Episode 6: Statuses and Privacies
- UBC
- Oct 18, 2018
- 4 min read
Updated: Oct 22, 2018
By: Mai Ling Shannon Li
Synopsis
Eun-su reveals to Si-mok that she was the last person the primary victim talked to. She wanted Bak Mu-seong to tell the truth that he had framed her father and that her father had never taken any bribes. However, Si-mok is still suspicious about her after the confession.
Few people are beginning to question Si-mok's innocence to the escort's case, including Yeo-jin herself. The polices discuss what they should do with Si-mok, they are unwilling to just accept his statement about re-enacting CEO Park’s murder.
Si-mok and Yeo-jin decide to go to the club to observe more evidence after Si-mok smelled a woman’s perfume on Dong-jae by coincidence while taking the elevator together.
As they discover new evidence, the list of possible suspects grows, including Dong-jae and the chief of police Kim Wu-gyun.
The primary victim's son, Bak Gyeong-wan returns from military service and reveals to Yeo-jin his connection to the escort. He seems to have lied to Yeo-jin about knowing Min-ah from school. Then he deleted photos of Min-ah he secretly took and exited group chats.
Dong-jae notices his office has been searched by Si-mok and Eun-su. They were trying to find evidence to see whether Dong-jae is the murder they are finding.
Lee Chang-jun becomes the Chief Prosecutor. This news has all the prosecutors filing out into the hall, where they immediately congratulate him for becoming the first chief prosecutor out of the Violent Crimes Unit in years.
Discussion
For this episode, I would like to talk about two topics in South Korea. This first one will be occupation statuses and secondly, the issue of capturing and revealing people’s privacies.
One scene that focuses mainly on this occupation statuses phenomenon is when Si-mok and Yeo-jin go to the private club to investigate a woman’s perfume Si-mok discovered on Dong-Jae. He questions the owner of the club whether she knows prosecutor Seo Dong-jae and whether she has told him Min-ah/Ga-yeong’s phone number and address. The owner didn’t deny nor confirm the accusation; moreover, she trusts and strongly believes that Dong-jae is not the murderer – “He’s a prosecutor”, “Whom can we trust if we can’t trust prosecutors?” (Ahn and Yoo 2017). This shows that in the Korea society, judges and prosecutors have images of justice, peace and responsibility. People would rely on this and trust people who are in these occupations, because they are known to be the most educated and intelligent group of people; or perhaps, the public tries/wants to believe that those “gifted” peoples’ personality and behaviour will align to what the public expect; therefore, they’re hoping for the best and believe in them. In the lecture about Money and Class in Korea, Dr. Saeji talked about how people view and classify others, especially men, on the university they attended and the jobs they have. Judges and Prosecutors are in the highest rank; therefore, people praise and look up upon them.
On the other hand, the society despises people who work in certain kinds of jobs, for example, working in bars and clubs. “You must think you can walk over people like me. Everyone is just talking about who stabbed her, no one cares about her. Of course, no one would care, she’s just a bar girl. Those pricks who beat up girls in this business don’t even get punished.” (Ahn and Yoo 2017). This monologue by the owner of the club manifests this occurrence happening in the Korea society. In conclusion, people get classified by what you’re doing and additionally, people are treated accordingly.
Another topic that this episode touches up on is the issue of secretly taking photos/videos (몰카) of others in Korea. Mu-seong’s son seems to have lied to Yeo-jin about knowing Min-ah from school, “Gosh, no I’ve never ever talked to her”(Ahn and Yoo 2017), when in fact he had been secretly taking pictures of Min-ah. This can be interpreted as 1) he didn’t want to show that he was closely following her, for fear that it would put himself in suspect. 2) erasing the evidence of him secretly taking photos without permission.
Technology is extremely advanced nowadays, especially in Korea. There are pros of having this advantage; nontheless, there are also drawbacks of this benefit. One of them being secretly taking photos/videos without the consent of the other party. Bak Gyeong-wan deletes photos after being asked about knowing Min-ah. This reaction emphasizes how the current Korean society looks down upon 몰카 and how unpleasant this action is. Additionally, one of my Korean friends told me that all phones sold in Korea, same as those in Japan, have shutter sounds enabled regardless of whether one mutes the phone or not. (Smith 2018) However, women still don’t feel a sense of security even with the preventative measures mentioned above.Talking photos of others and revealing to strangers about people’s personal information are invading one’s privacy- illegal in some countries.
