I disagree with your comment that viewers don't care. I don't think any of the viewers are uncaring when a human life is involved. I'd like to think most of us would prefer life rather than choosing death as a way out of a financial bind. Where as we the viewers might not be in a position to help financially we most certainly can voice support for those persons that are sharing their creativity with us. I find the death of this gentleman very sad and my prayers go out to his family.

Personally I agree with you Orion. I think this is sad, but is it going to make me stop watching dramas? No. Is it going to make anyone in Korea stop watching dramas? No. So if the money keeps rolling in, why would they ever want to stop? This could go on forever, and more people are going to die. I'd say they should strike, but then you gotta get paid. :/

I heard that his problems started with Legend, when half of the production costs was spent on constructing the huge set and on shooting several large battle scenes with hundreds of extras running amid stars on horseback. Chaos and accidents ensued. Bae Yong Joon fell off a horse 2 or 3 times. His career was cut short. There wasn't enough money for the rest of filming; bills couldn't be paid at the end. That was in 2007.

One can only imagine the pressure and anguish he had been in for the last 6 years, esp. after the failure of Faith.

Artists aren't necessarily the best businessmen. It is dangerous that they have to be in charge of the production as well as the budget. Perhaps that's why the Hollywood model has a bean counter to reign in their directors.

May he rest in pace! And thank you for Sandglass, which is a true masterpiece.

Wait a minute:
Will his debts end with his life, or is it that in S Korea, one's debts get passed on to one's next of kin?
Scary thought. Hope not.

WTF? I don't have a legal offer where I live (Europe). I keep begging for one but nothing comes. Guess what I have to do to see my dramas?
And by the way, if you think that the subscription money given to legal sites (I know who you are thinking of) goes straight into the pockets of the SK citizens who should earn it, you're quite naive.

Dramafever, is that you?

When affordable entertainment is brought to where they live, I'm sure they'll be good and ready to bear that responsibility.

Oh wow!!! I think that you are completly barking up the wrong tree!

Ignorance about how licenses work... and I say this as someone who is an artist.

Did you ever sub or help with a drama on Viki? You get a basic run down on that, unless your head is in the sand...

Even so, your suggestion--it doesn't work that way. The profits from the advertising goes mostly not to the production costs, but to the people who license it, which are the broadcast stations and it's a fraction in post. Most licenses are also bought at a flat fee rather than a percentage/royalty rate.

King of Dramas can also teach you about how it works with advertising, etc. (though it never goes into foreign licensing, which pays crap towards actual production, which is the problem in this case.)

You do have a point, but the thing is, there are no legal sites to watch/download it from, from where I live and from most other countries. And if you're talking about The One Site that Tries to Rule Them All (I'm looking at you, DF), their s****y translations are not worth my hard-earned money.

BUT, if they give out quality translations and a quick turn-around time airing them like the free sites do, then I will not hesitate to part with my hard-earned money just to feed my Kdrama addiction.

seems like this is a sensitive issue since no one wants to be perceived as part of the problem, even if their actions do contribute to the issue...i do wonder what percentage of the people who firmly say that they would pay if they had a legal option would actually do so if the option was available

Please get off your high horse. In my opinion, die hard fans who for whatever reason download from illegal sites do more good for the proliferation of Kdrama than bad.

The SK industry needs to be a bit more introspective and look at how they support their own.

Please define illegal downloads.

Dramabeans frequently provides music downloads. I've never thought about it until now, but I guess I have no way of knowing if clicking the Dramabeans download links is legal or illegal or none of the above in the US.

Likewise, does anyone know if watching dramas in the US by way of several websites is legal that offer streaming and/or downloads?

Do you realize that Korean dramas, too, freely help themselves to copyrighted materials without paying? When Korean drama characters watch a US movie clip or listen to a US hit song, chances are the drama production did not get permission for it. I heard that that is one reason why some Korean dramas cannot come to the US on DVDs.

