Lee Seung-yeon
Encyclopedia
Lee Seung-yeon is a South Korea
n actress. Lee's career as an actress was especially noted in the film 3-Iron
.
Lee took third place in the 1992 Miss Korea
beauty pageant.
On February 12, 2004 Lee, and companies Lototo Inc. and Netian Entertainment held a press conference to announce their plan to sell erotic photographs and videos of Lee posing as a comfort woman
over the Internet, starting in March. Comfort women
is the Japanese term for Korean women who forcefully served as their armies' sex slaves during World War II
. The first part of the project was already done on Palau Island in the Pacific, where real comfort women were taken, with the next phases planned in Nepal and Japan. They declared they did this as a way to return the issue to the spotlight and announced part of the profits would go to surviving comfort women. A few photographs were released, showing a semi-nude Lee bathing in the sea, sleeping on the floor, and wearing somewhat revealing white clothes with dirt in her face.
This caused a great outcry from the surviving comfort women and the Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan. A press conference to announce the project's cancellation was held on February 16. Following the cancellation, Lee personally apologized in the "House of Sharing", a residence for some of the survivors, on her knees and with a teary face. The women rejected her apology until the materials were destroyed, something the producer was hesitant to do. The producer further proposed a preview screening to obtain public approval to the project–they had 1 hour and a half of video and about 1,500-2,000 photos taken from the film. Finally, he shaved his head (in a traditional gesture of apology) and burned publicly the materials in front of some of the surviving comfort women.
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
n actress. Lee's career as an actress was especially noted in the film 3-Iron
3-Iron
3-Iron is a 2004 Korean film directed by Kim Ki-duk. The plot revolves around the relationship between a young drifter and an abused housewife...
.
Lee took third place in the 1992 Miss Korea
Miss Korea
Miss Korea is an annual national beauty pageant responsible for selecting Korea's representative to the Miss Universe pageant.The current titleholder is Lee Seong-hye. She won the title on August 3, 2011 in Seoul.-History:...
beauty pageant.
On February 12, 2004 Lee, and companies Lototo Inc. and Netian Entertainment held a press conference to announce their plan to sell erotic photographs and videos of Lee posing as a comfort woman
Comfort Woman
Comfort Woman is the fifth solo album by Me'shell Ndegeocello. It was released October 14, 2003 on Maverick Records. The album peaked at #150 on the Billboard Top 200 list that year. The album also peaked at #43 on Billboard's R&B Album chart. The LP was the final record released by Maverick,...
over the Internet, starting in March. Comfort women
Comfort women
The term "comfort women" was a euphemism used to describe women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II.Estimates vary as to how many women were involved, with numbers ranging from as low as 20,000 from some Japanese scholars to as high as 410,000 from some Chinese...
is the Japanese term for Korean women who forcefully served as their armies' sex slaves during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The first part of the project was already done on Palau Island in the Pacific, where real comfort women were taken, with the next phases planned in Nepal and Japan. They declared they did this as a way to return the issue to the spotlight and announced part of the profits would go to surviving comfort women. A few photographs were released, showing a semi-nude Lee bathing in the sea, sleeping on the floor, and wearing somewhat revealing white clothes with dirt in her face.
This caused a great outcry from the surviving comfort women and the Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan. A press conference to announce the project's cancellation was held on February 16. Following the cancellation, Lee personally apologized in the "House of Sharing", a residence for some of the survivors, on her knees and with a teary face. The women rejected her apology until the materials were destroyed, something the producer was hesitant to do. The producer further proposed a preview screening to obtain public approval to the project–they had 1 hour and a half of video and about 1,500-2,000 photos taken from the film. Finally, he shaved his head (in a traditional gesture of apology) and burned publicly the materials in front of some of the surviving comfort women.
External links
- Press article on the comfort women project announcement and stills from the video, in EnglishCineseoul profileLee in the 1992 Miss Korea contest종군위안부 누드’ 파문의 중심에 선 이승연 2004-03-04 at 여성동아대박좇다 쪽박만…이승연 파산위기 2004-02-14 at EmpasEmpasEmpas was one of the popular total internet search tools and web portal sites in South Korea. The service was launched in 1998 by Knowledge Plant Corporation , which changed its name to Empas Corporation in 2004...
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