StacyO

USA

Lily Alice • 15 days ago

Article 'Still Shining' production team apologizes following criticism over driving-after-drinking scenes

Two things you should know about me before reading the rest of my post.

1. My husband was killed by a woman who was under the influence of many different types of narcotics. She drove her car across the center line and cashed into his Jeep while he was driving to work that morning.
2. I’m from the US where drinking and driving is often normalized in the entertainment industry or used for comedic fodder. Prior to my husband’s death I didn’t notice this but I do now. I find Asian dramas careful approach of depicting responsible driving refreshing. It’s rare to see an Asian drama with someone driving under the influence. I do know of a few but instead you will often see the characters loading into taxis or finding a designated driver after drinking. This is how it should be. This is what needs to be normalized in the entertainment industry and Bravo to Hallyuwood for taking this approach. Imagine my surprise in learning through this article that you can file a complaint to Korea’s Commission Standards. That’s awesome. I wish the US had something like this in place. Trust me when I say that you don’t want Hallyuwood becoming complacent in this.

There are things in life that you inherently know but don’t think much about, like every death caused by driving under the influence is 100% preventable. I’ll personalize it for you. Basically my young healthy husband was killed by a stranger who selfishly made the choice of driving high. I don’t get to have a future with my husband because she drove high. Her kids have to be without their mom for 10 years while she sits in prison because she chose to drive high. It totally sucks.

Let’s do some quick math… In the United States there are on average around 13,000 deaths a year caused by driving under the influence. In Korea it’s around 200. For a fair comparison we need to adjust this number for the roughly 6.5 times the increase in US population so roughly 1,300 if Korea had the same population. It means that the US has roughly 10 times more deaths a year due to driving under the influence than South Korea. I’ll note that I got these numbers from a quick Google search. While the #s I am using may not be precise I do believe they demonstrate my point, which is South Korea seems to be managing the “driving under the influence issue” better than we are in the United States. I’m not saying that it’s entirely the entertainment industry’s fault that the US has 10 times as many death a year. Yes, there are many other factors that I’m not going to get into here. I will say that people’s perception of the crime of driving under the influence shape how seriously we manage that problem and entertainment is a big influencer of our perceptions.

I believe the general population of the US doesn’t consider drinking and driving a “bad crime.” This way of thinking must change. A good start would be for Hollywood to stop normalizing it and approach it more like South Korea.

If you want a personalized realistic glimpse in how my country’s general population perceives driving drunk than I offer you this… Things I heard after my husband was killed…
- “Everyone has driven drunk before.” Not true,
not me.
- I had a guy raise his eyebrows when I said my “husband was killed.” He said “it wasn’t like he was murdered.” To clear up my confusion he explained that he thought my use of “killed” was too harsh of a word for “ONLY” a drinking and driving accident. I reminded him that it wasn’t an accident that she got behind the wheel and drove into my husband.
- At a business dinner I had a few glasses of wine at a restaurant that was 3 minutes away from my home. My coworkers made fun of me because “I couldn’t drive drunk for three minutes” and still called for an Uber. I had to remind them how my husband died and that shut them up, but they still got into their cars and drove home.
It’s ridiculous how “normal” drinking and driving is in the US that people feel it’s okay to speak about it in this way. Our roads aren’t safe.

It’s a good thing this person filed a complaint. It’s a good thing they are keeping it out of their dramas and movies (for the most part).

Thanks for reading. I would be remiss if I didn’t remind everyone to be safe and never drive impaired.

On Skylight • 16 days ago

Title Skylight

WARNING: This drama will give you motion sickness if you are sensitive to that type of thing. It features many long shots of driving in a car and one long shot of someone walking up stairs. I had to look down to keep from getting nauseous.

Now with all that being said, not a whole lot goes on in this short film. It was a boring 20 mins.

On Contrast • 18 days ago

Title Contrast

I’m loving this drama with all its potential messiness. Just as long as the ending is happy. I hope it’s happy.

Replying to StacyO • 18 days ago

Title Phantom Lawyer Spoiler

Five episodes in and I give you my likes and dislikes…Likes- The cast is great especially the ML and his family…

It is so great. Despite my hangup on the ghost possessed ML, it’s been super fun seeing him acting all these different characters.

Replying to StacyO • 18 days ago

Title Phantom Lawyer

Five episodes in and I give you my likes and dislikes…Likes- The cast is great especially the ML and his family…

Kyung really is “the ultimate ajhumma .” She is good in everything. Which is good because she is in everything 😂. Despite my hangups I’m still a fan of the show.

Replying to StacyO • 18 days ago

Title Phantom Lawyer Spoiler

Five episodes in and I’m hooked. This drama is certainly entertaining and I’ll continue to watch but I have…

Five episodes in and I give you my likes and dislikes…

Likes
- The cast is great especially the ML and his family and priest friend.
- It has some genuinely funny moments.

Dislikes
- I have a hard time watching dramas/movies where a good person gets wrongfully accused. It’s upsetting more than entertaining. End of episode 5 was upsetting. I seriously hope they don’t drag this out.
- I have a hard time watching dramas where characters loose control of their own bodies and are vulnerable to being wrongfully accused. The perfect example of this is ML ghost possessed state. Like in the movie Face Off or that Black Mirror episode that like Star Trek. This trope is absolutely disturbing to me. So yeah, episode 5 was a bunch of what I don’t like.

Still the drama is entertaining. It was obvious that he was going to be accused. If the only ones that know where and how a person is murdered is the victim and culprit and the victim is dead…. Than if you gain that knowledge from a ghost that going to make you seriously. Excited to see where this goes.