Around the first week of March Actor Jisoo was accused of bullying and this led to him dropping out of the drama ‘River Where The Moon Rises,’ in which he was supposed to star as the main lead. He posted a handwritten letter where he apologized for his actions and opened up about how his past has always weighed him down. He further promised to make up for his actions, soon after which, his agency confirmed he will enlist for the mandatory military service. He was also accused of sexual harassment which his company, Keyeast, has denied stating that they were false accusations. To know more about this controversy, read our previous article here.
Victory Contents is the production company of this historical drama and due to the bullying controversies, they initially saw a fall in spectator ship and faced loss. According to sources, they have now sued both Jisoo and Keyeast for ₩3 billion KRW ($2,661,771 USD) for the damages faced due to the scandal. The production company’s press release states that they have filed a compensation suit to the Seoul District Court against Jisoo’s entertainment.
By the time Jisoo had dropped out of the drama, almost 90% of the drama was shot and hence they had to refilm almost the entire drama. Jisoo was replaced by Na In Woo. In fact, to help out, many cast members jointly decided to reshoot the drama without payment. There was no particular request from the production company but the decision was taken in hopes that it would at least amount up to be of little help.
Statement by Victory Contents:
*Not Official Translation*
We have filed a compensation suit against Keyeast with the Seoul Central District Court to claim our portion of damages.
As many of you are familiar with this case, this is related to the school violence controversy by Keyeast actor Ji Soo. Keyeast and Ji Soo signed an actor appearance contract with us to appear in River Where The Moon Rises and the drama has received a lot of love from viewers since it began airing on February 15, 2021.
However in March 2021, reports started surfacing about Ji Soo’s involvement in school violence. It wasn’t limited to just fighting between students, but also extortion, proxy testing, sexual crimes, a level of terrible things that are difficult to state. Ji Soo and Keyeast acknowledged his misdeeds, and decided to drop out of River Where The Moon Rises. (This content came from MBC’s show True Story of Exploration).
River Where The Moon Rises was in the process of pre-production and when the school violence controversy surfaced, filming for the drama was nearly complete. However, when the actor was replaced, we had to refilm all of Ji Soo’s scenes. The production cost of this drama was huge, and the amount of additional costs we had to incur was severe due to the re-filming, but we decided to re-film episodes 1-6 in order to keep our promise to the viewers that we would show them a complete, finished work. This promise is not only for domestic viewers, but also global viewers, as the Hallyu Wave boom cannot be ruined by one school violence offender.
However, we have suffered direct damage due to this, from staff costs, location and equipment fees, appearance fees, art fees, and many more. We have also suffered other serious damage that could affect the us for a long time, such as a decline in viewer ratings, complaints from overseas distributors, a decrease in sales, and damage to the company’s image.
In order to recover these damages as soon as possible and to concentrate on producing good dramas, we tried to negotiate compensation with Keyeast, but were unsuccessful due to the non-cooperation of Keyeast.
We would like to conclude this suit and receive compensation as soon as possible, and we will continue to make great efforts to ensure the broadcasting stations and viewers around the world can continue to enjoy watching healthy and wholesome programs.
“After the controversy over the school violence broke out with Actor Ji Soo, we discussed closely with production company Victory Contents and the broadcast network. Ji Soo also apologized as soon as possible and this was only to avoid further damage to the drama though no details have been confirmed. We deeply sympathize with the difficulties faced by the production company and other production staff due to the sudden need to replace an actor, and we made it clear that we’re only responsible for the reasonable cost of additional filming to replace the actor.”
Keyeast further stated that a request of settlement of cost has been made as both the involved parties weren’t able to come to conclusion and the drama’s production further claimed it would take more than a month for the final settlement. They further said that they are requesting arbitration by KBS and the ‘Drama Producer’s Association’ and that they have been cooperative unlike the claims made.
For updates with regard to this situation and more, stay tuned to our website and follow us on Instagram @namaste_hallyu and @namastehallyustudio
