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On Tuesday, August 8, a clip of a female fan forcibly hugging Park Seo-joon at a promotional event went viral on Twitter. For the unversed, the actor was attending a special screening of his upcoming movie Concrete Utopia alongside cast members Park Bo-young and Lee Byung-hun, among others. While the event seemed to go smoothly, this particular incident alarmed fans.
Twitter user @mirinrae_rainbow shared a video wherein the cast and crew could be seen standing in front of the fans to engage with them. However, one woman walked directly towards Park Seo-joon and hugged him. The actor seemingly obliged with the fan and smiled, but netizens believed that he looked a bit uncomfortable at the sudden physical touch.
Fan alleged s*xual harassment as they post a video of a female forcibly hugging Park Seo-joon at a movie event
Park Seo-joon’s upcoming movie, Concrete Utopia, is one of the most anticipated South Korean movies of this year, which also stars two other famous stars -- Park Bo-young and Lee Byung-hun. The main cast held a special screening in a theater recently which also gave them time to engage with fans.
At one particular moment at the screening, a female attendee walked up nonchalantly to Park Seo-joon and hugged him. Although the camera panned to reveal the actor’s face after a few seconds of the hug, netizens noticed that he played along despite being uncomfortable. Park Bo-young was also seen taking a step back and seemingly laughing in disbelief.
The original poster of the video, Twitter user @mirinrae_rainbow, even shared their opinion stating that it looked like harassment:
“What the… I am sharing this in the hopes that no one does this. This occurred during the premiere at CGV. I was shocked when a person who didn’t even win just went up. Then all of a sudden, she hugged Park Seo-joon. This is s*xual harassment. Don’t try to touch the actors without their consent.” - Twitter/@mirinrae_rainbow (Translation via Koreaboo)
Netizens quote-retweeted the post and shared their opinions regarding the non-consensual hug. Some fans also mentioned the actor recently opening up about being stalked several times and criticized the female fan for her actions.
One fan even said that incidents like these were why fans couldn’t have “nice things.” Check out fans’ various reaction and criticism against the female fan below:
Meanwhile, Concrete Utopia is a thriller-disaster movie that is slated for release on August 9, 2023. After this, Park Seo-joon will be seen in another thriller series titled Gyeongseong Creature alongside Han So-hee.
Additionally, the Itaewon Class actor's upcoming roster continues to be impressive as it will also include The Marvels, the sequel of Captain Marvel. The South Korean actor reportedly plays Prince Yan, the husband of Carol Denvers in an alternate universe. The Marvels is slated for a release on November 10, 2023.
