PLAYER 276 BUS EXPERIENCE

Anyone who had watched Squid Game, may have notice a fellow Filipino, especially on the episode where the players play the deadly tug of war. In the show he was Player 276, but in the real world he was Christian Lagahit.

His interview is trending nowadays, because he revealed a bad experience of racism, of South Koreans, when sometime ago he rode a bus. He was thrown a cabbage by an older lady, because she believes that foreigners are bad people. And other people in the bus are apathetic to him. I'm summarizing his interview. To watch his full interview, check the video of Asian Boss below.

I am not in denial of the racism, existing in South Korea. It always present with nations who achieved progress. Every nation who are rich, most of them have racist feelings with contempt to other races that are not that developed. It's always like that. 

But you have to remember also, that the Korean peninsula, suffered brutal invasions and occupations by foreign powers all throughout their history. With the most recent, being Japan. So you have to take into context, that the older generations, will not be too trusting with foreigners. 

Are these the majority of their people? Maybe, but still not all of them. Would I stop watching K-drama's/movies/ or stop listening to Kpop because of this? No. Because the alternative is shit, and not even doing anything to improved themselves. In fact, Ang Probinsyano is still airing, with the story that's going merry go round, and eventually to shit, or is shit already. Their thousand episodes, is not even comparable to an episode of Squid Game.

What I just wanted to say is, hating Koreans on social media, would not make them good people. Hating them would just prove them right, from their perspective. And I'm worried, that it will start another social media wars, between Koreans and Filipinos. 

So what should we do about it? Prove them wrong. Constantly do good unto them, instead of retaliating with bashing. If we do that, they may have a about face of doing bad to us. Don't resort to cancel culture. Cancellation, begots bigger cancellations. It's a long fight, and with maybe no end, but it's a good just fight. While in this world and alive, it's not worthy to make enemies, especially those that we can be friends with. That's all for today.

IS THE SHOW CURSED?

Kim Seon Ho is on very hot water, because of the controversy of abortion. He admitted and apologizes to the accusations of his ex girlfriend, that she was forced to abort their baby, at the time. Because of that endorsements were pulled, his castings were cancelled, and he had to leave the show 2 Days and 1 Night.

My short opinion on the matter, even if the accuser was on the right, their will be suspicions of vengeance. I mean why now, when he is riding high? The only good thing is, they let Hometown Cha Cha Cha finished airing first. Else people will have been troubled replacing him. Editors will have a hard time editing the show, and will have trouble reshooting scenes, that were already shot. Just like what happened to Kim Jisoo, not the BLACKPINK member who has the same name, but the male actor.

But did you know that Kim Seon Ho was not the first person to leave the show because of a scandal? In the first place, He and the others were there, because the cast of season 3 left, of some reasons. I will put a list of some former members who left the show because of controversies. 

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Kang Ho Dong, left the show on September 9, 2011, and temporarily retired from show business due to allegations of tax evasion, leaving the show with five members.

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Lee Soo-geun, left the show on November 24, 2013, due to being under investigation for suspicion of online illegal gambling.

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MC Mong, has been put on hiatus and did not take part in the filming on September 17, 2010 due to the investigation of his mandatory military service. The producers had made an official announcement that MC Mong's appearance will be deferred until a final judgment has been made and the rest of the five members will continue filming during his absence. Taking into the account of the viewers' feelings and opinions, the episode set to be aired on September 19, 2010 will edit MC Mong's parts as much as possible. This trip will be broadcast in one episode (instead of the usual two episode). They had already started editing MC Mong's parts since the September 12, 2010 episode. It has been confirmed in December 2010 that he has been banned from KBS.

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Cha Tae Hyun, Kim Jun Ho, left the show on March 2019, following reports that they engaged in gambling.

