The casting couch means actors or actresses selling their own bodies to appear in movies or TV dramas. The late Jang Ja-yun, a new 29-year-old talent, became famous after appearing in Boys over Flowers. Her former manager Mr. Ryu disclosed that her suicide was not a simple accident but showed the irrationality of the entertainment world, for example, entertainment agency representatives demanding sexual bribes to satisfy their sexual desires in return for organizing debuts or appearances on television. Then, how can we see this accident, and how can we interpret this case? Moreover, why do entertainers tragically try to hang themselves like the late Jang?
First of all, the case raises the need to think about the prevalent trend in Korea where liquor serving and offering sexual bribes exist secretly. New female talents have financial difficulties because a lot of actress can't make enough money. Whether the contents left behind by the late Jang are true or false, this case exposes the decayed Korean entertainment world. Some high-ranking officials regard female entertainers as playthings or dolls in return for their efforts to help female entertainers appear on screen and television.
Second, the casting couch clearly reveals the prevalent corruption of the powerful classes controlling entertainers through financial power. As a way of preventing such corruption, legal punishment is the most effective method. Unfortunately, it is difficult to punish high-ranking officials, who receive sexual bribes from female entertainers because sexual bribes do not leave any traces, like documents or evidence, behind. On the other hand, in Hong Kong, one high police official was punished because he was implicated in sexual bribes in 2003.
Third, the belated investigation and wait-and-see policies of the Korean police were also criticized through this case. It was discovered that the police only started to investigate this case actively after Jang's document was opened to the public by the press. The police ought to investigate correctly and quickly to prevent corrupt influential men who are accepted offers from female entertainers abusing their authority.
From this case, we again need to think about Korean women entertainers' suicide. Such a bad phenomenon results from economic violence toward women. Female victims' humanity and identities are severely infringed under such corruptive power relations. Hence, we have to make a society where women entertainers' rights cannot be trampled and the law can protect them from such an extreme choice such as suicide.
