"My Lovable Girl" is not sugar coating any of the negative aspects of the Korean entertainment industry. The drama, which concerns the president of a talent agency, and his protégée, an aspiring songwriter, deals with some of the negative practices in the k-pop industry.
While negative practices such as trainee abuse are probably an exception rather than the rule, they do happen, and it's interesting to see k-pop stars such as Rain, f(x)'s Krystal Jung, Infinite's L and Hoya bring these issues to life.
In a recent episode, Rain's character, CEO Lee Hyun Wook, confronts his father about a possible affair that his father had with a trainee singer. His father, played by Park Yeong Gyu, seems to wonder why his son is shocked.
"Do you think the entertainment world is some kind of temple," he says.
One issue the drama repeatedly explores is the abusive behavior of executives toward trainees, whether that poor treatment consists of verbal abuse, excessive work schedules, or using attractive trainees to secure investment dollars.
Na Hae Ryung plays a singer who is about to break her contract when she thinks she is being offered to an investor. She worries about the kind of abuse that must happen. When k-drama actress Jang Ja Yeon, committed suicide in 2011, she left a note saying that she was forced to be intimate with executives. Fortunately, that was never her fictional agency's intention.
While forcing entertainers to grant sexual favors is clearly abuse, qualifying abuse in other areas can be a matter of contention. Entertainment agencies work trainees hard for the chance at stardom and there's some disagreement about how hard they should work them. On Sept. 20, a member of the boy band ZE:A alleged that he was mistreated by his agency but then withdrew his complaints after meeting his managers. Park Yoochun, Kim Jaejoong and Kim Junsu of TVXQ, now known as JYJ, Hankyung of Super Junior and Kris of EXO have all complained about agency mistreatment.
"My Lovable Girl" also takes on the bad behavior of idols and the conflicts between band members that may be hidden from the public. In "My Lovable Girl," real-life band-mates L and Hoya argue about who has talent. Hoya sabotages one of L's fan meetings. In real life, they actually like each other.
The drama also highlights the rivalry between fellow executives and trainees in the same agency. The competition must be intense and that rivalry may actually occasionally be unpleasant.
But these incidents are likely the exception rather than the rule or the drama's producers would never have been able to attract real k-pop stars to participate.
In a recent interview the drama's star Rain said it was not easy to play his part, but not because the drama inaccurately portrayed the industry. It was hard just because such things did happen.
Rain is the CEO and founder of the company J.Tune Entertainment, and acts as a producer and composer for the band MBLAQ.
"At first, I thought acting the role would be easier since I was aware of what is happening inside the entertainment industry, but it actually made things more challenging because I knew too much," he said.
