So hopefully this is quell the loud complaints from the last two weeks by K-actress Kim Hye Yoon’s fandom. Her drama Lovely Runner has been doing fantastic in online buzz and positive reviews and the ratings albeit not a hit is still trending upwards from 3% to over 4% and likely to go a 1-2 points higher by the end. Male lead Byun Woo Seok has a lot of promos lined up and Kim Hye Yoon’s fans are upset she didn’t seem to have any. Her agency today revealed she just shot a GQ pictorial, will be a guest on Salon Drip, has an interview with foreign media, and will attend the Lovely Runner end of drama interviews and a fan signing event. She deserves her share of all the attention on LR as she’s carrying the drama as much as Byun Woo Seok, but since this is a breakthrough for him versus she’s been established as a good actress for years perhaps that’s why more attention seems to be on him.
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I thk the overwhelming complaints on her ex and present agency is burdensome on the actress. Hopefully with the clarification, it'll all die down. And people can just focus on the drama itself.
Ep10's crying scene really seals the deal for me. Have always enjoyed her acting. Shes jus really awesome as Sol. Her and BWS are really selling the love that transcends time and time travelling. I thk surpassing 6% is attainable. More than ratings, its very buzzy both domestically and internationally.
i hope she’s not going to Salon Drip alone 😭😭😭 I want Jang Doyeon to tease both of them jokingly and BWS seems like a fun person to go on variety shows
it's official already, both will be in Salon Drip ☺️
The fans are behaving like crazed kpop stans tbh
I think she recently joined the new agency that's owned by Jung Woosung and Lee Jungjae. It must be pretty burdensome and embarrassing for her that her fans spammed and harassed every single post that the agency made about every other artist under them until they had to clarify that yes, they Are obviously going to be promoting the artist under them lol
I'm sure she was well aware of what kind of agency she was joining. She was probably more attracted to the prestige and the influence the owners could wield for her career than wanting their twitter account owner to constantly spam her selfies like her delusional stans want...
I'm usually the first to criticise overzealous fans but the fans were in the right here. They are rightly worried about history repeating after 5 years of mismanagement at Sidus where Hye Yoon barely received any promo and all the benefits from the success of Extraordinary You went to the male leads. If the lack of updates from Artist Company was because of the agency transfer they should have released a short statement to explain that but it seems if the fans hadn't kicked up a fuss and even the media noticed that Hye Yoon had no schedules, they weren't going to update the public at all. They only released this statement in response to media articles from the last couple of days asking why KHY was in a hit
drama but receiving no support from her agency.
The new agency (ACOM) have made two posts about her on April 15th and that's all! It's been nearly a month and they haven't posted a anything since. No pictures, no news, no updates, no posts, no articles, no schedule news, not even a retweet or Instagram Story about her or her drama. How can you have a new actress join your agency starring in the hottest, trending drama (after QoT) and not promote her at all?
Their inaction was even more glaring because Byun Woo Seok's agency have been so on top of things: announcing new activities, photoshoots, variety appearance for him nearly every day, frequently update their social media feed with new pics and videos, reposting the TVN Lovely Runner content, reposting their promo activities and photoshoots.
I don't believe ACOM's excuse that it was because of the agency transfer because they could have still reposted drama content or promo content from other accounts like the Elle photoshoot or TVN as Varo Ent did for BWS. Or you can't tell me they couldn't have taken a few selfies or new pics of Hye Yoon to post on their feed? It seems like they were caught out because their social media is slow and outdated and their communication is poor. Hopefully, they have learned their lesson, will hire someone to manage their social media and do better by KHY. She is too talented to have her career stalled again by yet another incompetent agency.
Lmao so the fans know better than the actress that joined the agency?
Is she a child? Do y'all know how smart of a move she made by joining JWS and LJJs agency? She obviously wants to move her career away from young adult and idol-esque dramas and towards more serious baeksang-baity roles and that new agency is perfect for that.
I'd kill for someone like Seo Yeaji to join that company so that she could finally get the scripts and boost she needs to get her career back on track. ACOM has stated that they handle promotions and schedules based on how their artists want them to, they are laid back if the actor prefers to take a break and active if the actor prefers to do the whole variety shebang.
I need her new age crazy kpop stans to understand that this whole thing just showed her agency that they might have made a mistake taking her on if she comes with such a psychotic fanbase. She would've joined SM or something if all she wanted like her fans was filtered selcas spammed online and to "share" her every step (do u guys even know how weird that sounds?). She's obviously aware of how embarrassing this whole ordeal was if she's indirectly apologising to the agency through an article.