Although some can argue that we do also take pictures of celebrities in public without them noticing. However, celebrities are mentally prepared that this will inevitably happens on them while other people are not, which is why this is in the grey area and people constantly pay attention on this issue.
Questions
1) Occupation certainly plays a huge role in classifying people in Asian countries in general, especially in Korea. Do you think this happens in Western countries?
2) In Episode 6, (26:50-26:57). Yeo-jin said to the owner of the club, “At least he reported to the police, what did you do?” Do you think the fact that the driver reported himself makes him a better person, compared to the owner? In another word, could this action be a redemption of revealing Min-ah’s privacy?
3) Thoughts on secretly taking photos of others in public? taking photos of celebrities?
4) What are some additional preventative measures you can think of that will reduce secretly taking photos/videos? Penalties for this kind of action?
Bibliography
Ahn, Gil-Ho, and Je-won Yoo. 2017. Stranger. Film. South Korea: Signal Entertainment Group, IOK Media.
En.wikipedia.org. (2018). Stranger (TV series). [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stranger_(TV_series) [Accessed 18 Oct. 2018].
Smith, Mat. 2018. "Japan's Noisy Iphone Problem". Engadget. https://www.engadget.com/2016/09/30/japans-noisy-iphone-problem/.
WwGossip. (2018). Forest of Secrets: Episode 6 - WwGossip. [online] Available at: http://www.wwgossip.com/2017/06/28/forest-of-secrets-episode-6/ [Accessed 18 Oct. 2018].
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Hello team,
This group is never afraid to get down and dirty, which given your subject matter is quite commendable.
It seems we really felt inclined to talk about the 몰카 issue, and I hope that discussing it in class helped both those who know about it and those who don’t gain better perspective. I think this question of taking pictures of people in public is fairly complex, because seeing as Wonny has kindly played devil’s advocate, I would say that “it depends”. In criminal situations as we see in Korea that are an overt violation of one’s rights to privacy, it definitely should be regulated more strictly. But more innocuous situations also exist, or questions of implicit consent when,…
Haha oh man, 몰카 is so wrong, I don't even know where to start.
몰카 (spycam? I think was what Dr.Saeji called it) has always been a problem in society and I agree that it is wrong. Like what we said in class, because cases of 몰카 is so prominant in Korean society our cameras are actually programmed to have a large 'click' sound when activated. In cases of ordinary people, I believe that no one has the right to take pictures of others without explicit consent. There's a reason why it's illegal in the first place; it invade's people's personal space.
For celebrities, it may be a little bit more complicated than that. Overall I think it really depends…
1) Occupation does play a role in categorizing people in Western countries, but is considerably less significant than in Korea. Countries like Canada have different standards of respectable careers as well. Take public transport for example: public bus drivers in Korea are overworked (many news stories of drivers falling asleep behind the wheel) and are paid second-rate pay levels; however, Translink bus drivers with 3 years of experience earn ~60k a year and receive great benefits (medical and dental insurance, paid vacation, pension plan). Driving a bus is not seen as a lowly job around here, but is in Korea as it requires no intellectual skill. Plumbers, electricians, construction workers, etc. are all seen as respectable professions, but these worke…
3) Thoughts on secretly taking photos of others in public? taking photos of celebrities?
From what I'm seeing on social media, I feel like this is a huge issue in Korea right now. It shocks me how ignorant some people are with this issue. Taking a photo of someone, whether they are a celebrity or not is very wrong. In my opinion, it is considered a crime as it invades personal rights. In Korea, there has been so many issues with hidden cameras, especially towards women. In 2004, secretly taking photos of others in public had become such an issue that the basic camera app on every phone was required to make a "click" sound. Also, what I see mor…
Hm, i think that this does happened; however, I think it really depends what city you live in and what “class” you are in. Personally, I don’t believe that middle or lower class citizens really care about what occupation another person has. Though, I am not part of the upper class, I could imagine that in the West if you are considered rich, I feel like your occupation does play a part.
It’s hard to really say what a “good deed” is. I think that it can be quite subjective and depending of the situation, maybe both parties think they are in the right. However, looking at this particular situation in the drama, I do think that it makes him…