Eugene Park is a well-known electric violinist known for his passionate and charismatic performances. He is U.S-born, and entered the highly prestigious Julliard School at the age of 8. Since then, he has been noted as one of the best violinists of the decade and even performed at the Super Bowl in the 1990s. He was invited to play at Michael Jackson's concert in Seoul, and even played for the Presidential Inauguration in 1999. In 1998, he went to Korea, where he was accepted as a national hero and the pride of Koreans. However, people have been noticing a dramatic change in his physical appearance and the quality of his performances recently. Korean fans found out that he has been exploited and abused by his agents in Korea, and even imprisoned for several years. The condition of Eugene Park, who suffers from bipolar disorder and light autism, worsened due to his agents forcing him to take drugs. There are rumors that the CEO of Eugene's management company has connections with the police and the mafia which explains why the police have not done anything to help the musical prodigy. See the dramatic change between the first concert and the most recent one below.The recent one was supposedly right after the manager beat up Eugene Park and locked him up in a secluded room. Eugene Park's already unstable condition became steadily worse by the constant abuse. There are speculations that Park is slowly recovering and taking medication to help with his instability. [video=youtube;MyALV4N-Oho]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyALV4N-Oho"[/video] [video=youtube;WvOM5jXCYks]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvOM5jXCYks"[/video] Here is a video taken in either 2008 or 2009. Eugene Park was playing at a buffet... In this video, you can see his fake smile and his robot-like, emotionless playing. [video=youtube;bbP3f1dWhDo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbP3f1dWhDo[/video] Here is another video where you clearly see the distrubed and mentally unstable Eugene Park. Although the person recording kept saying "It's a video", Eugene Park helplessly holds his "V" up like a little child unable to understand. [video=youtube;u3Q44tHXpJs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3Q44tHXpJs"[/video] Credit: allkpop Video credits: lizgeier, songbyounghun, kokkkful ================================================== = Help for Eugene Park Eugene Park is an US-born, Korean violinist who, by most people’s standards, can be called a genius. Born in the United States in 1976, he entered Julliard at the age of 8, and has been noted as one of the best violinists of the decade. He has released two albums, one in 1997 and the other in 1998. He came to Korea, his home country around 1998 and was called a national hero by the media. However, he has disappeared from media since a few years ago. Recently, Korean fans have found out that he has been exploited and manipulated by his agents in Korea. He has literally been imprisoned for several years and seems to have been forced to take drugs, which worsened his bipolar disorder and light autism. The medication made Park not play by his own will, but by the force of his agents. The CEO of his management company seems to have connections with the police and therefore the Korean police have not reacted in any way regarding this case. There is even talk that the CEO recorded a video of Park without any clothes on. We, as Koreans, feel that this tragic reality must be handled not only by Korean media, but also American media as well. Most Koreans know Park’s name from his overwhelming popularity in the late 1990s. Park was once a worldwide renowned artist who performed in Super Bowl, and some even regarded him as the next Vanessa Mae. He was invited to play at Michael Jackson’s concert in Seoul and even played at the Presidential Inauguration in 1999. This top performer is now suffering from exploitation, violence and abuse from his agent. His health is seemingly in danger. From the videos of him performing on stage throughout this year, one can see the impact his health condition has made in his performances. The difference between his performances before becoming mentally unstable and after is stark. One example is the clear difference between these two performances of the same song: In the latter performance, Park seems to have trouble just keeping up with the beat. This performance was right after Park was beaten and locked in a room by his agent. His agents’ abuses have caused Park to become mentally unstable. It is hard for us to find out exactly what state Park is in current because there is no way we can reach him. However, there have been assumptions that Park has been taking medication to help with his instability. Park’s agents seem to have taken advantage at the fact that Park is an US-born, 2nd-generation Korean who has limited knowledge about Korean culture. They have locked Park in a room, only letting him out to play at small concerts and events. The concerts that he has been playing at are small in scale and usually poorly planned out. The agent, or “manager,” as Koreans call it, is taking advantage of Park’s weak health. From what many Koreans have seen from