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Popcorn time: MyDramaList Writer publishes a career guide to KHJ & the site's members are not happy


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I was on the fence about posting this. I still find it pretty funny so I decided to share. If anyone decides to stir the pot and make matters worse on MDL, I will delete this OP, so please leave the situation as is since I'm pretty sure the damage has been done. Also, I highly, highly discourage any personal attacks on the users mentioned that are irrelevant to their words, so don't be an asshole and just enjoy the show. 
 
So, on to the good stuff. MDL apparently likes to publish "Stalker's Guides" which are essentially editorials on certain actors/actresses and their careers. If you haven't guessed already, they're intended to be positive and are more or less written by fans themselves. 
 
Although the article was stated to be published on March 29th, comments have been made starting from the past couple of days, so it's probably and error. The article has over 70 comments and 6,000 views. Comparatively a stalker's guide was made on Kim Sun Ah on April 2nd and it has 4500+ views with 40 comments.
 
Anyway, someone who writes a Kim Hyun Joong appreciation article is bound to expect backlash, right? Well this person did and stated the following in the article:

I would like to ask you in advance: please leave hateful comments out of this article. I don’t write this to start a comment war. I would like to introduce an actor’s life work and not his disputable scandals.

 
Ok, ok. Now let's read the article. Link is here but it's pasted in the spoiler just in case.
 

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The first Korean drama I’ve seen in my life was Playful Kiss in 2013, so it’s not a coincidence that my first bias was also the main actor of that drama, Kim Hyun Joong. I fell in love with his character (and 1000 watt smile) after the very first episode, and when I finished the drama, my friend told me, "You know he is a singer, right?" So I watched the MV Lucky Guy and listened to all of his song and started to like his singing too... in a nutshell: I found my first and only "hubby†in this world. (This was also the beginning of the road to hell of watching dramas 24h daily without sleep…lol) 
I would like to ask you in advance: please leave hateful comments out of this article. I don’t write this to start a comment war. I would like to introduce an actor’s life work and not his disputable scandals.

Kim Hyun Joong’s (I will abbreviate his name as KHJ) career was started in 2005, when he debuted as a member of the newly formed group SS501. After their success in Korea they became significant representatives of Hallyu in Japan, and KHJ accepted smaller cameos and guest roles in some dramas. His first big role was Yoon Ji-hoo’s character in Boys Over Flowers in 2009.
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Boys Over Flowers
2009 
Romantic comedy 
Plot: Geum Jan Di (Go Hye Sun) accidentally got a scholarship and became a student of the elite Shinhwa High School, but she is bullied by her classmates due to her low-class origin. She gets in big trouble when she stands up to infamous group of the most handsome and elite boys of the school, the F4.

 

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Yoon Ji-hoo is one of the most well-known examples of so-called Second Lead Syndrome. Every viewer felt in love with his warm, lovely, sympathetic, and sophisticated character who was the exact opposite of the main character Gu Jun Pyo’s (Lee Min Ho). He is like every girl’s dream prince: the handsome boy who is always in the right place at the right time, understands your deepest feelings, saves you from the claws of the bullies and makes you question your feelings. The flower-boy 24-years-old KHJ gained most of his popularity and recent fan base due to this role, in spite of the fact his acting skills were more than imperfect. Even I think that this time his acting was awful (and his long blondish hair was the worst he ever had XD), but the drama was novel and defined his era, so no one cared about that. I think the choice of KHJ wasn’t accidental. This drama is a manga adaptation (Hana Yori Dango), and Korea was the third country to adapt it after the 3 Japanese (movie and season 1&2) and 2 Taiwanese productions, which means it has an inseparable bond with Japan. KHJ had been very popular in Japan already, and it was just incidental that his quiet and shy real-life character was perfect for the role.
Anyway, sorry babe but:

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Playful Kiss
2010 
Romantic comedy 
Plot: Oh Ha Ni (Jung So Min) has been in one-sided love with her classmate Baek Seung Jo, the diligent and handsome student, for a very long time. When Ha Ni is forced to live with the boy and his family due to an accident, their love starts to bloom. 

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KHJ’s second role was Baek Seung Jo. It was yet another manga adaptation of Itazura Na Kiss (It Started With a Kiss). The very intelligent but cold, unkind, and emotionless high school boy, Seung Jo, is your typical boyfriend material whom every girl loves in spite of his character, because subconsciously they hope he can be changed by their love into a devoted soul mate. KHJ acting skills got better in this drama. He was finally the male lead, and in spite of being 1 year younger in Boys Over Flowers in this he looks younger, fresher, and more handsome. (The brown hair is the cutest on him, it doesn’t matter if curly or straight :3 ) I’m still able to watch and love this drama even after 2 years of watching similar high school themed love-coms because its storyline is so light, lovely, and (as I always call: rabu-rabu pinku) simple. There is no heavy fate behind the characters, no real powerful rivals, only rivals-to-be, and the characters' love blooms early. We don’t have to wait until the last episode where we see a 5-minute scene about the future; we can see the slow development of their love. Nevertheless, I'd say the character wasn't a big challenge this time.