Many subcomments herein blame Korean CEOs for not seeking to sell licenses to overseas markets. I happen to know that it is not for lack of trying. Despite the number of fans who visit Dramabeans, the market for Korean dramas or movies in North America or Western Europe is simply too small. But this can change, of course.

I don't think pirating affects the SK drama market as hard as it would on American/European TV. For this case, it was probably a combination of the stuff PPasun listed on 7.1.1. Honestly, it kind of boggles my mind how a director in debt would be willing to shell out so much twice. Nonetheless, this was still very sad and the system needs to change if this is what drove him to a corner.

To the pirates: If you don't pay, it's stealing. It's that simple. Can't afford? Don't buy. Out of the country? Too bad. If you're going to admit to piracy then you don't get your piece of innocence cake. Stop saying/implying you "deserve" to watch these dramas.

Hum...my only way I can watch Kdramas is to watch them on 'illegally' streaming sites 'cause I live in Europe. And when I love the show, I buy it. I had bought Faith for Christmas. If I were you, I wouldn't spit on the 'illegally' because for overseas viewers, it is the only way we have to discover those dramas. Without those sites, I would never have discovered them and thus, I would never have bought them either.

This is the 21st century. No point telling people to stop watching 'illegally'. Viewers or fans should be encouraged instead to buy the merchandise. OST, DVD even products from sponsors.

While somewhat true, that vastly over simplifies the problem. Of the 160 or so countries in the world, only a handful have any type of licensing agreements with Korean distributors. In short, there often *IS* no legal outlet in many countries. Just look at the bigger importers, such as Drama Fever - one of the biggest, yet they are only licensed in about 10 countries, and the same with Viki.

International movie distribution is now going through many of the same problems that plagued music and record producers just a few years ago - and even there dozens of countries make it easier to pirate video and music than to do it legally - China is probably the biggest example.

My thought exactly :(
Nobody should suffer like that and have so much hardship. Sometimes I really feel like giving up watching dramas when I hear this kind of news...

Risk management. You outsource the risk to the production companies.

The way these productions are run sound flat-out risky - the whole survivability of a production company could hinge on the success of one drama; and you could lose everything, and in these cases people's lives, by one flop. Gambling indeed, without the cards and the dealers but at a much higher stake. With the string of these high profile suicides, hope there will be some changes and reform on the horizon..

Sad that a man whose works propelled the likes of Bae Yong Jun and Yoo seung ho to fame had to end his life like that. Srsly the operating system needs to be changed. It is way too flawed. How can one have debt in 2 dramas and yet still be able to start on another one? This is really like gambling.

my bad, it was Kim Jong-hak. RIP, Mr Kim.

(very sorry to have misspelt his name in the earlier post - i normally wouldn't bother with a typo, but in this case i felt bad i didn't get his name right).

with all respect to the late producer, each production has it's budget before a drama start. They know how much they can afford for casting fee.

If they can't afford certain casting prospects asking over the top, production can always say no and find some one else.

They're not force to cast so & so if their budget can't afford it. Why blame it on the actor/actress?

Occasional foul language aside, this guy made a simple breakdown of why your blanketed statement is extremely misguided.

h t t p : / / antikpopfangirl (.) blogspot (.) com /2013 / 07 / dear-kdrama-fans-fuck-your-socialism (.) html

Remove the spaces and brackets

In Korea - like many places - Actors/Actresses make as much or more by being "popular" and getting lots of product endorsements and advertising contracts. I read a while back that Shin Min Ah (of My Girlfriend is a Gumiho) had over 400 different product endorsements.

I... wow, do I disagree. :)

Seriously, actors and actresses aren't the ones making the big bucks out of corrupts systems. Sure there are a few (a very, very, very few) able to ask and get a high salary based on the ability to make teenagers swoon. (Which actually does require some talent.) But not enough to make an entire system rotten.

And any actor worth their salt and with any kind of brain in their head will ask for as high a salary as they can ask for. Hell -- it was actors demanding to be paid fairly for the asses they brought to the seats that began to change the corruption in Hollywood.