Asking for the agency to keep fans updated and to promote Hye Yoon is not an outrageous ask. Nor is it mutually exclusive that they post some KHY content, update about her career and help her secure award worthy roles. It's not an either/ or situation. Plenty of other top agencies can manage to both regularly promote their actors, communicate with fans and get their actors prestigious roles so why is it so outrageous to hold Artist Company to the same standard? Just because an agency is considered prestigious or exclusive does not mean there are areas it can't improve and judging by the complaints I have seen about ACOM from fans of other actors they represent, their social media and communication is an area where they are lacking.
Despite your condescending and insulting post HyeYoon's fans aren't asking for spamming of filtered selcas or to "share every step". They are asking for communication and for the agency to show support for her in a pivotal time in her career. I also find the weirdly condescending tone of your post hilarious considering that ACOM are certainly not above silly fanservice K-pop type posts when they have just recently posted Kim Jun Han dancing along to a challenge where he acts like a cat! Or posting Park Hae Jin posing for selfies next to bus stop ads bought by his fans.
My supposed "condescension" comes as a response to her fans delusional arrogance in thinking that they know better than the actress herself.
Stop making excuses for the embarrassing harassment of some poor social media manager y'all have been doing for ur crazy crusade.
If y'all were just ~asking~ the agency then KHY wouldn't have had to make indirect apologetic statements now would she? But in her stans' own words that are being posted all over twitter; "Bullying works!" So I'm sure ur well aware that you were all just hoping to somehow bully her agency into spamming her posts online because that's all they can do since she joined ACOM like a month ago!
And since plenty of other top agencies can manage So Much, your Oscar worthy actress should've joined them and not this relatively smaller albeit prestigious agency that isn't known for crazily promoting their actors online but Are known for getting them good scripts.
Kim Hyeyoon is no A lister. She's barely getting some good buzz back after her successful breakout. Expecting a new company she JUST JOINED to wait on her hand and foot to vicariously soothe y'alls egos isn't "holding Artist Company accountable".
The fans of other actors have been a-ok with their handling of them in the past. It's only during this whole whining that some of them have magically popped up to conveniently join y'alls complaints lol
I'd understand being this insane if it was a big capitalist powerhouse like Hybe or something that she was under, or if they had been mismanaging her for years, but she literally JUST JOINED. It was obvious she was in the transition phase. All that's happened now is y'all have made things awkward between her and her new company and embarrassed her in front of her peers.
Patronizing much? That’s the right label for your actions - righteous patronizing. Fans like that are nothing more than narcissistic children. With fans like that who needs anti-fans. What do you know about politics and goings-on behind the scenes in actor’s career ? Who gave you, the strangers, the right to interfere? Take care of your own lives.
That comment was for @Sunny
I've seen this too many times for almost all actors regarding their agency not doing enough. Some even harass the agency's public platform (The comment section can be overwhelming like little kids complaining/swearing as if they have no life).
They beg their Bias to change agency. For goodness sack, there are war going on and people dying.
The majority of complains are for stars who have a great amount of fan base w/ some kind of breakthrough. I recently seen this w/ Go Youn Jung. Your star will be fine
I kinda agree with the fans. Both her bestie and co star in Extraordinary You got popular, but her. She only was known for a girl with so much potential but ended up as the 3rd lead in Snowdrop. She deserves more. But even after the 10th episode, she's still behind her co-star. Poor her.
If you feel sorry for KHY, become a screen writer or director in Korea and give all your scripts to her. Do you know the amount of politics, fights, intrigues when an actor offered or not offered the role? Handsome guys actors bring more fans and they are a rare commodity. And talent doesn’t matter much. Female actresses’ market is oversaturated. Not easy to get main lead roles. Besides, directors, screenwriters’ personal preference always win. Do we even know how much KHY liked or disliked by them? No we don’t. I hope she is well liked in the industry, but there’s nothing we can do if she isn’t. Getting on her agency’s and older actors’ bad side due to her loud fans isn’ helpful for her career.
Lovely Runner was written for her and the director cosigned because he directed her cameo in Goblin. She literally landed this drama on goodwill because Sidus had no power to get her anything substantial. I get what you mean. Korean industry is hierarchy based so its very easy to kill a career by politics alone. But when a drama blows up and you suddenly start getting 100k fans every 24 hours following you, situation could go in any direction. ACOM could have released one statement when this noise started before it became an avalanche. I don't think they ever had such a rabid fanbase for anybody in their roster so had no idea what was about to hit them. She signed with us recently and we are in process of handover, please be patient isn't that hard of a statement to make. The first korean news article set the whole chaos in motion. They should have put out something to reporters right at that moment when they first asked for a statement from them.
