Netizens Turn on Won Bin, Apocalypse is Nigh

Won Bin is one of the few infallible gods of Korean entertainment, the man can literally do no wrong. His name would constantly be hyped and media played to unbearable levels, but not only would netizens ignore it, they encouraged it.

Dubbed "The Life Sculpture" for being as naturally handsome as if a god spent a little extra time on this guy. "Alien" for being unearthly handsome. "CG creation" for being as handsome as if someone drew/animated him that way. The man allegedly turns lesser men and women into "octopi" in his mere presence or even having his picture next to theirs. You're starting to get the idea here, but apparently his selflessness (he's been known to do charitable works both lowkey and media played) and reclusiveness (not even Korean paparazzi can find bad pics of this guy) combined with his good looks gives him some kind of untouchable aura that no scandal can mar. Not that he's had any significant scandals mar his career in the first place.

The biggest thing to date was a straight up dating scandal. That would put down any normal celebrity for months on end, but it doesn't even phase him. The man hooks up with some hot young actress and instead of screaming how unfit she was for him, netizens merely shrugged and went about their day. He could shit on a little girl's face in broad daylight in the middle of Seoul and people would be jealous instead of mad. Even netizens were self-aware of this phenomenon, wondering what it would take for people to get mad at Won Bin.

Until now.

BRACE YOURSELVES, THE UNTHINKABLE HAS OCCURRED. PUBLIC OPINION HAS FINALLY BEGUN TO TURN ON WON BIN.

"Fuck, I ain't ready for this shit."

Warning: Lots of text, lots of difficult to read tables because fuckin Blogger deletes my formatting
I started off with a small article but it morphed into something bigger and uglier. Oop.

Article: When will he comeback? Won Bin-ssi, isn't it time to promote again

Source: TV Daily via Nate

1. [+1,135, -54] Kim Soo Hyun's daebak already but... imagine if Won Bin did 'You Who Came From the Stars'... He would've really looked like an alien ㅋㅋㅋ

2. [+611, -13] So hurry up and come out~ It's good to do charity work behind the scenes but please do some charity for the eyes of viewers by giving us some eye candy ㅎㅎ We want to see your handsome face ♥.♥ 

3. [+498, -13] Yeah, if you look him up on Naver, his recent activities is just empty... I guess it's one of two things... He's either really careful when it comes to picking projects or he's really~ lazy and would rather stay home since he makes enough money off of CFs.

4. [+61, -11] Reminds me of what Lee Soon Jae said at the awards ceremonies when he talked ill of actors who get popular off of one work and then live off of CF money... Won Bin's handsome and a good actor but he doesn't work often enough. Sometimes I wonder if he's an actor or a CF star.

5. [+51, -8] His looks are undeniably the best but I prefer actors like Ha Jung Woo who doesn't care about his image or anything and works hard in all of his projects as opposed to a an actor who does nothing but CFs sometimes. 

6. [+40, -7] What's the point of being so handsome when he doesn't work... I prefer actors who continue to work even as supporting roles when necessary even if they're not as handsome as him.

7. [+40, -9] If you are truly an actor, I hope you will stop shying away from works so much. An actor needs to act to be an actor. 

8. [+34, -11] Won Bin does one work every 3-4 years... Hard to call him an actor at this point. 

9. [+24, -6] Someone whose job is a doctor must treat patients every day, someone whose job is a taxi driver must drive his taxi every day, someone whose job is a student must study every day... and someone whose job is to act should be acting as often as possible, like Ha Jung Woo... Doesn't seem right for Won Bin to receive all of this love from the public and not do anything with it.

10. [+24, -7] He's not really an actor... just a handsome star.

"WTF DID I JUST READ... WON BIN GON' HAVE TA SMACK A BITCH?"

People are complaining that he's not done anything or landed any new gigs aside from the odd CF? Smells like the typical bullshit netizen entitlement that plagues Korean entertainment. Like many people have said in the past, the constant barrage of promotions Korean stars do -- whether it's comeback singles or new CF deals or new drama roles or movie performances or stage/theatre pieces -- desensitizes people to the normally rigorous demands of the industry itself. It's really goddamn hard out there to get a new gig in the first place, and unless you've got sponsorship, industry connections, or cash to throw around, you're not doing shit until you get one or more of the previous.

Let's look at American movie stars for comparison. You're always going to have A-listers like Morgan Freeman who have a ton of star power, money, and influence to throw around. People like him can pretty much pick and choose his roles. He stars in so many movies so often simply because he wants to.

MORGAN FREEMAN'S FILMOGRAPHY (2004-2014)

Year Movie Role 2004 Million Dollar Baby Eddie "Scrap Iron" Dupris 2005 An Unfinished Life Mitch Bradley 2005 Batman Begins Lucius Fox 2005 Unleashed Sam 2006 Edison Force Ashford 2006 The Contract Frank Carden 2006 Lucky Number Slevin The Boss 2006 10 Items or Less Himself 2007 Evan Almighty God 2007 Feast of Love Harry Stephenson 2007 Gone, Baby, Gone Jack Doyle 2007 The Bucket List Carter Chambers 2008 Wanted Sloan 2008 The Dark Knight Lucius Fox 2009 Prom Night in Mississippi Himself 2009 Thick as Thieves Keith Ripley 2009 The Maiden Heist Charlie 2009 Invictus Nelson Mandela 2010 RED Joe 2011 Dolphin Tale Dr. Cameron McCarthy 2012 The Magic of Belle Isle Monte Wildhorn 2012 The Dark Knight Rises Lucius Fox 2013 Olympus Has Fallen Speaker Allan Trumbull 2013 Oblivion Malcolm Beech 2013 Now You See Me Thaddeus Bradley 2013 Last Vegas Archie 2014 The Lego Movie Vitruvius (voice)

On the other hand, you have people like Tom Cruise or Leonardo di Caprio who also have just as much star power/money/influence to toss around but instead are far more selective about their roles in comparison.

