'll be taking a break from our usual Trending Party
activities. Please take this time to rest, recharge, and care for your body and mind.
On June 22 (Sun), we'll be hosting our fourth casual watch event in a Teleparty-style format
for those who'd like to join. This time, we'll be watching One Ordinary Day-a gripping and emotionally intense drama that showcases one of Soo Hyun's most powerful performances.
His subtle expressions, the raw vulnerability, and the quiet strength he portrays in this role
are truly unforgettable.
Let's revisit this masterpiece together and witness the depth of his acting once again.
We'll share more details on the day of the event.”

One of Mu Hyul's message reminded me of situations involving certain actors, where rumors surfaced just as their new dramas were being released.
There can certainly be a form of competition or "battle" between film production companies when they release movies or dramas around the same time. While it's not a direct or physical confrontation, the rivalry is clear, they're competing for audience attention, box office revenue, and streaming viewership.
This leads me to wonder: could any production company have played a role in the recent media lynching of Kim Soo Hyun? It’s worth questioning, especially if their own projects were at risk of being overshadowed by the release of his high-profile drama. I think in Kim Soo Hyun's case, it's more than that, but it's interesting to consider that aspect.
It’s also striking how false rumors or accusations often coincide with the release dates of certain dramas or films, or even emerge just before them. For those who remain skeptical, I suggest doing personal research. I did so in the case of Park Hae Jin, and I ‘ve wrote earlier on this page.
In addition, it's common in the Korean entertainment industry for celebrities to keep their relationships private (sometimes for years) before making any public announcements. This can stem from a desire to protect their privacy, fear of fan backlash, contractual obligations, or even concern over potential media scandals. Actor Namkoong Min and his wife are a good example; they reportedly dated for several years before getting married, with their relationship largely unknown to the public until the wedding announcement.
Those working in the industry are fully aware of these dynamics. Therefore, it should not come as a surprise, or be seen as a disappointment, when a past relationship isn’t publicly acknowledged, especially if it has already ended.
These patterns raise important questions: How much of what the public sees is manipulated by industry competition? Could the timing of negative media coverage be more than a coincidence? And to what extent do rumors and scandals serve as tools in a deeper, hidden rivalry within the entertainment business?
I repeat, the media lynching of Kim Soo Hyun involves many other aspects. But perhaps this was an opportunity for some to prolong the scandal for their own purposes.

Thank you, Tana. This article is truly valuable, especially because it includes messages exchanged between Kim Sae Ron and Mr. K, who supported her during the final part of her life. These messages confirm what I have previously stated: suicidal thoughts were not new for her, and Kim Soo Hyun’s denial of their relationship around the time Queen of Tears was released could not have been the cause of her suicide.
The article also highlights the personal struggles she was facing, particularly the lack of interest from her own family, a detail I hadn’t expected, but which, in hindsight, is consistent with the depth of her depression. Mr. K notes that Kim Sae Ron was receiving psychiatric treatment, which, as is known, can sometimes initially intensify suicidal thoughts if not closely monitored. Although such medication may eventually help, the early stages of treatment require careful supervision.
The article provides a fuller context that dispels speculation and reinforces that her struggles were long-standing and complex, rooted in personal and psychological distress rather than a single triggering event.
“However, Ms. Kim Sae-ron suffered from repeated self-harm, financial difficulties, failed comeback plans, violence from her American ex-husband, and divorce.
And eventually suffered severe pain until death.”

Thank you, Athena, for your message. Everyone is free to support Kim Soo Hyun as they believe. But be prepared for inappropriate reactions, some see such messages as a kind of ex*rcism. In the end, what’s inside people always finds a way out.

You're absolutely right. This is often what separates a successful actor from a mediocre one. Talent matters, but so do smart project choices.

If you research his career, you'll notice that the negative articles often coincided with the release of some of his films.
The first rumors about Park Hae-jin evading military service surfaced in 2010, shortly after his debut. These rumors continued to resurface over time. However, after a police investigation, it was officially concluded that he was exempt from military service due to legitimate health reasons.
Further controversy arose in 2016–2017, around the time the dramas Cheese in the Trap and Man to Man were released. He was accused of having worked as a host in a host bar. Eventually, it was confirmed that these allegations were false. Despite this, the rumors negatively impacted his career at the time.
On September 10, 2022, Park Hae-jin was rumored to have been arrested for drug use. This coincided with the airing of the drama From Now On, Showtime!. However, the police quickly issued an official statement clarifying that he was not involved and revealed the identity of the actual actor implicated in the case. Still, the mere association with such a rumor was damaging to his image.
In 2023, with the release of the crime thriller The Killing Vote, Park Hae-jin’s popularity rose significantly. However, this renewed attention also brought his past controversies back into the spotlight.
In conclusion, Park Hae-jin’s career has been repeatedly shadowed by baseless rumors that conveniently surface around the release of his major projects. While none of the accusations against him have held up under scrutiny, they have nonetheless affected public perception and his professional trajectory. This pattern highlights a troubling aspect of the media landscape, where sensationalism and rumor-chasing often overshadow fact-based journalism.

