Drinking Solo producer's suicide note throws light on dark side of entertainment industry

Lee Han Bit's brother, Lee Han Sol, revealed Han Bit's suicide note and disclosed the reason for his suicide.

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The actual reason behind the death of the assistant producer of the tvN drama, Drinking Solo is out after six months. Lee Han Bit committed suicide on October 26, 2016, and until now, everyone remained silent about the whole issue.

His family and CJ E&M didn't reveal anything about it but recently, Lee Han Bit's brother, Lee Han Sol, revealed Han Bit's suicide note and disclosed the reason for his suicide.

The suicide note throws light on his experienced while working on Drinking Solo for CJ E&M. It stated that he had been forced to work for 55 days straight, with only two days off.

According to Koreaboo, Han Bit's suicide note mentioned, "The phrase 'exploitation of labor', which the staff on set would say half jokingly and half seriously, dug a hole in my heart. Of course, I am also just a worker, but at the very least, I shouldn't have to force as much work as possible out of the others."

It was definitely difficult for the producer who further stated that he had to force them to "work more than 20 hours a day, with only 2-3 hours of sleep, and then call them back to work." Moreover, despite being tired, the workers were forced to create the results that the company wanted.

He wrote, "I despised this type of life; it was hard to continue living."

Lee Han Sol also disclosed some audio recordings and Kakaotalk messages which were full of insults. Han Sol claimed that even after his disappearance on October 21, CJ E&M allegedly kept on criticising him and also called him a "son of a bitch".

After revealing the suicide note and other details, CJ E&M issued an official statement denying any claims of abuse saying, "We are very sad about the death of Lee Han Bit. We regret today's situation. We would like to offer our deepest condolences to his family who is grieving in these tough times. While we have been discussing the cause of death with both the police and family after the investigatiom, we are very sorry about what happened today. The company and its executives and employees will actively cooperate should the police and authorities wish to begin an investigation."

This article was first published on May 1, 2017