If ever a K-drama should just cut it losses I would suggest upcoming intended to be pre-produced Four Sons just call it quits now. The latest filming problem may be its biggest to date with reports that male lead Park Hae Jin has simply stopped showing up on set and not filmed anything since early November. The drama made the negative news cycle during the summer when the drama was reportedly suspended from filming for failing to pay the cast and crew. Later on the troubles increased when female lead Nana quit but was then replaced by rising actress Lee Si Ah. Now with Park Hae Jin halting filming, with a war of words against the production company for whose fault it is, I really don’t see how to salvage this mess.
I sided with Park Haejin during the Cheese fiasco. But now looking back, it seems like he is the problematic one. Him and his production company is a huge mess. I wonder who will still want to work with him.
How did you come to that conclusion?
The irony is that this project was initiated by him too. A mega ego boosting project together with the Cheese in Trap movie that was also produced by his management company. If the investments came from the multiple cfs he did in korea after playing victim in CITT tv series saga, I think the funds would have dried up by now. And you’re right, good luck to him finding a TV station or producers who will still wanna work with him… meanwhile everyone else he has thrown under the bus is fortunately still surviving and some thriving…
I don’t understand why you call producing project an ego boasting project. What a very sad slave mentality you have got there!
While I don’t agree with your first point but I agree that PHJ agency has some management issues. I don’t like there style of putting other actors down just to get ahead, CITT fiasco as an example.
*their style (mgnt)
Its the content. FOUR of him… geez.. can it get more egomaniacal than that???
Pushing boundaries is being egomaniac for you. Where on earth are you from?
It should be included that his contract went out in the beginning of November. And that`s when he stopped showing up, and also they have just shot 6-8 episodes. So at least halv a drama is missing. Im siding whit him on this one, people can`t expect him to put his life on hold, when the whole drama is a mess.
I’ve heard he’s producing this drama, or at least he has some affiliations to the production company, so I don’t get why he’s doing this. Plus, the premise of the drama itself is ridiculous and serves no other purpose except to boost his career.
Yep… the drama was meant to serve as a extension to his heroic role in Man to Man. Funny thing is that that sub standard drama was also produced by his management and savaged by critics and fans alike. But the saving grace came from Netflix who overpaid a lot for it. They probably thought they could pull the same trick again and just use his “big” enough name to cover over bad production values, writing, directing, editing that was apparent in the movie version of CITT and teamed up with the equally dodgy Victory Contents to helm yet another production with the PHJ branding all over. I guess finally the shoddiness caught up. For the sake of whatever remaining popularity he still has, hope they reach a settlement quickly outside of the media. If not, its just gonna get very very ugly with the you said, he said, she said and this time that victim thing just aint gonna work anymore cos ppl are already tired of the mess he keeps embroiling himself in.
Hmmm, it’s starting to look like bad attitude now. I’m done.
I did a little more research and it seems like the production company was really incompetent. I’m not really a fan of Park Hae Jin but he did seem to try his best for this project. I think he renewed his contract multiple times for the project and finally decided that it was enough. I think he’s in the right to not show up for work in November considering that he renewed his contract back in March, then a couple more times until November. I’m guessing he doesn’t want to renew again so the production company is trying to bad mouth him. Hopefully the lawsuits will reveal what happened and who was truly at fault.
It seems like he is the problematic one.It should have been telling when the drama production couldnt land a tv station to air the drama at the very beginning.
I agree with Michelle. Park Hae Jin is not the problematic one. It takes guts to go against the tide and stand firm for what’s right!
This is not the first time we hear about actors not being paid even long after the drama finishes
Mountain movement initiated the project and is a coproducer on this.
Mountain Movement Story was the co-producer along with Victory Contents, from other articles that I’ve read. So this issue is not with Park Hae Jin himself and his agency which ironically is also called Mountain Movement. They are actually two separate entities with the same name.
Gosh what a great line up for Four Sons only to have it falter and it’s unfortunate that the drama has now stalled as I was really keen on Nana and PHJ starring alongside each other. Hopefully he’ll pick something up in the New Year. I like him as an actor.
Just cancel this drama
He has been so incredibly patient with them given them chance after chance even after the leading lady walked out on the drama because of the lack of payment by the production team. It is time to cut his losses and move on to something else.
I don’t think it’s that simple. His agency was one of the producers and creator of this drama and partly responsible for the whole fiasco.
I don’t want to say I told you so but…
Then SHUT UP! I’m always on Park HaeJin side, he’s a beautiful person inside and out! I hate fake get along go along people that have no loyalty! I’m TEAM PARK HAEJIN ALLL THE WAY! I’M SO SAD WE PROBABLY WONT GET TO SEE THIS AWESOME DRAMA COMPLETED ?
I just think the whole thing was a complete mess to start with with poor negation on behalf of the production company and talent representation Agencies…A rushed job lack of understanding of all parties and commitment the eventual downfall…The bottom line is the actors agents need to do the job they get paid for properly on behalf of actors before rushing into anything…this is a good example of shit deals all round.
Bad actors management and poor production standards contributed to this mess…Actors agents who represent
actors often make bad decisions rushing negotiations in order to make the bucks leaving the talent exposed and often vaulnerable to poor conditions rife in the korean industry and deperemental to the actors involved.
Wait why are people coupling PHJ and his agency into one? PHJbis his own individual who may have his own reasons. Producers walk away from projects all the time due to various reasons. If he tried to be patient and work with him then he did his best. He is not a slave tied to death with them. It’s a business decision on his part and make no mistake no matter how much I’m tied to a project, if they wear my patience out and my kindness I would walk away and I’m sure many of you would do.
If that makes me Egocentric then let me and my ego be.
I just commented a bit ago, something happened, got deleted so I’ll start all over. I started to say I felt sad, bad at reading this article regarding problems in completing the project, even the comments. But I like Park Jae Jin, watched him for awhile now, he is an excellent actor with a charitable heart, very compassionate guy, sincere in his acting talent as well as now big representative of his management company; is what I get from seeing him from the beginning. I hope, wish, pray even, that all the disruptions, problems, roller-coaster rides this production “Four Sons” has suffered end quickly because it takes away a lot for the actors,crew, production staff to stress out on salary or lack of proper agents management. Everyone working on the production deserves to be paid for their hard work as they work for the success of this production, so everyone will benefit from the very top to the end. I’m sure PHJ did his best to salvage, to ensure, to represent, solve whatever problems that came about. I just hope that it’s not too late to still hang in there, pick up the pieces, learn from this, and try to boost everyone’s morale to just get the job done satisfactorily like it should. Is it really too late to continue this production, iron out the problems, so everyone won’t suffer anymore being disappointed. I think it’s all about “can we talk” episodes that they need to get involved in. Lack of communication doesn’t cut it. As a fan of his, movie-goer, Tv viewer, I like to see all this resolved and continue where they left off with positive in-puts, ideas, desire to work it out this time. Just don’t waste anymore money, energy, time & effort but with positive results in working hard to make this production a success, then everyone will benefit. Hate to see it end just like this just before the holidays, before the New Year starts, should start on a positive note where everybody should be happy looking forward to a brighter future. Fighting.