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| Choi Si-won, a member of K-pop boy band Super Junior / Korea Times file |
Singer-actor Choi Si-won grappling with fallout from deadly canine incident
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Singer-actor Choi Si-won is back on the small screen, two years after he vanished from the public eye in the wake of a tragic accident involving his family's dog in 2017.
He is starring in the KBS drama "My Fellow Citizens" which has been smooth sailing since its first episode aired on April 1. Average viewership of the fifth and sixth episodes that aired on Tuesday marked 6.5 percent, one percent up from last week's rating.
In the Monday-Tuesday TV series, Choi plays a high school graduate who chose to be a con man and makes a living by lying to others. He happened to marry a cop and was accidentally involved in an incident that caused him to run for the parliamentary elections to become a lawmaker.
Choi successfully adapted to his new role. His sleek fashion, good looks, carefree smile, and witty reactions make him a perfect fit for the character.
While watching the actor, I found myself feeling uncomfortable.
It was not because of his acting. It was due to his actions in real life.
To me, Choi is inseparable from the canine accident that led to the death of the female owner of a premium Korean restaurant in southern Seoul. The victim was Choi's neighbor who lived in the same apartment building.
In October 2017, she was bitten by an unleashed French bulldog Choi's family was raising and days later she died of blood poisoning.
Neither Choi nor his family members were punished because police concluded that the dog bite was not a direct cause of the victim's death.
Choi posted an apology to the victim and her family on social media. But his apology didn't stop a public backlash against the K-pop star. He dropped out of the TV show he was appearing in then.
Choi's small screen comeback after a two-year hiatus has reminded me of the tragic accident. The tragedy kept running in my mind while I was watching the TV series on Tuesday night.
I was wondering if I was the only one who felt that way. That night I checked the internet to figure out how others feel about Choi's TV comeback. I found an online article praising Choi for his "unbelievably outstanding transformation into a con man" in the drama.
I looked for "daet-geul-min-sim" or the public opinion voiced through internet comments.
Several people commented on the article online. One wrote "bark, bark, bark." Another wrote "Is a drama like this (starring the actor) what the National TV is supposed to air?" Another wrote Choi still reminds the public of the deadly dog bite.
Such views are theirs, and they don't represent the entire public. I know there is a gap between anonymous people's opinions on the internet and public opinion.
I also know some people take advantage of their anonymous status on the internet and write whatever they want to. There are "online extremists" who hurl expletives at people they don't know.
Despite this, I found the people who left their messages in response to the article about Choi mention the same thing ― the deadly canine accident still haunts society.
Choi appeared to have known that such negative opinion about his comeback still exists even before the TV series aired. He apologized again on April 1 during a news conference to preview "My Fellow Citizens" at Conrad Hotel in Seoul.
"I realized that [as a celebrity], I need to be careful and cautious not to go far in everything. I apologize again to everyone for causing the trouble," he said.
There are several celebrities who were involved in controversy. Some were on trial for drug use, and some were involved in illegal gambling. Some were questioned over sexual abuse cases.
They took time off and vanished from the public eye and then made their comeback years later with hope that their wrongdoings were forgotten.
Some misdeeds, particularly minor ones, can be forgotten. But some can't.
People make mistakes and learn from them.
When you put others in trouble, you say you are sorry.
But sometimes sorry is not enough to end the dispute. It's over only when the victim says your apologies are accepted.
I hope Choi can take more time to think seriously about if his and his family's apologies were accepted by the victim's family. If not, I recommend him to do it again and again until they finally forgive him.
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