The unfolding of Kill Me, Heal Me

Hello! 
It's Suley Rostro and I'm back with more of a detailed review of the Korean drama I'm watching, Kill Me, Heal Me. As the story progresses, Do Hyun constantly has times where a certain environment or phrase triggers memories from his childhood that are very vague. These memories slowly become more detailed, he is in a dark basement surrounded by toys, and a figure comes in and he covers himself as if he was going to be hit. 
Then we have Ri Jin becoming the cause of these memories being triggered, she even says "I have a fear of fire and basements" which then you can conclude that Do Hyun and Ri Jin were childhood friends. 

These are all of Do Hyun's different personalities.

Today I'll focus on connecting the society of South Korea with the drama and the production.

• Do Hyun is always hiding his disorder from everyone including his family. The reason he does this is because he knows he'll be ostracized by them, so he himself chooses to stay away from them. He avoids forming new friendships, out of fear that they could discover his disorder and meet one of his personalities and become afraid of him. 
• I've looked into mental health in South Korea and found that there is a huge stigma against voicing your own struggles with mental health. As the country with the the second highest rates of suicide, the amount of people seeking help and treatment is very low. While reading an article I came across this phrase, "...it is not seen as a clinical issue...rather, seen as a burden on a family's reputation." This really resonates with Do Hyun's situation, if his family discovers that he is even going to therapy, that is enough to have him shamed and looked down upon. 

This drama shows you that a portion of South Korean society, especially the elite and rich, are only really interested on their own reputation and how to maintain their good and posh appearance to the public. 
http://www.intheforefront.org/in-korea-there-is-no-mental-health-barriers-to-treatment/
(This is the link for the article that I referenced) 

Currently, there is a lot of suspicion towards Do Hyun, with his grandma (aka the Chairwomen) hiring spies to look into his movements and into Ri Jin's past. Even his own cousin, that is after Do Hyun's future position as CEO, found out where his psychologist works and pressured the doctor to expose Do Hyun's condition (which thankfully the doctor read the situation and did not speak on Do Hyun's condition). 

• One thing I've realized through today's class is that many Korean drama shoot/film outside of studios, similarly to Turkish dramas. These are some videos in which you can see the actors practicing and all the crew filming in public.

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-p37Tvroxs
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73_VUh0w6wE
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqSNr9qXVJ4

• Another interesting fact that I found out through research of the production of South Korean dramas, is that much of the budget goes to paying these very well-known actors and actresses. Similar to what we learned today, that executive producers see actors as commodities, especially if you have a famous actor or actress that has a huge following that brings in high ratings. Around 55%-65% of the budget to make these dramas goes toward paying these popular actors and actresses. On average an episode cost around $200,000 or 250 million won. 
• They are famous for shooting as many scenes as possible in a day, this results into actors and actresses admitting to receiving IV therapy while on set. 
• While majority of scrip writers are female, the crew including the director are mostly men. 

This is all for this blog post! 

Thank you all, 

Suley Rostro