Thank you for the recommendations. I agree that in this field, more than in most, success depends not only on hard work but also on audience reception. No film or drama producer would cast an actor without believing in their ability to connect with the audience.
I also agree with your point about Park Hae Jin’s role in My Love from the Star. He, too, faced harsh criticism, particularly accusations of evading military service. Despite proving he had repeatedly attempted to enlist but was unable to do so, the negative comments persisted. When The Killing Vote was released, new rumors about him surfaced.
In response, he posted:
“I confront my reflection, a canvas of my journey. Each flaw tells a story, each scar a lesson, reminding me that the beauty of growth lies in embracing my true self.”
This kind of journalism is deeply harmful. Media often wait for moments of heightened public interest, such as a film release, to publish "revelations" that lead to public backlash.
Every profession deserves respect. For actors, it’s incredibly difficult to transform from one role to another and, more importantly, to stand out. It requires immense effort. As Lee Dong Wook once said, "it's hard to have a personal life," and when faced with negative comments, it’s even harder to find the strength to prepare for the next role.
We see them shining under the spotlight, but behind that is relentless hard work.
Ad augusta per angusta.

Another form of bullying: media lynching!
Seeing the number of negative articles about Kim Soo Hyun, although they essentially repeat the same so-called news, I’ve come to the conclusion that this is a case of media lynching.
Reaching the conclusion that this is a case of media lynching, I set out to learn more about the subject. Here are the findings of my research.
Media lynching is a non-journalistic media operation (particularly aggressive, widespread, and sometimes prolonged), carried out by one or more media outlets, either in coordination or acting independently, with a premeditated intent to target an individual, typically a public figure, in order to discredit and destroy their credibility and reputation. The goal and motivation of media lynching are to eliminate someone from the public stage (or simply from a specific position, structure, etc.) who hinders or threatens the satisfaction of a certain interest, whether private or group-based; or who, for various reasons or interests, or even accidentally, has become a public enemy.
At the level of a society or community (national or local), media lynching is the most aggressive expression of the force and pride of the media: the so-called "Fourth Estate." While often seen as the fourth power in a democracy, in reality, the media holds an unofficial position within the democratic system. Precisely because of its unofficial status and its constitutionally subordinate relationship to the three official powers of democracy: the legislative, executive, and judicial, the media sometimes feels the need to express not only its frustration over its lack of legal authority but also its immense influence, seeking to intimidate, deter, or gain the respect of the other three powers.
Naturally, one might ask: what or who enables the media to wield such destructive power and, by extension, to carry out media lynchings?
On the one hand, public opinion, in whose name the “Fourth Estate” claims to act and to which it appeals in order to legitimize its “media justice.”
On the other hand, the public image of an institution or individual. “Today, image is everything,” says Matt Haig in a work dedicated to branding and public image.
It’s simply about the public's perception. It’s easy to understand who can strengthen or alter public perception of a politician, judge, or actor, or, to put it another way, who has the power to muddy otherwise clear waters.
It’s not hard to see why media lynching is so terrifying, especially considering that its repercussions in South Korea have often been among the most tragic.
Over 100 years ago, Gustave Le Bon, in The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind, recognized that “all that strongly impresses the imagination of crowds presents itself under the shape of a startling and clear image.” At the same time, he noted that “it is not facts in themselves that strike the popular imagination, but the way they are presented. These facts must evoke, through a kind of condensation, a vivid image that seizes and obsesses the mind. To know how to impress the imagination of crowds is to know how to govern them.”
This is both the tactic and working method of media lynching.
On a personal level, media lynching, as a violent form of public communication and manipulation, is generated by what we could call “the Dark Force of the Fourth Estate” in a democratic state. The ritual of media lynching involves the public execution of an enemy figure, who has first been declared persona non grata and “convicted” by public sentiment, sentiment often artificially created and manipulated in the laboratories of media institutions turned public prosecutors, or naturally erupting from public conscience outraged by a condemnable act.
In other words, media lynching is the extreme manifestation of the media’s arbitrariness and lack of scruples. Through its non-journalistic rationale and methods, media lynching has nothing to do with the principles of public interest or with the ethical standards that govern journalistic work. It is simply a process through which, typically in the name of freedom of expression and opinion and usually in service of a hidden major interest, a public figure is discredited in the eyes of the public by journalists, presenters, or hosts of one or more media outlets. In a specific setting and based on a pre-designed scenario, these media actors expose (denounce), incriminate, condemn, and symbolically execute that individual, treating them as a public defendant.
Media lynching makes use of certain journalistic genres, especially news reports, investigations, exposés, talk shows, editorials, and particularly opinion pieces, with the crucial difference that their production and dissemination ignore ethical standards and public interest principles.
In reality, media lynching operates on and relies heavily upon one single non-journalistic weapon: personal attack. This method employs public manipulation through distorted presentation of facts and is characterized by insults, slander, and defamatory labeling, attached to the public image of the target.
The outcome of a media lynching campaign is dominated by content fabricated in the “truth laboratories,” by subjectivity, and especially by opinion pieces. The “procedure” of media lynching allows only the loud and aggressive voices of the so-called media justiciars to be heard in the “court of public opinion.”
Media lynching is an orchestrated act, carried out by a small group of journalists who often embrace and even enjoy the role and status of media executioners. These public figures, often experienced journalists, quickly shift into this role and act in high-audience time slots and spaces, devoid of moral scruples or ethical constraints, all in the service of hidden private interests, and sometimes their own.
It’s worth mentioning that the duration and intensity of a media lynching depend on several factors: the reach and public influence of the media outlet assuming the role of justiciar; the personal resilience of the targeted individual; the political, corporate, or media support they have during the attack; and, not least, how the situation evolves, including shifts in public sentiment.
On a broader scale, a cursory review of media lynching cases both locally and worldwide reveals that they are overwhelmingly triggered by economic or political interests.
There is no doubt that Kim Soo Hyun is the victim of a media lynching.
What remains to be asked is: is this a commissioned lynching, or an accidental one, meant to divert attention from other realities?

