"When The Stars Gossip" has again drawn criticism amidst its fairly low rating. This time, the criticism came from Gong Ryong's (Lee Min Ho) dialogue, who was bragging about his abilities as an obstetrician. In episode 6 of "When The Stars Gossip", Gong Ryong and Eve Kim (Gong Hyo Jin) are seen observing the behavior of rats.
Eve, questions whether the two rats will mate. Gong Ryong assures her that they will. Gong Ryong arrogantly claims, “When it comes to sex and pregnancy, I’m the expert.” The line doesn’t actually sound all that offensive in the subtitles—or in the dubbed version.
However, the line was criticized by Korean-speaking viewers who watched/heard it in the original Korean version. In the original Korean version, the line is grammatically structured as being close to, "I am an expert in/about having sex and getting pregnant."
After the episode aired, viewers flocked to online communities in anger, with some pointing out Gong Ryong's remarks as a form of disrespect toward obstetricians and gynecologists. The reason is, the profession is described as "breeder".
Meanwhile, others mocked "When The Stars Gossip" for spending a lot of money to take a setting in outer space, but not involving outer space at all. " I'm an obstetrician and gynecologist and... this is offensive. I'm a doctor who treats women, not a breeder.
This is very disappointing, especially since I loved his previous work[sic!] ," wrote one netizen. " It's shocking to me that no one from the director's team or cast found this script problematic [sic!] ," added another. " What do these scriptwriters think obstetricians and gynecologists do…? I'm disgusted [sic!] ," another said.
On the other hand, "When The Stars Gossip" had touched a rating of 1 percent which left netizens and industry insiders stunned. This is because the drama used a production budget of around 50 billion KRW and five years of preparation.
"When the Stars Gossip" was expected to be a game changer as the first Korean drama set on a space station. However, despite featuring big stars like Min Ho and Hyo Jin, the drama struggled to keep viewers' attention.
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