This makes me wonder how long he has been doing this to other actresses?:
A scene from “Moebius”
Influential filmmaker Kim Ki-duk is Korean prosecutors’ latest target after an actress accused him of sexually abusing her while filming several years ago.
The actress, 41, whose name was withheld, but known to have worked in Kim’s film “Moebius” (2013), recently sued him through the Seoul Central Prosecutors’ Office. Prosecutors then launched an investigation, according to reports Thursday.
The actress didn’t sue until recently because she thought her career could be jeopardized. After she quit acting early this year, she told the Federation of Korea Movie Workers’ Union of the incident and sued Kim.
She said Kim slapped her during the filming in March 2013 to “help her get in the mood” and forced her to perform a sex scene in a way that wasn’t in the script. Embarrassed, she quit the role.
The movie’s production staff supported her claim. The union quoted the witnesses as saying Kim slapped the actress “three times” and demanded she grope her co-star’s penis while shooting the scene. She originally believed a replica would be used. She argued with Kim over the scene but eventually gave in. [Korea Times]
This is a really horrible story about a boy trapped in a locked bus in Gwangju:
Officials from Gwangju’s office of education and local kindergarten groups visit a 5-year-old boy who was left behind on a school bus for more than seven hours on July 29, 2016. He has yet to regain consciousness. [GWANGJU METROPOLITAN OFFICE OF EDUCATION]Choi was 5 years old when he was left behind on a school bus on July 29 last year. The driver neglected to check whether any students were aboard and his teacher forgot to take roll.
For seven and a half hours, Choi was alone, barely able to breathe in the scorching heat. Temperatures hit more than 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) in Gwangju, where he lived, and by the time police found him, his body temperature hovered around 42 degrees. He was unconscious.
Choi now lies on a hospital bed in Chonnam National University Hospital, unmoving except to occasionally cough. In the year since, he has yet to regain consciousness.
Choi is one of a number of similar cases. In January, a 3-year-old was left on her kindergarten bus for more than an hour in Daegu after coming back from a field trip. In February, a 6-year-old boy was left for 40 minutes on a school bus in Gwangyang, South Jeolla. The child was rescued after a passerby called police. In May, a 5-year-old in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi, was abandoned for two and a half hours.
Choi’s mother spends day and night by his side, waiting for her son to wake up. The hospital fees are being covered by the bus operator and the Gwangju School Safety and Insurance Association. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but the bus driver and the teacher were both given a few months in jail for not accounting for all the students getting off the bus.
This article focuses on the trash left on Korean beaches, but the litter problem isn’t just isolated to beaches. This same problem is also occurring in Korea’s mountains where picnickers leave others to clean up their messes as well:
Street cleaners sort trash at Haeundae Beach in Busan, July 29. / Yonhap
From beer cans to water bottles, leftover chicken, watermelon rinds and dirty clothes, major beaches across the nation are suffering from summer vacationers leaving tons of trash mounting daily.
Local governments have stepped up efforts to clean the mess, putting in more manpower and expanding cleaning hours, but had little to no success.
At Millak Waterside Park in Busan, collected trashes during weekdays an average of 2.5 tons of trash is collected each day, according to local officials. This doubles on weekends.
It takes four hours for 10 city street cleaners and volunteers to sort through and properly recycle the trash.
“I’m OK with people enjoying their vacation by eating and drinking near the beach,” said a city street cleaner. “What I don’t understand is why they disappear without cleaning up their mess.” [Korea Times]
Via a reader tip comes this story of a Korean drama supposedly promoting Islamaphobia:
New Korean comedy-drama Man who Dies to Live has caused an uproar among netizens who have accused it of misusing Islamic values and portraying a false image of Muslims in its scenes.
According to yonhapnews.co.kr, the drama, which has been broadcasted on MBC TV since July 19, tells the story of Jang Dal-goo who travels to a fictional country in the Middle East, gets rich, receives a “count” title and then becomes a citizen under the name of Saeed Fahd Ali.
He later returns to Korea to reunite with his long-lost daughter and her husband.
The actor who plays the main character of Jang Dal-goo, Choi Min-soo, appears as a stereotypical Arab man by wearing thawb, headscarf and black robe. (……..)
“That drama is sharing the wrong image of Islam and Muslims in general. It’s a total piece of garbage,” wrote Twitter user @mayssemgh, who also created a series of tweets on why MBC should not air the drama. [Asia One]
Here is my favorite quote in the article:
“It’s literally just ruining Islam’s image and making fun of Muslims.”
I would say mass terrorism, ISIS, Al Qaeda, suicide bombings, oppression of women, slave markets, beheadings, etc. have done a fine job of ruining Islam’s image well before this stupid drama ever aired.
It looks like everything turned out alright for Lee Boo-jin’s divorce. Her ex-husband was trying to get a billion dollars out of her and instead the court orders her to pay him $7.6 million. She probably has that amount of money lying under her mattress:
The Seoul Family Court granted a divorce Thursday to Hotel Shilla CEO Lee Boo-jin and Im Woo-jae, former adviser of Samsung Electro-Mechanics, ordering Lee to pay Im 8.6 billion won ($7.6 million) as part of the division of their assets.
The court gave Lee, the eldest daughter of bedridden Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee, custody of the couple’s 10 year-old son.
The Thursday ruling is a setback for Im, whose 15-year-old marriage with Lee unraveled in 2014 when Lee sued for divorce. He had asked for 1.2 trillion won in dividing their assets.
The couple was represented at the court’s ruling by their lawyers. Under the ruling, Im will have visitation rights with his son only once a month between 11 a.m. on a Saturday and 4 p.m. the following day. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
