(usartical) The untimely death of actor Lee Sun-kyun this week is the most recent in a run of shocking celebrity deaths in South Korea, a nation where public figures are frequently held to the highest standards and has one of the highest suicide rates in the world.
In the Academy Award–winning film “Parasite,” Lee played Park Dong-ik, the affluent Park family’s father. Lee was found dead in his automobile on Wednesday morning, with authorities speculating that he had committed suicide. He was scheduled to be buried later on Friday.
The 48-year-old father of two was being questioned for a long time by police at the time of his death, and they were looking into reports of his using illegal drugs.
One of Lee’s attorneys
Lee passed away at a time when South Korea has seen a rise in alleged celebrity suicides, particularly among the country’s youthful K-pop stars.
Every time one of these tragedies has occurred, discussions on the mental health of South Korean public figures and celebrities have resurfaced, highlighting the difficulties they have in the cutthroat and demanding Korean entertainment sector as well as the consequences for those who are thought to have committed transgressions.
Star Kim Jong-hyun, popularly known as Jonghyun, committed suicide in December 2017 at the age of 27. K-pop artist Sulli, who was formerly in the band f(x), was discovered dead at home at the age of 25 two years later, seemingly from suicide.
Goo Hara, a 28-year-old K-pop artist who was formerly in the girl band Kara, was discovered dead around six weeks later. The cause of death was not disclosed by the police, however Goo had previously disclosed that she was depressed.
Additionally, the 25-year-old Moon Bin of the well-known boy band Astro passed away in April of this year, leaving K-pop fans all over the world devastated.
Particularly K-pop idols are recognized to be prone to
For many years, it was standard practice for K-pop celebrities to be single; in fact, several of them had contracts that specifically prohibited them from dating.
When two well-known celebrities of the era admitted to dating in 2018, music industry executive Bernie Cho told USARTICAL “Scandals involving drinking, drugs, or even dating not only make waves in the entertainment news section but also the finance news section because many of the biggest Korean music management companies are also publicly traded stocks on the Korean stock exchange.”
Slowly but surely, attitudes toward dating have started to shift, partly due to fans’ increased acceptance of celebrity pairings. However, the entertainment sector in South Korea continues to be a high-stress workplace with demanding training schedules and expectations from