If production companies are making promises they can't keep for amounts that won't cover their costs... and then not paying anyone (actors included)... that sounds like someone's making money by taking the too small amount offered by the TV channels than racing off leaving the actual workers (which of course includes the actors) to work for free. A weird sort of con game, frankly. Which sounds like an accounting/legal issue. Not something either directors or actors (or set designers or makeup artists, etc.) can effect with salary cuts.

In other words, it's not the cost of the production, it's the handling of the contracts that seems to be an issue. Someone is dirty dealing somewhere on the pipeline (the tv channels themselves with their outsourcing, maybe?) and that's what needs fixing. Workers not getting paid, or getting paid peanuts is the problem, not the fix.

To me this news story highlights some deeply ingrained cultural issues with SKorea. On ockoala's blog she mentioned that SKorea has the 2nd highest suicide rate in the world. As a nation it's about time they start some govt led initiatives to address this.

I'm honestly tired of people spewing this whole "suicide is cowardly" BS..please educate yourself on mental illness.You think depression is easy to get over just because you have a family?If you can't have the decency to give your condolences to this man who suffered so much in his life,then please don't leave a comment at all.

Not all suicides are planned ahead, like entertainment sometimes shows them. Most are due to extreme depression and clouded judgement. Have you ever had anxiety attacks and felt like the world was collapsing around you, only to later bounce back up and feel like yourself again? Well, some people make bad decisions during that downtime, especially if intense and prolonged. You literally feel like everything is hopeless and life will never ever be bearable, even if you would normally never think such things.

Yes, it's cowardice and a stupid thing to do, but rational thought that can see things as they are is not what leads to such a decision in the first place.

It's human instinct to survive. I don't see how someone being so unstable their brain stopped working is their fault. Yes, I cannot imagine the pain of his family and yes, he did harm them by doing this, but assuming he had a mind clear enough to think about this and willingly cause this pain to so many is going a bit too far, considering we can never know the state the man was in.

That is easier said than done. Depression can take a toll on someone and without proper support people suffering from this can really go over the edge. I don't think we are in any place to judge his choice because we do not know the extent of his sufferings.

Some people might be mad at this comment but there's some truth to this. I don't know if his loved ones will have to shoulder the debt or what's going to happen but the truth is there are still actors waiting to be paid for work they did last year. They played their part and haven't been compensated. I don't know if there's any truth to the accusations of embezzlement and whatnot, but killing himself doesn't solve the problem at all. Those people also deserve to get paid so they can feed their families.

I just hope it doesn't get passed on to his family.

I will end by saying that dying so that he doesn't have to deal with all these problems sounds cowardly. But I also don't know what goes through the mind of someone who decides to end it either so I can't judge.

Wow! That is a really insensitive and unkind comment. To be judgemental is one thing, but to judge someone who feels so distraught that he has to kill himself? I hope to not run into sb like you.

As much as I critiscie this comment I also agree with some part of it. Ofcourse I'm not in a position to say this as I have not felt what he has nor have I gone through what he has(atleast not to such an extent). But that just doesnot justify suicide. We all make bad decisions even such ones as dragging us to utter doom. But that gives all the more reasons to pick ourselves up and do our best to redeem ourselves. Who knows if he were alive he might have produced even another "Sandglass". Ofcourse there are other factors. What with the poor working conditions, the intense competition and poor business model. Besides suicide in itself requires a lot of courage. I can only imagine how much he feared the world to do what he did. :(

Re: "Suicide is cowardice"--
American Indian Proverb:

Never judge a man until you've walked a mile in his moccasins.

Your comment may sounds rude, but I agree with you. Many people in my country feel depressed with their own problems, some worse than Mr.Kim, some just as light as cottons yet most of us can endure it because of faith. Heard SK is at the 2nd place of the highest rating of suicide, there's something wrong with the culture. I appreciate Mr. Kim for his works, but not for his decision... a decision that even GOD hates it.

Well, you are not just mourning for one live. Who knows how many lives this person had destroyed gambling on his decision.

I sympathized with his family regarding the aftermath they have to clean up but I do not emphathize his decision - depression or not.