@Gem: Exactly this. ACOM could easily have included that in the statement when they announced she had signed with them, or over the past couple of weeks as the buzz about the drama and her role got bigger and bigger or released a statement to the press when the press were asking questions days ago about why KHY wasn't being promoted. The way they handled the situation was very poor indeed but I am sure lessons have been learned on all sides.
It's great she managed to get a chance at this role because she made such a good impression on the director in 'Goblin'. Sad that even with her indie film getting such a good reaction she still had to rely on goodwill to get a role because Sidus were that incapable at managing her career.
I have noticed this kpopization of actors in the last few years. The fans of some of the newer actors have become indistinguishable from cringey kpop stans. They treat the acting industry like it is some popularity contest or a copy paste of their narratives regarding some kpop companies in which the agencies are the villains who have their actors under slave contracts, instead of just being employees who help them choose the best scripts and comfortably prepare for their roles.
Is it? Aren't there also crazy fans following Song Hye-Kyo and Park Shin Hye creating online ruckus all the time in the past. Now, I'm just seeing new and younger actresses in their place instead.
ACOM has never been known for aggressively promoting their artists. Won Jin Ah even complained once that she wanted to increase her Instagram followers and all...Jung Woo Sung laughed it off. While some international fans went crazy, I don't think their strategy is a good one. Choi Yi Hyun's fans were pissed too when her drama aired because beside her promotion ACOM did bare minimum. They have a lot of established A listers. While social media may not hinder them, new artists in this day and age need PR. ACOM definitely should consider changing things. As for Kim Hye Yoon, her fans are traumatized from Sidus ruining things for her. Add that Lovely Runner is a massive hit online with gen z fanbase...things kind of blew up. I hope ACOM learns from this.
It is possible that ACOM might have had a skewed perception of the importance of SNS due to their roster of A listers but that doesn't mean they don't understand the need for PR. Them making a new twitter account and trying to post videos with their actors doing the latest meme trends is proof enough that they are trying to move towards a more proactive online strategy. However this Kim Hye Yoon mess seems to be less about ACOM's handling of social media and more about a group of fans that have an overinflated sense of importance for their actress. The way they mass posted those tweets under posts celebrating Kim Jong Soo's baeksang achievement was pathetic. And if she shot that current drama prior to her joining the agency, there are probably behind the scenes contracts and profit-sharing agreements that hindered ACOM from promoting the show. No agency shoots themselves in the foot by deliberately neglecting a popular item, there are always reasons bts that interfere.
P.S. Jung Woo Sung laughs at everything. Don't take it as an indication of his company's management policies 😅
Women in korean industry always get short end of the stick. I personally didn't like Won Jin Ah's very legitimate concerns being laughed off. She was serious and her career seems stagnated too. The point is, I don't think the fan concerns are invalid in its entirety. Why do you guys think Blackpink's Jisoo got a lead role in Snowdrop over Hye Yoon. Because she is a once in a lifetime acting talent. No....because she is one of the most followed idol on instagram. Publicity matters and ACOM doesn't look like they really are very up to date about social media PR. That's my observation because I follow multiple actresses under them and they don't always have good sense of capturing a moment. When fane blows up, of course it brings noise. But not every discussion fans had were unserious....I hope you are right about ACOM....Hye Yoon's a talented actress. So I hope this time, her talent isn't wasted with mismanagement like it happened with Sidus.
Umm, my mistake. You seem to be one of her fans that were involved in this mess. I thought you were just a neutral observer.
I don't deny the systematic issues regarding women in the industry, but to conflate those issues with fans aggressively blaming a company for 'mistreating' an actress that signed on mere weeks ago seems a bit much....
Jisoo had that boost because she is a kpop idol. She is not an actress. And bar a handful of her peers who have the talent and dedication to actually learn the craft, most idols will remain on the fringes of the industry shooting idol dramas till their fans grow old and/or tired. They won't make the jump to being respected actors.
Kim Hye Yoon getting shafted for her sucks but it is what it is. If she has the talent and grit to claw her way to the top then she will. I'm unaware of her past with Sidus but I do tend to take fan claims of mistreatment with a heap of salt. Not saying you're all lying, but the claims are so rarely true...
Anyway I'm sure you'll see your fave get more promo in the coming days once she properly settles in. Also, bear in mind that she probably weighed all the pros and cons of joining ACOM herself before making the decision.