TOM CRUISE'S FILMOGRAPHY (2004-2014)

Year	Movie	Role
2004	Collateral	Vincent
2005	War of the Worlds	Ray Ferrier
2006	Mission: Impossible III	Ethan Hunt
2007	Lions for Lambs	Senator Jasper Irving
2008	Valkyrie	Claus von Stauffenberg
2008	Tropic Thunder	Les Grossman
2010	Knight and Day	Roy Miller
2011	Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol	Ethan Hunt
2012	Rock of Ages	Stacee Jaxx
2012	Jack Reacher	Jack Reacher
2013	Oblivion	Jack Harper
2014	Edge of Tomorrow	Lt. Col. William "Bill" Cage

LEONARDO DI CAPRIO'S FILMOGRAPHY (2004-2014)

Year	Movie	Role
2004	The Aviator	Howard Hughes
2006	The Departed	William "Billy" Costigan Jr.
	Blood Diamond	Danny Archer
2008	Body of Lies	Roger Ferris
	Revolutionary Road	Frank Wheeler
2010	Shutter Island	Teddy Daniels
	Inception	Dom Cobb
2011	J. Edgar	J. Edgar Hoover
2012	Django Unchained	Calvin J. Candie
2013	The Great Gatsby	Jay Gatsby
	The Wolf of Wall Street	Jordan Belfort

And this is all in the unquestionably larger market of Hollywood. Actors are considered done and washed up if they do anything but a cameo on TV roles, so their prospects are technically slimmer for relevancy. Is it bad they their filmographies aren't packed as full of activity as they could be? No. Is it good that Morgan Freeman is as prolific as he is? Not necessarily. These people have reached the point in their careers that they don't have to whore themselves out constantly to make money or stay in the public eye. They star in things because they like the project or the challenge, or simply need a new mansion to keep their money in. 

If we want to keep it in Korea, let's compare Won Bin to some of his peers.

WON BIN'S FILMOGRAPHY (2004-2014)

Year	Movie	Film or Drama	Role
2004	Taegukgi	Film	Lee Jin Seok
	My Brother	Film	Jong Hyun
2009	Mother	Film	Do Joon
2010	The Man from Nowhere	Film	Cha Tae Sik

CHA SEUNG WON'S FILMOGRAPHY (2004-2014)

Year	Movie	Film or Drama	Role
2004	Ghost House	Film	Park Pil Gi
2005	Blood Rain	Film	Lee Won Gyoo
	Murder, Take One	Film	Choi Yeon Gi
2006	Over the Border	Film	Kim Sun Ho
2007	Small Town Rivals	Film	Jo Choon Sam
	My Son	Film	Lee Kang Shik
2008	Eye for an Eye	Film	Ahn Hyun Min
2009	Secret	Film	Kim Seong Yeol
	City Hall (SBS)	Drama	Jo Gook
2010	Athena: Goddess of War (SBS)	Drama	Son Hyuk
	Blades of Blood	Film	Lee Mong Hak
	71: Into the Fire	Film	Park Moo Rang
2011	The Greatest Love (MBC)	Drama	Dokko Jin
2014	High Heels	Film	Detective Ji Wook

LEE BYUNG HUN'S FILMOGRAPHY (2004-2014)

Year	Movie	Film or Drama	Role
2004	Everybody Has Secrets	Film	Choi Su Hyeon
	Three Extremes - segment "Cut"	Film	Ryu Ji Ho
2005	A Bittersweet Life	Film	Kim Sun Woo
2006	Once in a Summer	Film	Yun Suk Young
2008	The Good, the Bad, the Weird	Film	Park Chang Yi, the Bad
2009	I Come with the Rain	Film	Su Dong Po
	G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra	Film	Storm Shadow
	Iris	Drama	Kim Hyun Jun
2010	Iris: The Movie	Film	Kim Hyun Jun
	The Influence	Film	W
	I Saw the Devil	Film	Kim Soo Hyeon
2012	Masquerade (Gwanghae: The Man Who Became King)	Film	King Gwang Hae, Beggar Ha Sun[33]
2013	G.I. Joe: Retaliation	Film	Storm Shadow
	RED 2	Film	Han Jo Bae / Han Cho Bai
2014	Memories of the Sword	Film	Deok Gi

Yeah, I'll admit there's quite the stark difference between Won Bin and everyone else, Korea or not Korea. Perhaps some of the criticism is warranted, but it's still highly entitled of people to expect actors to star in roles at their beck and call, especially one of the A-lister gods like these guys. All of the actors above (across the pond or not) have taken 2-4 year hiatuses in their careers before, even recently as you can see for yourself in their filmographies, so why is it so weird that Won Bin is as well? It's not like he owes it to these people to star in things, and it's not like he asked for the circlejerky adoration/zealotry he receives from people online. It's simply unfair and really fucking dumb to expect this shit of him or anyone else, really.

Besides, if I was dating someone like Lee Na Young

and rolling in the dough without lifting a finger, I'd just stay home and bang her all day too.