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The SS501’s contract with DSP Media expired in 2010 after the promotion of their hit song Love Ya (which won the Music Bank at that time). The members started to move apart from each other after they signed with different companies and although they never officially disbanded (and still are very good friends), they haven’t released any songs since then. KHJ has started a solo career with the famous Hallyu company, Keyeast, and published his first album Break Down in 2011, which instantly became a hit. Personal comment: The SS501 fans (Triple S) make a fuss every year about some rumours of a comeback, but I think SS501 will hardly make any comeback in the future. Maybe they will reunite for concerts several years later, but KHJ doesn’t like his old, flower-boy idol image. Most of the members, sadly, weren’t able to make a big solo career and had better times with the band. That’s why, I think, they don’t want to give it up. But no one knows the future. Maybe, after everyone finish their military service, they will use a new image (and not the flower-boy one after their 30’s XD) and become something like the new Shinwa.
That hot new style was like:

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City Conquest
Never aired
Action-melodrama
In 2010, they announced KHJ’s new drama, The City Conquest, which was promoted a lot in Japan with some cut scenes along with his first Japanese full album, Unlimited. Unfortunately KBS cancelled it due to violent content. HJ would have portrayed the main character of Baek Mir who wants revenge upon the evils of society.

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We Got Married
2008 May-December 
Variety
Although everyone knows him from the role of Ji-Hoo, KHJ first screen debut was in the show We Got Married in 2008, after his first success as a singer but before his first drama. He and the noona singer Hwangbo started their “married life†as the lettuce couple (SSangchu) after KHJ spelled the word lettuce wrong and made everyone laugh. This variety showed the world the real personality of KHJ: naive, shy, bumbling and introvert. Watching how he opened to his on-screen wife in spite of his early frightened and unsocial behaviour was really funny and touching at the same time. At the end of the show we realized how affectionate and romantic he can he be after the long time of nervousness. I think this couple was more like a mother-son and sometimes a father-daughter (when it comes to dressing up) than a real married one :D
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Other variety shows worth mentioning: One of my favourite Running Man episodes is the one where he was a secret guest. He was cute and hilarious in Barefooted Friends as well.


Inspiring Generation
2014 
Action, Melodrama, Historical 
Plot: It's a story about a life of a man in 1930’s Korea. It's an era of street combats, lies, revenge, fraud, and friction between Japan, Korea and China, but love also somehow finds its way.

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KHJ plays the main lead, Shin Jung Tae, in this drama. His acting and his appearance are both mature, and finally we can see a man instead of a flower-boy. His fighting scenes are realistic, and he somehow finally learned how to cry! (not with a violin, with no expression, in a forest… see: Boys Over Flowers) Also it’s quite impressive what a perfect young actor they found for his flashbacks (Kwak Dong Yun). Sometimes I thought he really is a younger KHJ. Hyun Joong also toned up his muscles for this drama and he is not shy to show it off; his dark-toned skin was quite sexy and wild. It was his first not romantic but serious melodrama, and looking back at his previous roles, he came a long way! And I’m especially happy that he was able to shed the image of a flower-boy he hated so much.

Unfortunately KHJ hasn't made his big screen debut yet, although he gave his voice to the animation Shark Bait Pi's Story. Seeing how great of an actor he became, and how capable of developing his acting he is, I think we won’t be disappointed in the future, when he will finally appear in a movie.
We saw him growing up on the screen ^^:

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KHJ has to fulfill his military service soon, but due to his personal problems he had to ask for postponement. I’m sure that after he comes back, we will be able to see him in blockbuster dramas again. I will not speak about his scandals, or what I think about it, if you don’t know what I’m speaking about: be happy, or search for it on this site. I think he is an impressive singer, exemplary actor, great man and adorable person. I hope the article was interesting for his fans and the laymen equally. Thank you ^^
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If there is an actor or an actress that is worthy of a Stalker's Guide in your opinion, and you have watched enough dramas of his/hers to prove it, please contact Elisabetta about it.

The opinion reflected in this article does not represent MyDramaList.com in any capacity. It is solely the opinion of the writer.


 
Some comments:
 
"Yay finally someone did a KHJ Stalker's Guide <3 Everything started with him TT_TT Now I'm caught in this drama world ... 
Wow I really am so sad to read the comments below... didn't the writer of this article say to please not comment on his scandal? 
And seriously, if you're grown ups you should know that you shouldn't trust everything in the media. I've read enough article about him being a bad guy then articles about him being innocent?
I don't really care? As long as he does his work properly :)"

 

"MY HUBBY <3 MT FIRST LOVE IN KDRAMA & KPOP <3 MY OPPAAAAA <3
(just to be clear- I am not proud of him hitting a woman and ofcourse I was also disgusted with what happened- but the funny thing is that the same 'girl' who is abused is expecting a baby from KHJ..... If that is'n't proof of what's really going on... I don't know.... That girl probably forgave him and so should we... and please all shut up and first take a look in the mirror, are we all angels? I don't think so. And since when were we BFF's with KHJ that we know him so well to just say that he's the worst person on earth.... If you think so I just suggest u guys to watch the movie Our Happy TImes - go look it up now - and rethink before hating on someone.. Hate is a too powerful emotion. And yeah I might be biased because he means a lot to me, and as I already said I'm also not proud of what he did and I would say it in his face too if I had the chance...)"