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Jung Joon-young. On March 11, 2019, in the midst of a huge scandal concerning non-consensual filming during sex and covert distribution of said illegal videos (which sprung off in the midst of an earlier ongoing scandal that erupted in January 2019 concerning former Big Bang member Seungri and his Gangnam club Burning Sun), Jung Joon-young was identified as an active participant due to leaked KakaoTalk chatroom messages of which he was part of (speculation is also rife in connection to his earlier October 2016 scandal with an ex-girlfriend). A day later (March 12), the show's production team decided to permanently remove Jung Joon-young as a cast member, with KBS subsequently banning him from all of the station's programming.

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Kim Seon Ho. He was removed from the show on October 20, 2021 after admitting to coercing a former girlfriend into an abortion. His remaining episodes will be edited to feature him less, similar to MC Mong in season 1.

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Uhm Tae Woong was also involved in a sexual assault scandal in 2016, which was proven false, but still considered immoral, because he was married, and had a sexual relation with his accuser. Although the accusations surfaced, way after he left the show. But because of that his former appearance on the show, even the placards which was captured by cameras, with his face were blurred. Blurring is a practice in shows, especially variety shows, to hide faces of former members or certain celebrities, who had appear on their show or if they want to show a clipping, which that certain celebrities had a ongoing cases in court, or were involved in controversies. Controversies may not be criminal, but considered immoral.

That's why i asked the question, is the show cursed? Are they still among those who are still there, who has a ticking time bomb of controversy waiting to happen? I hope not. I want this season 4 members to grow old with the show. Just like with Running Man, and Infinite Challenge. Many people are watching them, and I hoped that Kim Seon Ho, will be the last to have this kind of controversy.

Sources:  

2 Days & 1 Night -Wikipedia

Cha Tae Hyun To Step Down From All Programs; Apologizes In Formal Statement -Soompi

Woman Who Falsely Accused Uhm Tae Woong Of Sexual Assault Sentenced To Prison -Soompi

WHY JIYEONG'S DEATH HAVE BEEN IN THE SAME LEVEL WITH ALI AND IL-NAM? PLUS AN ADDITIONAL THEORY

Spoiler Alert. To those who has not finished watching, don't scroll down, and stopped reading.

I have been watching a lot of reaction videos about Squid Game, that sprouted like mushrooms after it had trended and blow up in the internet and Netflix. The main cast has been even invited to the Tonight Show, with Jimmy Fallon, because the show became internationally famous.

What I found out in the reaction videos, is that almost all of them, cry their hearts out, when they reacted on episode 6, titled Gganbu. It was because of the three deaths, or for those who already know, two, of the then beloved characters. It's because one of them became hated. The three of them, was Jiyeong played by Lee Yoo Mi, Ali played by Tripathi Anupam, and Oh Il Nam, played by Oh Young Soo. The last time I saw Oh Young Soo, was on the series The Great Queen Seondeok, where he played the scientist, astronomer, and monk, Wol-Chun. It's not his latest work, prior to Squid Game, but I also loved that historical drama.

It even had a tribute edited, should I say a meme? The thing is, it is not funny, but sad. The caption was, the sacrifice(pic of Saebyeok, played by Jung Ho Yeon, and Jiyeong) the betrayal(pic of Sang Woo, and Ali) and the friendship (pic by Ilnam and Gi Hoon). I commented on the pic, that they got the order wrong. I think the Friendship, refers more to Saebyeok and Ji Yeong. The Sacrifice refers more, to Ali and Sang Woo. And the Betrayal refers more to Il Nam and Gi Hoon.

