Park Sung Hoon Drops Out of Upcoming Sageuk Romance K-drama A Tyrant’s Chef with Yoona
The drama gods giveth and the drama gods taketh away, and in this case within the span of one very eventful month for K-actor Park Sung Hoon. Early in December he was cast in upcoming time travel romance sageuk drama A Tyrant’s Chef with Yoona and it would be one of his highest profile male lead roles. Then his ensemble role in Squid Game 2 came out at the end of December and his role as a transgender former Marine playing the game for his gender reassignment surgery became a fan favorite. All was well until he posted on SNS a screenshot of a SQ parody film which turned out to be hardcore porn. He deleted it immediately but the damage was done, he had to apologize profusely but the K-netizens continue to be furious with him, both for the inappropriate content given that he’s an entertainer and needs to set a good moral example and more importantly that it was posted on the heel of the Jeju Airlines plane crash disaster when the country was in official mourning. Call it a dumb mistaken compounded by bad timing. Now he’s confirmed to have dropped out of A Tyrant’s Chef reportedly in an amicable mutual decision by his agency BH Entertainment and the production of the drama. As much as its disappointing to see him punished for something with no meaningful consequence and to which he apologized sincerely, this is best for the production as his involvement will continue to be harped on by K-netizens.
It may seem dumb to those outside of Korea but each work place has their ways and that plane crash and period of mourning is not the time to crack jokes and make mistakes as he did and when netizens put their minds to to fight they will not relent especially to sensitive issues as this. Different culture with consequences to differences we may not comprehend but it is what it is.
Most of the knetz have been saying that if only the drama genre wasnt romance, it wouldnāt have come to this. I found the whole thing rather mortifying on his behalf, but seriously I hope this is the last of the consequences specific to this incident. There are far more serious crimes committed in Kent that needs to be crucified over this.
On another note, Iām curious to see who theyāll get to replace him.
Korea pretends to be a sinless country yet they love the steamy kissy kissy scenes in their kdrama lead couples. Are there no men buying sex there? Are there no LGBTQ or trans people? Of course there are. They do everything the west does only behind closed doors. As long as the world doesnāt see it, it doesnāt exist. Donāt be fooled by all that bowing and nice polite chat. Korea is the vainest country on the planet.
Sorry but forced rape videos are not just regular porn… this video is a different level. I have read about this video and it is awful.
And, please dont put LGBTQ into these. You are practising discrimination by association. Being in LGBTQ group is not disgraceful/shame nor is it something you can use to compare to rape porn watchers. Such a ignorant comment to make. Korea is not all pure minded people, that I agree but LGBTQ are not sinners either.
This! You expressed my thoughts exactly.
Well said @HL! Kazza is showing her own obvious prejudices. How can she compare kissing or the existence of comparing LGBTQ and trans people to vile porn where women are r**ped to death. Absolutely disgusting.
āKorea pretends to be a sinless countryā
For real. But they have no complaints that p*do actor Song Young Chang and ra*pist Lee Jin Wook keep getting roles, in a huge show like Squid Game, no less. Park Shi Hoo too.
I mean, I’m not justifying promoting a r*pe porn. But it’s not even 100% proven that that was what Park Sung Hoon intended to do.
And let’s not pretend that these people ever cared about women as a whole. Seungri is free now. The other people involved in the Burning Sun scandal got only 5-6 years sentence. The people involved in the Miryang gang r*pe case also were treated leniently while the female victim was shamed. This Park Sung Hoon fiasco just looks more like a case of Koreans just wanting their celebs to have pristine images and them wanting to act all high and mighty than them actually being concerned for women. Let’s be honest, Korea as a whole is an absolutely misogynistic country. That’s why the 4B Movement is even spreading there now. I don’t believe that they’re cancelling Park Sung Hoon because they care about women. If they really care about women, they would’ve went hard punishing the people who were proven to have harmed women, not cancelling someone who may or may not have shared a p*rn photo š¤·š»āāļø
Miryang R case is still one of the most heartbreaking case.
It was rape porn. Donāt care how good of an actor he is. Dude got what he deserved.
To be fair, it was a romance. I feel like it would be hard for anyone to imagine him as a romantic lead after he posted something like that. Romantic leads in kdramas are supposed to only have pure eyes for their female leads (even if that may not be realistic). Not only was the timing bad with the country in mourning during the Jeju Airline incident, but Korea is rife with misogyny. Just think about the Nth Room case, Burning Sun, and others we have not heard about. There’s no way he’s going to be accepted as a romantic lead after posting something like that no matter how good of an actor he is.
Ya…I heard his agency gave a good reason but I doubt public buy it…
He can go cont watching rape r*rn as he likes now or shares whatever… Im glad to hear this news!
I don’t understand how people already assumed that he was watching r*pe porn. Isn’t there a possibility that he just came across that and posted thinking that was funny, since he is a part of the actual series? How can one even tell that it was a r*pe porn from the poster alone? I think he should be given a chance and not ostracized like this for such a small misunderstanding.
I doubt he’s going to get ostracized from the industry all together, but being a romantic lead is probably out of the question in the short term. Koreans, especially the women, probably don’t want their kdrama male leads to even be jokingly sharing r*pe porn? Romance kdramas sell a certain perfect image. Even if the male lead is prickly in personality, he’s devoted. It’s too soon to take a chance on him with romances right now anyway. Give people the time to forget. His agency is BH and he’s a legit good actor, he’ll be fine in the long run.