Won Jin Ah's career stagnation is a shame but it is a competitive industry. I've enjoyed her dramas in the past but I'm under no illusion about the extent of her appeal. I hope she gets that one role that is perfectly suited for her that catapults her to the limelight, but she does need to put in the effort. Otherwise she'll end up like Go Ara, another former(?) ACOM actress who had stunning looks but not the acting prowess to back them. The company can only do so much....
@Sera
Bold of you to assume things. I have seen online chatter...its impossible to not see them while you live watch Lovely Runner. I am not interested in trading insults. I don't know you so why must I be awful to you. I am fan of both Choi Yi Hyun, Kim Hye Yoon and Won Jin A....so yes, I am aware of how the company rolls around them including how Sidus mess happened. They went bankrupt and everyone left one by one. I didn't take part in the mess because I know very well how respectability and hierarchy works in their system. It wouldn't help Hye Yoon's case. But I have exactly 0 power over how others behave. I am responsible for mine. So go scream at somebody else, and have a nice day.
maybe this is just my unpopular opinion but i preferred jisoo's acting to hyeyoon's in snowdrop. i am no fan of jisoo's though. i don't think she'll be able to overcome her enunciation issues. but hyeyoon was pretty bad in that show. it turned me off of watching her future stuff ngl
@Gem
There was no screaming involved here so I'm not sure why you're overreacting? I thought we were just having a low stakes back and forth... But you seem to be getting defensive for some reason, so apologies!
@Sera …I agree with both yours and Gem’s points. I agree with Gem in that the company should be doing more for her PR because the world we live in now do depend on social media presence a lot and she’s young actress so not like she can rest on her laurel awaiting offers. Heck, we even had an article on here a few months ago about veteran actresses not getting offers and I think them not having popular online presence is one of the causes. I also don’t think it’s fair for you to say that she or Won Jin Ah just have to work harder to claws their ways up b/c we all know opportunities are not infinite and talent/ hard work do not count for everything in this industry. So it’s not wrong to expect an actress’ agency to hustle on her behalf. Especially when a drama has good buzz, it’s not wrong for the fans to want their fav to ride that wave.
With that said, I agree with you that fans do tend to go overboard and it’s counterproductive. Spamming about their fav in any untreated posts not only turn off ppl within the industry but also turn off passersby. Personally, I’ve been turned off by a few celebs’ fans so much that I refuse to engage with their fav’s works. It’s unfair, I know, but those kind of fans are just that annoying. I also agree that fans think they know a lot but there must be massive amount of BTS wheeling and dealing that no one outside of a celeb’s team is privy too and that fans are not entitled to that info.
@R
I admit that my points may come off as harsh, but I do personally see them as reflecting reality. Because it is true that the industry favors male actors, but it's also true that the main consumers for these types of dramas are women, and ironically enough, they flock to the men too! So the male actors end up getting more of the hype. Which makes the industry both extremely competitive for (& also overly saturated w/) actresses. Which is why imo unless an actress has that je ne sais quoi, as well as the grit, she won't be able to last very long. She'll have to do twice the work to get half the hype of her male costars.
And re: her company, I just think that these were merely behind the scenes issues & we'll see them promoting her just fine in the future. They are a business first and foremost, and they will not ignore an artist that is on the rise - or the profit that comes with it.
@sera…I think the harsh reality is one of the contributing reasons why her fans are going so hard like this. Social media is a double edge sword in that nowadays, it does give fans a way to help propel their fav forward by creating sufficient noise online for their favs to get noticed. But at the same time, it could create negative blowbacks. Male leads always get more popularity due to as you said, the majority of drama watchers are women so in a way, it’s nice to see a relatively lesser known actress getting this kind of fan support.
Also, i think a lot of fans don’t have your faith in companies’ competency. I don’t follow K acting world a lot but at least I know that in Kpop world, companies drop the balls all the time in promoting their talent leading to their talents to not advance as much. And these are not even small companies but the big 3 like SM, YG, and JYP. So I get the fans’ feelings even if I don’t agree with their over the top-ness.
Finally, my two cents that you definitely can ignore but I can see why Gem became defensive after your comment to them saying that they’re one of those rabid fans despite no indication of that I could see in their earlier reply to you. You may not have meant it that but that was how it came across to me as well and I was surprised cause I thought you two’s discussion was pretty friendly and informative going.
@R
Well I do follow the k-acting world, and have for a while now, so my faith is less in the general goodness or business values of companies and more in the awareness that they like to milk an actor's rise for everything its worth. If the actress really is on the rise, she'll get all the cfs her fans can dream of and more.