I'm posting it above because it's quite long.

Absolutely! When there’s too much noise, the smartest move is to just "close the windows". Suddenly, everything makes sense again and you can finally read normal messages!

I’ll try to make a list, but I need to remember which movies or dramas I’ve seen and possibly look for others with similar themes.

I find it amazing how many people are rallying around him.
“Kim Soo-hyun’s courageous gesture — appearing before the press and, as he said, refusing to apologize for something he never did — sent a rare and powerful message. A message that has resonated around the world and that we want to transform into a universal call for respect, truth and life.”
“To symbolize this global call for change, on July 8 in Milan, on Corso Matteotti, a large billboard will rise — not only as a tribute to an actor, but as a tangible symbol of a global stand: an ode to life and silence. Because in this act of silence, millions of voices unite to proclaim that respect and truth have no borders.”
https://www.iltempo.it/general/2025/06/18/news/ode-al-silenzio-messaggio-globale-giornalismo-predatorio-cyberbullismo-43039876/

Ode to Silence, a global message against predatory journalism and cyberbullying.

I’m planning to do a brief analysis of this type of so-called journalism

I don’t know how accurate this information is, but it seems he has returned to GM headquarters. It’s possible the police might start investigating the complaints filed against Gaseyon, KSR’s family, and others.

Even though I’ve written quite a bit, be patient and read it through. I enjoy doing a bit of research on real-life cases that could also serve as compelling movie topics.
There have been many wrongful convictions, some so tragic that the individuals died in prison (or executed) and were only declared innocent after their deaths. You can find many of these cases on Wikipedia, but there are also lesser-known ones discussed by organizations that actively fight to overturn such injustices.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wrongful_convictions_in_the_United_States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_miscarriage_of_justice_cases
1. Teng Xingshan, a butcher, was convicted (the court was told "Teng confessed his crime on his initiative and his confession conforms with scientific inspection and identification") and executed in 1989 for the murder of Shi Xiaorong, a waitress who had disappeared. Shi reappeared in Shandong in 1993 and said she had never met Teng. Teng was posthumously acquitted in 2006.
2. Nie Shubin was convicted after the police had obtained a confession from him with a week of "skillful interrogation, including psychological warfare" and executed in 1995 for the rape and murder of Kang Juhua, a woman in her thirties. In 2005, Wang Shujin admitted to the police that he had committed the murder and described murder scene details only known to the police.
3. Colin Campbell Ross. Twelve-year-old Nell Alma Tirtschke left home on an errand for her grandmother. Early the next morning, her body was found in Gun Alley. She had been raped and strangled. Colin Campbell Ross was convicted on the basis of several witnesses who testified that Ross confessed to them as well several strands of blonde hair on a blanket at Ross's house. In 1993, a former school teacher named Kevin Morgan began researching Ross's case. Morgan found a file in the Office of Public Prosecutions containing the original hair samples, which had been thought lost. In 1998, two independent scientific authorities—the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine and the forensics division of the Australian Federal Police—found that the two lots of hair did not come from the same person, thereby disproving with certainty the most damning piece of evidence presented at Ross's trial. Ross was pardoned on May 27, 2008, 86 years after his execution.
4. Glynn Simmons: Exonerated after 48 years in prison.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/28/sentenced-to-die-innocent-man-spent-48-years-in-prison-for-murder-glynn-simmons#:~:text=In%20July%202023%2C%20he%20was,been%20jailed%20before%20being%20cleared.
5. Sandra Hemme: Her murder conviction was overturned after 43 years..
