Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
In a bit of irony, The Glory director Ahn Gil Ho has recently been accused of being a school bully when he was in high school, though the claim itself is a bit of a self-report by their own admission.
The victim (hereafter “A”) explained that they were unaware of Ahn Gil Ho’s work as a director because they weren’t familiar with Korean dramas, but found out about his career in a group chat with their classmates after “The Glory” gained popularity globally.
A went on to share, “To be honest, if Ahn Gil Ho is living well, I don’t care to make an issue out of that. However, I’ve come to reveal this as it’s absurd and unforgivable for a school bully to direct a program like ‘The Glory’ that is meant to raise awareness about school violence.”
The allegation states that while he was a student in the Philippines, Ahn Gil Ho basically directed a group of friends to assault the accuser because the accuser and his friends would tease his girlfriend at the time.
The statement from A detailed their experience with Ahn Gil Ho as fellow students in the Philippines in 1996. A stated that at the time, Ahn Gil Ho was studying abroad in the Philippines for his third year of high school while they themselves were in their second year of middle school at an international school. They did not attend the same school, but A shared that Ahn Gil Ho was dating middle school student “B,” whom A and their classmates would tease. After finding out about this, A said that Ahn Gil Ho summoned A and their classmates to threaten and assault them.
A added that their fear at the time prevented them from remembering clearly, but there were around 10 people with Ahn Gil Ho to beat them up. When no one responded to Ahn Gil Ho’s interrogations about who was making fun of his girlfriend, A claimed that he threatened, “Bring the knife, I’m going to stab them.” A additionally stated that this went on for nearly two hours.
Eventually, A shared, “If Ahn Gil Ho denies [these allegations], the other friends who were also summoned have said they would testify with me. If he denies and wants to take legal action, I too will respond actively. What we want is justice. Aren’t people not supposed to do this? It’s so shameful.”
Honestly man, the most uncomfortable takeaway from this is a 17-18 year old was dating a 13-14 year old, which doesn’t sound like a huge gap but at that age it’s weird as hell.
Anyway, elsewhere the comments were saying that the harassment was sexual in nature, so there’s that to consider as well.
In response to the allegations, the production company behind The Glory said they would look into it, while Ahn Gil Ho himself denied beating anybody.
Producer Ahn said in a phone call with Yonhap News, “It never happened,” adding, “No matter how much I think about it, I don’t remember hitting someone in a group.”
Violence is never the answer and all that (unless it is), but these are juveniles, and it basically sounds like a case of the accuser and his friends fucking around and finding out. Like yeah, maybe beating the shit out of people harassing your significant other isn’t the most civilized thing to do, but do I blame anybody for having that reaction? Not really.
As somebody who was teased and harassed in middle school by a group and reacted by kicking a dude’s teeth in (I mean, it worked to stop it at least), it’s hard for me to think of his reaction as bullying even if one recognizes it wasn’t the most rational thing to do.
The main disclaimer I would put on that take is it’s based on what we know so far, as perhaps the harassment wasn’t as serious as alluded to or there’s other incidents at play or the severity of the assault was worse than we thought.