And thank u for the unprompted two cents! Its just that I have this terrible habit of reading between the lines & calling out hidden fans when they're trying to downplay their bias in a discussion! I did point it out quite unsubtly, that I admit :p but I still maintain that I wasn't screaming ;)
@R
I am not saying some fans didn't cross lines and I agree, they shouldn't have spammed every posts and instagram account. It was embarrassing to watch for us older fans too but who will listen to anybody when meltdown happens. But I also think its fair to criticize some ways ACOM handles the PR for young artists. And that is unrelated to Hye Yoon. Just broad observation. They can improve on a lot of places. That's all.
@Gem…oh, I definitely didn’t think you agree to or were one of the ones who did those kind of actions. I think all ent companies suck, it’s just a matter of how sucky they are 😅
I haven’t follow Hye Yoon nor watch any of her dramas but I remember reading comments and chatter about how good she was in Extraordinary You so I’ve been keeping a vague eye on her. And from others have said, the fans’ OTT reaction seem also to partially stem from how dirty her former company did hers so I sympathize with their feelings but I wish for theirs and her sake, that the fans would be smarter in going about voicing their concerns.
Fan craze or legit defense of their fave aside, I do think she impressed me more in Lovely Runner than her costar. They had strong chemistry and both acted in very natural ways. But she's the soul to the whole plot IMO and therefore stood out more to me. I wonder all the buzz going to the ML just cos he's MALE and most viewers of school dramas are female. Fangirls still dominate K-ent TBH.
LOL.
The short answer to your “wonder” question is Doh! What took you so long to realize the demographic of K-ent fans? Not that anything is wrong with that. It’s just another fact of life. People are escaping from their own harsh reality any way they can.
What took me so long? That's not even a question! LOL. I'm not that invested in Kdrama until late 2023. I was just a casual Kdrama viewer before 2015 and took a long hiatus afterwards. Who would be so bored in real life to even do a serious survey of demographics of Kdrama fans? LOL.
If K-ent in your context includes Kpop, I'll definitely disagree with you. There are MANY Kpop fanboys, perhaps even more given how many male youtubers reacting to Kpop vids and groups. As to Kdrama, depending on genres just like all dramas in other countries, there may be more female fans or male fans. I'm sure for example, there are more male fans than female fans of Squid Games.
Perhaps you don't have much idea of the demographics of K-ent either. LOL
You're here with others bashing the guy just for being male.
People did not even know BWS existed before the fame he is gaining through LR.
BWS is getting buzz because his agency is doing amazing work after the first episode of LR aired besides his character in LR is gaining fans one episode after another on his own and the character brings fans to KWS.
BWS's agency is truely doing what a good agency should do. Do media play as much as possible while the iron is too hot.
He has being working for many years and it's finally now he is getting fame.
The actresses signed to Varo (BWS's agency) are doing well and the agency work well for them.
KHY should leave her agency when the contract's end comes. If she chose another awful agency, it's because she is stupid.
At least she got the image of being a victim and being used by others so she got a pitiful image on her. There are people who like this kind of thing.
@Kimmie, lol. Bashing the guy? I don't care about him or the actress cos I'm not a fan of either. I just honestly gave my review of their acting in the drama. It's what it is, no less, no more. LOL.
I don't digest nor register your somehow lengthy explanations about their agencies and whatnot cos I have no interest in their business off screen at all. Sorry you just wasted your time.
I win in this.
You give me your time, your attention and your reply. Nice.
@Kimmie, your self-proclaimed winning has not real bearing at all. Nobody cares. Fine if you're happy about that. LOL.
@kimmie LMAO “I wIn In ThIs 🤓”
Is your life that miserable and boring that your “win” is having another person in a KDrama blog reply to your whole “waaahh males are so oppressed, waaahh” spiel? Pick-me girls like you are so embarrassing lmao. Aside from being a pick-me girl who whiteknights for males, you also have zero reading comprehension. How is Somebody pointing out that BWS benefits from mostly female demographic of KDrama “bashing him for being a male”? It's literally just a fact that most KDrama watchers are women and thus, will hype up the male actors more because they're attracted to the male actors. It doesn't mean that people are denying that BWS is talented, he IS talented and have a great agency, but he also benefits from being a male in the K-ent industry. Both things can be true at the same time.
F**kin hell, I don't even like Somebody's opinions most of the time, but I'm with her on this one. You declaring yourself as some kind of “winner” is super pathetic, I literally got secondhand embarrassment from your comment 💀
The fans obviously have positive intent and have legitimate concerns, but the way they went about it is quite embarrassing for her. Complaining under posts about other actors is incredibly disrespectful. She's new in the agency, and probably wants to make a positive impression. DM their account, or post under something relevant and @ the company's handle.