https://innocenceproject.org/news/missouri-circuit-court-overturns-sandra-hemmes-murder-conviction-after-43-years/#:~:text=Missouri%20Circuit%20Court%20Overturns%20Sandra,U.S.%2C%20proved%20her%20actual%20innocence.
6. Johnathan Barr was one of the Dixmoor 5 who was wrongfully convicted of a 1991 rape and murder. He was 14 years old at the time and ultimately spent over 18 years in prison before being exonerated.7.
https://innocenceproject.org/news/remembering-jonathan-barr-of-the-dixmoor-five/
7. Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, was a professional boxer, wrongly convicted of murder and spent 19 years in prison. His case was widely publicized, and his fight for freedom became the subject of a movie.
The Hurricane (1999 film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubin_Carter#:~:text=Rubin%20%22Hurricane%22%20Carter%20(May,almost%2020%20years%20in%20prison.
Other movies based on true similar cases
"The Central Park Five" (a series about the wrongful conviction of five teenagers), "In the Name of the Father" (about a man wrongly convicted in an IRA bombing), and "Just Mercy" (based on the true story of a lawyer fighting for those wrongly accused).
Such accusations highlight the importance of the presumption of innocence and the careful analysis of evidence. The presumption of innocence is now a fundamental human right, recognized in documents like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
However, while the justice system today places greater emphasis on these principles, the media continues to make accusations without respecting them and often disregards the need for evidence, without facing any accountability.

You’ve convinced me. I’ll look into it. And yes, thank goodness a lawyer like the one who advised Kim Sae Ron’s family isn’t involved. Can you imagine how that would’ve ended? Now that would’ve been a plot twist.

Two other dramas I recommend:
Mask
https://kisskh.at/13388-mask
Let me introduce her
https://kisskh.at/29241-about-her
The last one, despite the rating, I thought it was great. You can't predict what's coming next.

Honestly, I think KSR has always been a victim. I don’t know how many people truly understand the long hours spent on set, the endless repetition of the same scenes, and the emotional effort required to step into a character’s shoes, only to find it difficult to step out again.
Lee Dong Wook went through a period of depression and self-doubt. He felt frustrated and as though he was failing, questioning his own acting abilities and even considering stepping away from the profession altogether. This led him to stay at home for months, struggling with negative thoughts and feeling deeply stressed about his performances.
https://news.sbs.co.kr/news/endPage.do?news_id=N1006579649#:~:text=I%20felt%20like%20someone%20had,and%20stressed%20out%20about%20that.%22&text=Then%2C%20Lee%20Dong%20Wook%20shared,felt%20much%20more%20at%20ease.%22
Hateful comments only add to the anxiety, and for some actors, it becomes overwhelming, causing them to give up.
“I was unhappy with my acting in the series… The drama was getting hate online, and all of that negativity seemed to be aimed at me. I began to think I was to blame and felt bad about it.” – Lee Dong Wook
https://www.koreaboo.com/stories/actor-lee-dong-wook-almost-retired-hate-k-drama-life-gong-yoo/
Looking back, we see KSR acting in films from a very young age. If adult actors can experience depression, what about a child? I believe special care is essential. That’s one of the reasons why there are now restrictions on how long children can stay on set. Still, if a scene doesn’t turn out perfectly, the solution may not be to work long hours in a single day, but rather to extend the number of days spent filming.
This is why I respect every actor, including Kim Soo Hyun.

Thank you. This topic seems interesting. I'll check it out and select from the real cases of this kind, a few that seem more interesting to me. I'll also check if there have been films made about such cases.

Is it something similar to The Innocent Man
https://kisskh.at/4295-the-innocent-man
or Secret?
https://kisskh.at/7761-secret

Are you saying it's about a person who was wrongly convicted?