video clips of his latest performances, Park’s passionate and inspiring performances are nowhere to be seen, and what we can only see is his blank stares and his hitting wrong tunes. This is not because he has suddenly lost his potential, or because he is not a passionate musician anymore; it is because of the current situation he is in, the continuous abuse of his agent and lack of help from outside. We are sending out this message to the world because we do not want this shining star to lose its light. We want him back to the place where he is supposed to be standing–be it Carnegie Hall, Sejong Art Center, a top TV music program–rather than the decrepit stages on which he is forced to play. We hope to publicize Park’s current situation so that more Americans, not to mention the world, will know what is going on with this Korean-American artist. Park came to his home country to find his roots and perform in front of the Korean audiences, and certainly he does not deserve this kind of treatment. It is impossible to get Park out of this horrible situation without foreign help because of many reasons. First of all, he is a second generation Korean who is not completely fluent in Korean, making him an easy target for his agents to take charge. Also, Park’s father passed away a few years ago and the rest of Park’s family is currently in the United States. His management company is so heavily involved with Korean mafia that it is hard for the police to intervene. Because of these reasons and others we do not yet know of, Park is chained to his management company as he has been for years. He is not even healthy enough to play on stage, yet alone record a new album. It is sad to see such a bright star fade away by outside influence, and as his fans who remember him playing his violin on TV, we want to help in any way we can. Even though we are Koreans who are proud to have such a musical genius such as Park in our country, we feel that he needs help, most importantly help from Americans, to get out of this devastating situation. Park is an American citizen who came to Korea because he loved his home country, and it is sad to see him get betrayed by some of his own people. We ask you to help Park become a shining star once again. Source: Korean Beacon ================================================== = Fans Seek to Save Violinist From Abuse, Monday August 3, 2009 Korea Fans of electric violinist Eugene Park are waging a campaign to better protect him after reports of abuse, extortion and illegal confinement by his previous agency in Korea emerged last week. The drive is gaining momentum as video clips and writings on the Internet have showed Park expressionless and much thinner than before. According to Internet posters, Park has been practically enslaved by his former agency for the last five years and forced to perform at small events it hosted unrelated to classical music. A photo showed a blank-faced Park posing with local residents drinking liquor. It has been alleged that Park was kidnapped and illegal confined by his former agency. The company also kept all of his fees. Park is a U.S.-born electric violinist who entered Julliard Pre-College at the age of 8. He entered into the spotlight in the late 1990s in Korea and released three albums from 1997 to 2006. ``Once called a prodigy, his eyes have lost their shine,'' a netizen nicknamed Chung said. ``I can't believe that his talent was abused like that.'' The once-promising musician had several interviews to explain his circumstances. He said he had been to the U.S. for several weeks and arrived in Korea Thursday and did not see the video online. ``I did stay in the inn with my managers for more than a year and mostly ate Chinese food like jajangmyeon,'' he said in an interview with KBS entertainment news program Saturday. He made the comment in response to the rumor that he was confined in an inn in Gunpo, Gyeonggi Province. ``I don't care about those matters. I think of my former agents as my friends and I don't want to say bad things about them,'' he added. ``They did hit me and I wish that won't happen any more.'' He showed a strong will to continue with his music. ``Sometimes I didn't get paid for my music and performance, but still the most important thing for me is music and good performance,'' he said. ``When I plug in the electric violin, it makes me happy. The best thing would be doing a good performances and being paid properly.'' Lee Sang-jo, head of Park's current agency Dreamline Entertainment, accompanied Park to the interview and said he is now safe and well. However, some pointed out that his current agency also exhausted Park by making him perform at small events and that he needs better protection. Source: Korea Times
SAD .. hitting is unacceptable. I am surprised he didn't get the US embassy involved and help him get out of the shit hole.
fuck the korean entertainment industry... i mean not all, but a lot of which are tainted (not that other cultures aren't, just saying korean because its a korean thread..) but man wats w/ these agents being so fucked up nowadays, who the fuk do they think they are. they have no talent and wouldn't make any money if it wasnt for these artists/actors
