Remember Eugene Park?
Well, recent video footage of the former violin prodigy performing has shocked Korean cyberland and added to rumors that he was imprisoned and abused by his former manager, reports the Ilgan Sports.
See for yourself. His first concert in Korea in 1998:
And last October:
Now, I’m not an expert on the violin, but that’s a drop-off almost as bad as Jefferson Airplane’s. Maybe even Chicago’s.
Needless to say, the second video has netizens wondering if Park was psychologically damaged from being violently confined.
Adding to the rumors is a recent interview the CEO of his current management company, Lee Sang-jo, gave to Money Today’s Star News (re-reported in the Dong-A Ilbo) that the suspicions about him being confined and abused were largely true, but the suspicions involved his previous management. Lee also said Park was detained for 10 months by his former manager in an inn behind Gunpo Police Station, between February and November 2008.
He added that Park was screwed out of about 500 million won for his performances, and that in fact, the performer hasn’t received a cent since the beginning of his contract. Even after Park switched agents, his former manager refused to return his 300 million won violin in order to get him to perform at some remaining events.
If it makes anyone feel better, Lee said Park was taken to Chuncheon to recover, and that he was back to normal this April. Park, who returned briefly to the United States, will be performing again on Aug 2 in Seoul.
Interestingly, in December last year, police in Gunpo opened an investigation into Park’s disappearance, but they said the accusations were groundless (or so said Ilgan Sports). Lee’s comments obviously run counter to this. The Dong-A piece, however, says his old manager was also arrested on June 26 on charges that he sexually assaulted a new female singer, which he videotaped and threatened to share. Charming.
Sombody wrote about Park’s alleged troubles in Korean Beacon, too.
(HT to reader, an old friend of this blog from whom it’s nice to hear)
{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
In my opinion, it also sounds as if his hands are too heavy on the strings in the second video (pushing too hard on a string makes the note go sharp). Usually, it’s unskilled musicians who make this basic mistake because, after a few years of playing, applying the correct pressure to the strings eventually becomes second nature.
Well, I always thought the whole point to being a talent manager/agent was sexually abusing/having easy sexual access to, your celebrity clients. Otherwise, why bother?
Also, was the violinist Eugene Park just beaten up a lot? Or did he take it up his bunghole?
Ugh, couldn’t get through 15 seconds of the second video. He was SO much more brilliant when I saw him in 2004(?), although I do wish he would stick to the violin and stay the hell off the mic.
I hope he gets beck to 2004 form soon.
They’re both pretty amateurish performances really. But still I’m very sorry to hear about his mistreatment-abuse. How do Korean managers get away with this stuff? It’s not the first story we’ve all heard about regarding managers mistreating the people they’re supposed to be helping.
The boy band ‘Big Bang’ are our neighbours and supposedly one of the biggest Korean acts out there (I can’t stand their crappy music myself). I don’t live in a particularly upscale part of town, but our place is much better. At least in our place it’s just the wife, me and the cat and we don’t live above a convenience store! What kind of self respecting pop stars would live above a Buy The Way store?
Keith,
Judging from what you wrote I am guessing you live in Hapjeong near the Yanghawjin Foreigners’ Cemetery.
Robert N, are we neighbours? You seem to know my territory rather well.
Entertainment management in Korea, IMPO, are many times either incompetent, criminals or both. That is why an entertainer needs a *sponsor* or *angel* who can help them avoid the perils of being famous.
I hope Park’s dan-ta-ra gets jail time.
And it’s not only entertainers who have been abused, either… LOTS of stories coming out of various sports teams (especially women’s teams) on abusive coaches.
Every so often we hear yet another story about this entertainer or that athlete being abused by management or coaching staff, but has ANYthing ever been done to solve the problems? Pfft, the guilty parties aren’t punished much more than being fired. If that.
My daughter has been working in children’s television, and part of our parental duty has been me showing up to give the male producer and agent the evil eye. Our little girl is now on the cusp of puberty and we’re wondering whether it’s safe to let her continue.
Keith,
We are not neighbors but I try to visit the cemetery at least once a month and am often in the area. I remember passing the Buy the Way many a times and seeing the crowds of preteens, and I believe a housewife, standing around outside hoping to get a glimpse of Big Bang. I notice that the fans were not shy about writing about their love for Big Bang with paint and markers on the surrounding walls.
We will have to have a beer or coffee sometime…..
Robert
Brendon, I feel your pain! Daughter of a close friend has already had a major part in a movie and her mom is moving her into modelling. Hate the thought of my little niece being around such creeps.
@10 Why not,
Robert,
I notice the crowds outside the convenience store often, during the school holidays it gets really crowded sometimes. I’m up for a beer or a coffee most of the time, they’re my two favourite drinks after Champagne! The graffiti is a little annoying, but what can you do?
Cheers
K
Some of the stage mothers I’ve met were totally neurotic. There was this one grand-mother that was particularly mean. She’d laugh and talk loudly during screen tests, hoping to make other people’s kids feel uncomfortable in front of the camera. She’d keep her trap shut, and give us dirty looks if we talked, when it was her grand-daughter’s turn. She also went on and on about how skinny and pretty her grand-daughter was…She looked malnourished to me. I doubt she was fed properly.
“LOTS of stories coming out of various sports teams (especially women’s teams) on abusive coaches. ”
My mother-in-law was a track and field star when she was younger. That’s why she turned down every coach who came knocking when my wife had an excellent chance of making the Olympic team.
“They’re both pretty amateurish performances really. ”
Sure, the first video may not have been his best performance, but it was picked because he plays the same song in it as in the second video.
I used to play the song ‘Tequila’ with a big band I was in. We could belt that tune out like motherfuckers! We played it really well. Both renditions are poor, the second is dreadful my 10 year old niece can play it better.
It would not surprise me if Mr. Park was bipolar. I have spent time with him and always found him really up-and-down. If his drug cocktail were wrong (or if he is not medicated at all), I could see his abilities degrading like that.
I find it hard to believe anyone could confine Park or do anything to him that his mother did not approve of.
I remember seeing Park in a small concert in Samsung-dong in the late ’90s and thinking that he was a really happy young man doing his own thing despite the cultural pressure he must have felt to stay mainstream. I mentioned this to Wynton Marsalis at a benefit a few years ago, and he just shook his head and said he still hoped Park would someday return to the real world of serious music. I wonder how much of his treatment by his former manager was the result of hanging out with a very different type of crew than one gets in the classical and jazz world?
DLB
Huh? Park has been nearly completely mainstream since returning to Korea, back in 1998 or so. Sure, the electric violin was something of an usual choice… but what interesting stuff did he ever play on it? Park certainly had decent chops after graduating from the Julliard, but now he is more like an athlete that has spent a decade doing nothing but eat snack food and watch television. Garbage in, garbage out.
He certainly does look like he has just come back from a couple months at the KCIA.
“I wonder how much of his treatment by his former manager was the result of hanging out with a very different type of crew than one gets in the classical and jazz world?”
Never heard of heroin and beta blockers?
…But, for the most part, I agree with you.
They apparently tracked him down and asked him about the rumors. See for yourself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLYhxxMCIig
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