 

"I admit that I was once a big fan of KHJ after watching him in BOF and following him in SS501 and his solo music but seriously?!? You shouldn’t be writing a stalker article and writing positive things about a guy who committed domestic violence and got away with it. KHJ is not even a good actor and I say this as a used to be fan of his."

 

"I won't dare to stalk, I still love my ribs."

 

"yayyy i love KHJ despite that he did some thing that kind of ruin his image but i still support him and hey we are all human so i still love him. HWAITING OPPA!!! <3 <3 :D"
 
Some people trying to stay on middle ground and focus on his career:

 

"Though I don't see him the same way as before because of those scandals but I will still watch his drama if it is good. :)"
 

 
The offended:


"Kim Hyun Joong was charged by police and fined for domestic abuse against his girlfriend. Kim himself publicly acknowledged that the incident took place and apologized for it. There is absolutely nothing 'disputable' about these facts.

Do we really want our beloved MDL to become complicit in normalizing violence against women? Do we really want to encourage young women & girls to look up to and idolize violent men who at best are very troubled people in need of serious anger management & other counselling or at worst men who simply don't respect women and see them as their personal beating sticks? Do we really want to be sending the message that it's okay to love oppa even though he beats women as long as he's handsome & can dance/sing/act (famous)? At this present point in time Kim is very clearly not 'hubby' material, as the article writer refers to him, for anyone. He's clearly not 'a great man and an adorable person'.

Women make up a large portion of the MDL community, some of whom might be victims of domestic abuse themselves. We have a social responsibility to this community of drama lovers to promote positive role models, images and messages. NOT those who violate a woman's human right to live without fear of violence against their person, esp from their intimate partners. And I don't freakin' care how crazy the girlfriend is alleged to be. She does not deserve to be beaten!

I fully respect the rights of the writer & other Kim fans to support him as much as they like, but this article is offensive and should have never been published. I hope better judgment will be exercised when assessing the newsworthiness of future articles."

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"I am a woman that has been in an abusive relationship in my youth. I won't go into detail, but I almost died.
I don't need the administrators or the editors to police what I read. It will not change my opinion either way. It is not their responsibility to be a person's social conciseness. People have a right to their own opinion even if the other person 100% disagrees.
"You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours." Michael Douglass as Andrew Shepherd in American President"

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"I must admit, I was pretty shocked to see this pop up in my feed from MDL. I seriously question the judgment of the editors of this site for posting this, and even further question the judgement of the author for using words like "disputable" when discussing KHJ's crimes. The only take away to be had here is that if you are beautiful and famous enough, people will forgive you of anything and blindly follow you wherever you choose to lead them. If MDL had any respect towards women and victims of domestic violence in general, they never would have allowed this post to go up in the first place. Hella disappointed, here."


There's quite a bit more. Just a taste.
 
And finally, the admin responds! Some light shed, right?
"Admins Note: I feel the need to clarify that the opinion reflected in this article (and all the other articles posted on MDL) do not represent our views. This article solely represents the view of the writer. Now AnnaFriesz(the author) has put in so many hours writing this article, it would be unfair of us to delete it.

Instead, if you do not agree with the sentiment of the article, you can politely write a comment stating why you disagree with it."
 
And the writer gives their two cents.
"Okay, So I'll say a word now. I don't think that if I'm speaking about someones carrier it means that I support voilence. After Bill Cosby's past came up in articles, no one deleted his profile from the history of television, the IMDB readers doesn't claim to put him on a blacklist. The fact that I think, there aren't enough proof about the whole case, and that I think it was a nice game of the media (And I'm living in a country, where I know a lot about the manipulation of the media) has nothing to do with this article. This article is a professional writing about someone's carieer as an actor, and not a page in a tabloid magazine about his private life. If you are not intrested in his acting career, you don't have to read this article. Thank You. And If you have a problem with the word disputable, I'll will delete it and you can be in peace, but as I said in the first paragraph, I didn't wanted to start a comment war, this article try to disregards what happened. He is an actor after all, an actor who has a very important part in the Hallyu. We can say it's history."
 
 
As you can see, this was all cherry picked. You can check out the site for full details.

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He and the noona singer Hwangbo started their “married life†as the lettuce couple (SSangchu) after KHJ spelled the word lettuce wrong and made everyone laugh. This variety showed the world the real personality of KHJ: naive, shy, bumbling and introvert. 

 

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