We may think K-ent is going through dark days but honestly those who have followed along for over a decade remembers as dark if not darker times long ago. On June 30, 2010, K-actor Park Yong Ha succumbed to his depression and committed suicide at home. It’s been 9 years since and I still remember that news breaking like it was yesterday. Even if his loved ones have moved on doesn’t mean he’s forgotten and over the weekend his best friend actor So Ji Sub paid his year visit to Park Yong Ha’s grave bearing flowers and remembrances for his gone too early friend. Another mutual friend was there with So Ji Sub and took pictures to share on SNS to commemorate the anniversary of Park Yong Ha’s passing. It still makes my heart twinge to remember his talent gone so young and all those left heartbroken.
Brings it home how much tragedy in K Entertainment of lives lost.Sadly 10 years later nothing has changed.My heart goes out to him and all those who find themselves in the same situation of losing someone close to suicide. Bless all these brave Souls. ?
I guess Korean adults are more fragile compared to the rest of the world.
Or maybe because they believe death is the end.Muslims believe in afterlife.those who commit suicide would be judge and punish in afterlife.
Jeez! It has nothing to do with religion. Non-religious people and other non-believers are not doing suscide.
There are many suscide bombers who blast themselves because they consider it their way of following ‘islam’.
There are many muslims both is Islamic and non-islamic country who consider their faith a burden and are depressed because it’s forced on them.
This!
thank you! one of the reasons why I am an atheist
This!?
Kelly on This
!!!!??
Ugh you are terrible.
There was also Choi Jin Sil who died just a couple of years before him under similar circumstances. And Jeon Mi Sun who just passed away because of depression.
Depression is the real killer in all these stories and not because Koreans are more fragile but possibly because their society does not have enough help with people who suffer from this insidious disease of the mind.
I have lots of Korean friends and most of them are living constantly under pressure getting to good school, having a high salary job, looks, marriage, kids, in-laws, family obligations, etc. Basically Korean standards are very very high and trying to meet this extreme expectations can lead to negative things. I know they’re trying to create initiatives to tackle this social problem but it’s going to be a tough battle.
The pressure is real. Whether in Korea or elsewhere. It helps if the support system exists to help deal with it. Outside SK, in the west especially, there is an established network of support, whether it gets used or not. In SK (& elsewhere in Asia), the support is either nonexistent or frowned upon. Hence, these kinds of headlines. Reach out to someone. Anyone. Life is difficult. Help is not.
Excessive harassment, spreading of unverified rumors, and online abuse from netizens (Korean AND international) does not help. Even the light brushes I’ve had as a fan have been surprisingly unpleasant (trolls, those who hate someone in hallyu and all their fans, territorial shippers, etc.) These people get ten times the abuse a random fan does. I don’t know how they do it, honestly. Just because a person has a lot of money does not mean we can abuse them. They are humans before they are celebrities, and are as vulnerable as you or I
Mental health also carries quite a stigma there, so even if someone has a straightforward medical condition of an imbalance of brain chemicals that you can take medication for, it’s hard to get help. (I am not saying all mental health issues are straightforward, just that even something simple can be complicated in this setting.)
We need to be less judgmental and more gentle with each other.
I miss him . He was about to film a new drama with Yoon Eun Hye when this tragedy happened.I recommend his drama ” a man’s story” Such an handsome and talented artist.And JUNG DA BIN , and the tragic accident of LEE UN… I miss all of them. They were in my “dreamy kdramaland”…
This!?
I live in a country with a high suicide rate especially amongst young males. Also have family members with depression. It struck my family when I was ten years old and now I am at a grandma’s age. After many years of personal research, discussion with psychiatrists and supporting family members with this illness, I believe it has to do with our diet, a social media oriented lifestyle & societal behavioural changes (where it’s cool to get offended easily and attack people verbally for the slightest intolerance or perceived offence). It doesn’t matter which country you live in, whether high standards or not, people are afflicted with this illness as technology has changed the world drastically. I advise everyone to seek professional help. Asking for help is a strength not a weakness. There is nothing to be ashamed of if you say “I don’t feel good. I need someone to listen to me without being judged.” We need to get out more, walk in the park, interact with people face-to-face, reduce social media time where online bullying is rampant. Even Bill Gates, some Facebook founders and senior executives ban their children from using tablets or any form of social media until they are old enough to manage usage of it. All the artificial light emitting from cellphones, tablets can mess with the brain & body’s natural sleep patterns. Dr Caroline Leaf and naturopath Barbara O”Neill have lectured on causes of depression and how to overcome it. Found them useful to help my family and friends. I myself was bullied online in this blog when I was using a different username until I change it to my current one to reflect my age and gender. I noticed the vast difference it makes. I wish the best to anyone and everyone to have skills to stay healthy emotionally and physically.
Has it really been nine years? Still breaks my heart thinking about it. Just listened to a song of his a few weeks ago. He had such a beautiful voice and was a wonderful actor. Those pictures of So Ji Sub from the funeral. ? ?
It’s heartbreaking when someone passes away at such a young age we as people need to check on our friends and ask are you ok can I help ?
I discovered PYH too late.. wonderful actor and singer… such a beautiful voice and charming smile… i miss him so much
Suicide bombers are nuts. If they want to die they should die alone not dragging other people with them.anyhow according to all of you, the society then should change their mindset so they would not burden these poor souls and proactively advocate good mental health support.but how to change its so deep rooted in their Korean psych.
On another note according to suicide bomber what they’re doing is jihad not terrorism or suicide as such when they die they will ascend to heaven, that’s the reason for their stupidity.
Problem is with the clerics who poision innocent young minds by making them fearful of a heavenly Allah who is supposed to give a good muslim all sort of luxuries in the heaven after the judgment day. These spoiled minds genuinely ‘believe’ that non-believers would go to ‘hell’ and it’s their prime duty to bring the deviants on path shown by Allah, dress like Arab, use Arabic script, think prophets can only be born in Arabic land, follow Arabic rule sharia, ban creative pursuits, trash their own tradition and culture, hate other religions, have irrational fear of other faiths etc. All in all great strategy devised in 7th century to enable Arabic imperialism. Morality doesn’t matter only attainment of divinity does.
Please, don’t generalized Islam like that. Not all Islam is against non muslim. I feel offended. Sorry.
@misssjb
I’m sorry I didn’t want to offend you. I just want Islam to reform to adjust in the modern society and become tolerant of other religions. I want good muslim to stand against politics of the clerics and give up irrational parts of their faith.
The islamophobe in this comments section. What you said is not Islam it’s ISIS pretending to be Islam. The misconception is real
This is not islamophobia but truth that I’ve observed for many years. Most of the muslims believe that their religion is only true and it’s there duty to bring non-believers in their fold. They don’t integrate in the society they live in.