I’m thinking the same thing. I mean, I’m not saying the guy is an angel, none of us here knows him personally, after all. But I just find it hard to believe that he, a literal rising star in a conservative country, would be stupid enough to share a sexually explicit photo on his social media. From what I know, Korea is super strict when it comes to p*rn, so why would anyone want to provoke the ire of these conservative-ass Koreans, let alone an actor like him who’s on his way to stardom after years playing supporting roles? I don’t know that the exact truth is, but personally I really just find it hard to believe he’d do that knowing it would do nothing but make him the Korean public’s target and earn him hate. Others are free to not support him, especially women who are tired of misogyny everywhere. I get it, it’s understandable to feel upset at the thought of a celebrity watching a porn that degrades women. However, I personally wouldn’t cancel the guy as long as it’s not proven without a shadow of a doubt that he did watched that r*pe porn.
Even in a western country i don’t picture a celebrity posting this kind of “stuff”, even more with women who find courage to fight against vil humans with fair or unfair issues ( Miryang rape case or GisĆØle PĆ©licot ) so i don’t know what he was thinking about , but he may have been drunken or under drugs . If not…
GisĆØle Pelicot case is just so awful…such a brave woman…truly brave to face public so courageously. I feel so much pain, anger on her behalf. It worries me there may be more victims who are either in silence or kept in the dark.
Regardless he made a innocent mistake as his agency explained, him being removed from this drama and laying down for a period is best for him currently.
Agree @Hl, he made an innocent mistake as his agency said, but is it a mistake to watch or have this kind of stuff !!! I’m not a great feminist but if he was a woman, he would have lost much more than a role . I’m stating that and he is an actor i liked to watch in other dramas .
PSH a good actor? Nah IMO. Not knowing any of his scandals, I always found his similes and sensational looks at women on screen CREEPY, not romantic at all. So now he’s exposed?! Appearance somehow reflects your heart and thinking.
@Somebody, i respect your opinion as for me there is one actor that makes me feel uneasy since nearly his debut : Lee Byung Hun, as for appearnce,i never thought that for example, Park Yoo Chun was such a …when all feminine co stars were raving about him as Han Ji Min, or even the little Kim Soo Hyun was a big fan . Kang Ji Hwan was also a big disapointment even if he has a mischievous gaze! …The Picture of Dorian Gray ?
He really screwed up. He was getting fantastic notices and was a fan favourite from SG2, about to get a high profile romantic lead role after so long. Whatever the truth is of him posting that image I think everyone can agree he was very dumb and now he is paying for it.
I think he will be OK in the long run because he has the mighty BH Entertainment behind him, he is talented and considered a supporting character actor rather than a lead actor so whilst it will be too unbelievable to see him in a romance role anytime soon he can still continue with supporting roles after a short hiatus.
From what I saw from his casting announcement the FL’s fans weren’t thrilled by his casting because he is mainly known for his villain roles, older and isn’t exactly a visual so I think lowkey most of them are pleased he is gone. I bet they will cast some young hot eye candy actor now instead
I remember in Squid Game Season 1, Squid Game actor O Yeong-su who gain some popularity from the drama but was found guilty of sexual misconduct. His career tank after.
Park Gung Hoon is definitely not in that stage at all, he is not accused by anyone of any misconduct that will tank his career for life. No one knows the truth but it is a shame to loss his fame due to such a ‘careless’ act.
Apparently, Lee Chae Min is being considered as the replacement. He looks too young to be the king and isn’t really a strong actor. Also, Yoona is not exactly the best actor so, it seems like this drama is already doomed.
Huh? I guessed they would go for a ~visual~ next but I thought they would at least cast somebody in their 30s. I don’t understand how they went from a 39 year old experienced actor like PSH to a 24 year old rookie born in 2000. Are they going to change his character from King to Crown Prince or something? He is literally a decade younger than Yoona (1990) too. This is such a weird choice of replacement.
Age gap is not the issue but the problem is the guy looks young and he is still starting. There are actors like Lee Jae wook who is just 2 yrs older than LCM but looks older. He would have been at least believable and LJW is a strong actor as well. Not sure if Yoona can pull this off alone sincr I find her to be mediocre actor.
The gap between PSH and LCM is so wide. The only thing they have in common is being male and tall lmaoš¤£ There are more talented actors who fit the role and would also take second billing to Yoona. Would have expected them to cast somebody in the vein of Lee Joon Hyuk (but he is probably getting tons of lead role offers now after the success of Love Scout), my perennially underemployed fave Kim Jae Wook or Chang Ryul. I guess it was very slim pickings as they had to find a new male lead in less than a week.
From the plot synopsis it seems like Yoona’s charcter will carry the story so maybe it will be manageable for LCM. The plot is reminiscent of ‘Mr Queen’ aside from the male to female angle.
At least Lee Chae Min is openly dating so Yoona will be saved from the crazy shippers. The delulu shippers from her drama with Lee Junho are already bad enough.
@Sunny At this point, I’m wondering if it’s actually Kim Jae Wook’s choice not to take on projects for now? IDK, but it’s just unbelievable to me that someone as good-looking, talented, and versatile as him isn’t getting any offers when actors who are mediocre in looks and talent are getting cast left and right lol
@Sullyoon: I’m also wondering if it’s by choice by Kim Jae Wook because it doesn’t make sense. I know he has also done some theatre and I think he has a side hustle of a furniture store or something so maybe he is more focused on those things than onscreen acting. I don’t know. It’s such a pity as he is such a talented, handsome and charismatic actorš£ I will keep fancasting him anyway
He looks creepy. I never see him as a romantic lead anyway. Lee Chae Min is dashing but Yoona is such a bad actress though.