We all have read and seen the news about the ultimate highs of Korean artist who shot up to fame internationally. BTS, Crush, Dean, IU, Blackpink - just to name a few. To all of us that is a great achievement, but there is also a high price to pay for the fame. These artists are pushed to their limits with countless hours of practice, and the constant demand to maintain their appearance. Research done by the Institue of Social Studies at Yonsei University which interviewed over 260 artists showed that 40% of them said they have mild to severe clinical depression along with suicidal thoughts.
As we count down the final days of 2019, we have already seen four amazing South Korean artists take their lives. Actress Jeon Mi-seon, known for role in Memories of Murder 2003, was found dead in the bathroom at a hotel in Jeonju, where she hung herself on June 29, 2019. The forty-eight year old's last phone call was made twenty minutes before her death to her father. She is survived by her husband Park Sang-hoon (director), and an eleven year old son.
On October 14, 2019 South Korean Kpop girl band and former f(x) member Sulli took her own life as well. The twenty-five year old had been assailed by negative comments and cyberbullying. Sulli had been battling depression and suicidal thoughts when the bullying just overwhelmed her. Her death lead the government to pass a law "Sulli's Law", named after the late celebrity, to criminalize and deter malicious cyberbullying.
Words like scandal, sex abuse and corruption brings the "Buring Sun" scandal to the forefront of our minds, and it also takes us to the next tragic artist life. Goo Hara, one of Sulli's closest friends also took her own life. The beautiful singer was only twenty-eight when she took her own life on November 24, 2019. She had been a member of a South Korean Kpop girl band KARA. Goo Hara was recorded on video crying, and on her knees begging her ex-boyfriend Choi Jong Bum to not release their sex video he made without her knowledge. He spent time in prison for beating Goo Hara, threatening multiple times to release their conjugal sex tape both before and after his incarceration.
It's not only female artist that are affected by depression, as depression knows no prejudice and plays not favorites. And though famous individuals do not have a monopoly on this affliction, it is unfortunate that it took famous people to die before many were made aware of it. Lee Jae-ho, who was known by his stage name Cha In Ha, a South Korean male actor, took his own life on December 3, 2019. The twenty-seven year old was friends with Sulli and Goo Hara. Cha was a member of the KPOP boy band Surprise U, and just finished up acting in a Korean drama Love with Flaws.