Comments on: Actor Kim Seok-kyun commits suicide

By: A disturbing pattern » The Hub of Sparkle!

A disturbing pattern » The Hub of Sparkle! — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 20:47:36 +0000

[...] Kim Seok-gyun, 30, January [...]

By: dama

dama — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 18:40:55 +0000

sorry for is family

By: pat

pat — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 23:46:27 +0000

I think Carol (# 18) made a really good point – for many people in other part of the world (for example Africa) everyday is a struggle just to survive. I don’t know what the suicide rate is in those parts but you hear about people doing everything they can to live, to feed themselves and their children whatever it takes. Instead of what appears to many of us as the “easy way out” by killing themselves, if they could see those people in those areas and the living conditions they live in, mabye just maybe they would count their blessings and think twice about killing themselves……..
Anyways I don’t really know this actor but I still feel bad that he killed himself. My condolences to his family and friends……..

By: jacq

jacq — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 21:32:51 +0000

It’s truly terrible & tragic. It’s very sad when someone sees no way out and has nothing to live for and chooses to end his/her life.

May he rest in peace……

By: monomania

monomania — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 15:03:43 +0000

We gonna have to start counting for 2009 now.

God, please not make it hit the double digits – sigh-

By: Kim Yoonmi

Kim Yoonmi — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 04:41:57 +0000

People in the West are fast to blame it on a medical condition rather than pulling back and looking at the whole picture as the cause of suicide–Did you see the post up there that asked if Koreans are predisposed to depression? You’ve got to be kidding me!

Suicides, in general, will be high in a changing society such that people cannot keep up, or at least feel like they are slipping because the things they expect out of society are no longer stable as they expect them to be. New Korean words are popping up in a matter of months. A friend of mine said she went back and then went back a month later to find that Korea has changed drastically. Even the money had changed!

Korea is in flux and it’s not just a physical flux, but a mental one as well. When you take a country and force 200 years of technology and adaptation in the space of 60 years and the speed of development is faster than the government can account for, of course you’ll get suicides. You can’t turn an agricultural state into an industrial one without some fall out and feeling lost. If it wasn’t France’s The Gleaners, then it’s Japan, Korea– all countries have gone through this when industrializing.

Japan also has a high rate of suicide, but then, their economy went through a similar thing–after WWII their government got gutted, a white guy (MacArthur) rewrote the rules, and they had to change direction. Natsume Soseki wrote about that one in Sensei and I. The recent rates probably are due to the fact that the economy changed drastically from the 1990′s when Japan was booming and Women’s rights were coming to the forefront as issues, but then it turned when the economy did too.

When the environment around you changes faster than your mind can keep up with the uneasiness can translate quickly into what people might term as “chemical imbalance” and thus depression, but it’s really failing to see the large picture. You would feel uneasy and depressed too. If your parents redecorated your room without telling you every night, you’d feel the same way too.

China doesn’t have these issues as much since it was opened a lot sooner than Japan and Korea. It also went through two economic changes and had a history of government upsets meaning it was much easier for the current people to adapt to the given environment.

So I don’t think it’s restricted to actors in these times, I think it’s a country-wide problem of having to adapt to a technological base that’s going faster than the people can adapt to. Even the government is having trouble making rules for the industrial state… It’s going to be a while before Korea catches up to herself. Ahh! My poor country.

But still, RIP.

By: marcel

marcel — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 02:05:43 +0000

the world is a really rough place…i’m literally sick of hearing about all of these korean celebrity suicides…

i didn’t want to comment but having gone through severe depression myself this news just struck a deep chord…

how many more people have to lose their lives before everyone realizes there’s something wrong with an industry where you’re considered unworthy of life after age 30…and a society where life is meaningless without youth, beauty, fame and money…

By: JOY

JOY — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:58:37 +0000

I feel like such a sick person because the deaths have become so numerous I’m almost emotionally numb. I still haven’t forgotten Choi’s death.
The world is a sick place.
I wonder if the Korean netizens are satisfied.

By: moi

moi — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:45:01 +0000

at first i was shocked since i thought it was Ryu Seung Boem…

i might sound insensitive, but i’m pretty much numb to these suicides now… now that’s a problem…suicides have become almost normal now… how sad…

By: mimi

mimi — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 17:48:54 +0000

what he just 4 years in showbizz nobody step fast right,,?? i hate this
i think there are a lot of big actor now ,, play in Small role and always be in supporter acting like kim yoon seok and song kang Ho.. they in this show biz for long time then now they are famous