The passing of South Korean star Kim Sae-ron this week has led to a flood of condolences and demands for reforms to the way the nation’s celebrities are viewed in public and on social media, which detractors claim can encourage a harassing culture.
A friend discovered the 24-year-old dead at her home in Seoul, the nation’s capital, on Sunday. She started her acting career as a child and gained recognition for her parts in a number of local movies, including the 2010 crime noir The Man from Nowhere. It was believed that she committed suicide. According to the National Police Agency, Kim left no note and there is no reason to suspect foul play.
After a drunk driving incident in 2022, for which she was later penalized in court, Kim, who was once one of the biggest stars on South Korea’s thriving film and television sector, struggled to find employment.
Kim had continuous bad coverage from news outlets that took advantage of public mood, and South Korean internet posts are notoriously critical of celebrities who make mistakes, particularly women.
Every time she was spotted having a good time with friends, complaining about her lack of job, or posting offensive remarks on social media, she was attacked by newspapers and blogs. Last year, she even received backlash for smiling during the production of an indie film.
Following Kim’s passing, editorials and opinion pieces denouncing the actor’s hateful internet remarks were published by a number of the nation’s major newspapers on Tuesday. Some called for a reform of the harsh, zero-tolerance mentality toward celebrities, citing the suicide deaths of K-Pop singers Seol-li and Goo Hara in 2019 and actor Lee Sun-kyun of Parasite in 2023.
The Hankook Ilbo daily claimed that the nation’s media outlets were contributing to the issue, complaining that some of them were still employing sensational headlines that emphasized Kim’s prior hardships to get hits even after her passing.
On Tuesday, news outlets came under fire from the watchdog Citizens’ Coalition for Democratic Media for criticizing social media without taking into account their own spectacular and inflammatory reporting.
Kim, who was born in 2000, started her acting career at the age of nine in the 2009 movie A Brand New Life, which followed a girl as she struggled to adapt to a new life after her father abandoned her at an orphanage. She became well-known after winning a local acting award for her role in The Man from Nowhere, one of the year’s biggest hits in the South Korean film industry.
Prior to the drunk driving incident in 2022, she starred in a number of films and television series.
Calls for comment were not immediately answered by Kim’s former management firm, Gold Medalist.
Through the Associated Press, by Kim Tong-hyung
The late actor Lee’s film is corrected to Parasite in this edition.