I will explain it one by one. Because some, debated me about it on Facebook, that the order was right. But I stand by my thought about it. Friendship refers more to Saebyeok and Jiyeong, because they have a short lived bonding, no pun intended, yet they became close. That the two cold-hearted girls, cried when they depart. Sacrifice refers more, to Sang Woo and Ali. Some may argue that, it is right that to betrayal. For Sang Woo really did betrayed Ali. Here's the thing, why is it sacrifice. I don't think that Sang Woo, planned from the very beginning to betray Ali, or at least from the moment he chose him to be his partner. I think he doesn't have a clue, on what will be the next game, or that they will go against each other. I believe had he known, he would have chose, another one than Ali. But that's my thought. Luck wasn't on his side. But he has wits and cunning, and Ali was trusting and naive. Opportunity knocks and he grabs it. And when he heard the shot, he felt bad. So what's is the sacrifice? He sacrifice his friendship with Ali, and Ali himself, and his soul to the devil, which is the ₩ 45.6 billion. After that, he has no reservations anymore. Betrayal refers more to Gi-Hun, and Il-Nam. The old bastard, knows everything, and wanted to have fun. A sadistic kind of fun. And if my theory is right, it only makes it much worse, and really a betrayal. To know more about my theory, read here.

Now to the question, why Jiyeong's death had the same level of sadness, with Ali's and Il-nam's death? Again, why did I question it? Because, Ali and Il-nam, was in the very beginning, episode 1. Jiyeong only appeared on episode 4, by 6 she's already gone. Too little character development time, in comparison with Ali and Il-Nam. The first reason, and maybe the only reason, for the uninitiated, is that well timed, and well written exposition, about her story, and about Sae-byeok too. That short chit-chat, that made them close, and the logical reason for her giving up. And also, the two mistakes of hers, that as if both of them can go out alive. She kept saying we. That's the first reason. That being the same level, with both Ali and Il-nam's death, makes the death of them, a triple threat. Which turns the episode very sad and gloomy.

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The second reason is, that makes it more sad, is maybe only for me, or presumably the K-pop fan community. Especially the fans, of the second generation, Kpop Idols. Actress Lee Yoo Mi, has a strong resemblance with late idol, and  actress Choi Jin Ri, also known as, Sulli. We all know, what happened to her. And the character of Jiyeong, had been wanting to die. I will just end it here, and will not explain further.

The additional theory is Gong Yoo, his character the recruiter, is also a former winner of the squid games in the past. And he became corrupted as Hwang In ho was. That's it. Another Squid Game Article. 

IN DEFENSE OF FACEBOOK, BUT IT HAS PROBLEMS

Frances Haugen, appeared on an interview in 60 minutes. She is saying that Facebook is not doing enough against hate speech. Instagram is being harmful to young girls, etc. The said interview, has been connected to the hour long outage that happened on the social network platform. Which also drop the company's stock value.

My humble opinion is, Facebook is strict as it is. If Frances Haugen is to be followed, it will be more stricter than it is now. I believe the social media platform, has its safety measures, both we see and don't see. That's why there is the report system, if someone's post has been found offensive and dangerous. Hate speech and misinformation is bad. But if we will put some measures, permanent measures, that might clamp on them. It might trickle on speeches, that are not harmful, yet not everyone agrees. Then it might encroach on our freedom of expression. Then Facebook will not be that different than Weibo.

But it has problems. Like their political leanings. They tend to hire third party fact checkers, that are with same political leanings. Like here in the Philippines, they hire Rappler, as the fact checker. And it's a common knowledge that Rappler is adversarial to the incumbent administration. What I mean is, fact checker system is good. But you should hire neutral entities.

I have my own experience too. I have post opinions on these blog and shared it on Facebook. But it was not been posted. And it's not even a controversial speech, but my views on Tyrion's plan on Westeros after Daenerys was killed. And consecutive posts are not shared. Another instance is, I had commented on post, that a certain nationality are doing dumb things. Then my account was warned. If Facebook will be more strict than it is, then it's only short of censorship.

What I'm just saying is, Facebook is a company, of course they will want money. They are not a morality police. Moralities and attitude should be formed first at home. Social platforms are just stages, that people put themselves in. I like Facebook just how it was before, just Facebook, having games, chatting and without ideological leanings. I don't approve further restrictions, that might encroach on freedom of speech. Then it will not be that different to China's social media platforms.