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Infectiously wholesome and initially pitched as the healthier alternative to the upcoming Squid Game: The Challenge, it seemed that Netflix’s Physical: 100 was a reality TV unicorn. In the weeks following its rise to international success, turning contestants like Jang Eun-sil, Choo Sung-hoon, and Yung Sung-bin into Internet royalty, the blemishes on an otherwise perfect facade have begun to show. The following controversies range from allegations of manipulated outcomes to actual crime.
Injuries
One of the first contestants to speak publicly about the show was actress and former idol trainee Elaine Wong, whose comments generated headlines and YouTube thumbnails painting a disastrous picture. “Behind the scenes,” she told AsiaOne in early February, just two weeks after the premiere, “there’s an ambulance every 20 to 30 minutes, picking up [contestants] and going off.” The whole of the interview is actually lighthearted in tone, and she doesn’t regret the experience nor her eventual loss to pink-haired Shim Eu-ddeum in the Death Match challenge. At least two of the injuries sustained in that challenge were depicted on the show, including an elbow to the face and fractured ribs.
What wasn’t shown was the lasting damage from the very first challenge, the Pre-Quest, where all 100 contestants hung onto metal bars. UDT instructor Kim Kyeong-baek won the first round, but his arms were paralyzed for two months. With any sort of physical challenge, one would hope that the production team is taking the proper safety precautions. In 2014, conditions in the Korean film industry were so bad as to be worthy of international scrutiny. That was, however, long before the massive influx of funding from Netflix, which may have brought the needed reform. Then again, Squid Game: The Challenge.
Unnamed Contestants Accused of Assault
On February 23, the Seoul Gangnam Police Station received a report that one of the contestants — as yet unnamed — assaulted his girlfriend, and they subsequently booked him for questioning. A different contestant is facing charges for making threats against his girlfriend, with reports alleging physical abuse.
A percentage of any group of 100 will turn out to be, let’s say, questionable characters, but the popularity of Physical: 100 owes in large part to the general air of camaraderie among the contestants. A far cry from American reality TV, these gym rats and meatheads were always bowing to one another and cheering each other on. While these individual incidents can’t possibly reflect on all 100, it’s always disappointing when the people we root for on television aren’t who we thought they were.
Kim Da-young Bullying Scandal
One of the standouts of Physical: 100 was teeny-tiny stuntwoman Kim Da-young, whose head for safety was instrumental to her team’s win on the Moving Sand challenge. After being accused of bullying her classmates in middle school, she posted an apology on February 24, admitting to verbal abuse but denying the additional claims of physical violence. Now, this may be shocking to American viewers, who have never heard of a celebrity being canceled for “bullying” or any wrongdoing committed as a child (hello, Mark Wahlberg), but this is a common occurrence in the hallyu world, even described by NBC News in 2021 as a “#MeToo-style reckoning.” Name a K-drama or K-pop group, and chances are there’s someone who’s been caught up in this kind of scandal. In the case of the actor Kim Ji Soo, the accusations were enough that he was dropped by his talent agency and replaced in the show River Where the Moon Rises. On the other hand, the allegation against Apink’s Chorong prompted a defamation lawsuit.
2023 is a hell of a time to be accused of bullying, given another Korean show’s popularity on Netflix, The Glory, which may suggest why there’s a difference between American and Korean perceptions of school bullying. The K-drama’s brutal violence is based on a real-world incident, as described by The Korea Times: “In May 2006, a group of freshmen at a middle school in Cheong-ju, North Chungcheong Province, abused a fellow student using a hair iron and clothing pins. Asking the victim to ‘check whether the iron is hot enough,’ the abusers burned the flesh of the victim who was later hospitalized as a result.”
It’s tempting and even reasonable to characterize the problem of school violence as a microcosm of greater Korean society, which is like Bert Cooper’s fine watch wound tight, always ticking. “Sounds more like a bomb!” South Korea has the highest suicide rate among developed nations, and for young people, it’s the stress of competition in school and the workforce. As foreign teacher Ciaran Maguire observed in the country, “It is a fear of an unstable life that strives my students to wake up at 6 a.m., study all day and clock off at midnight, every day.” A shortcut to get ahead, to appear strong, may be to prove that others are weak. For far too many, it would seem, there’s a proverbial cash prize always at stake. What of the real ones, then?
Rigged Finale Allegation
This is an accusation as old as reality TV itself, possibly circumvented in each case if not for the term “reality.” The final two contestants of Physical: 100, Jung Hae-min and Woo Jin-young, competed in an event where each player had to pull rope out of a seemingly endless spool. As made international by TikTok user @krealitylover on February 26, an independent South Korean paper, Ilyo Shinmun, reported that this challenge was filmed three times. According to the user, “For the first time they filmed, Jung Hae-min … was in a huge lead. But Woo Jin-young raised his hands and said that there was an issue with his machine.” After the production staff signs off on the equipment, the match resumes with Hae-min once more taking the lead. Filming halts again, this time for ‘an audio issue.’”
In spite of the damage-control statements made by distributors Netflix and MBC, the rumor became a conflagration: Physical: 100’s winner, Woo Jin-young, stopped the competition when it was clear he was about to lose. On February 28, Hae-min himself testified to the two stoppages. Jin-young made a public statement later on March 4, denying that he requested a stoppage in the first place. “It is not true that I raised my hand and stopped the match.”
A press conference featuring Jin-young was canceled (for this and the other controversies), and even fellow contestant Ma Sun-ho was attacked online for having uploaded a YouTube video featuring Jin-young. Unfortunate in itself, it’s also an eerie recreation of an incident that took place at the 1988 Olympics, where the Korean boxer who won a gold medal was heckled at the podium, criticized in the media, and publicly insulted — by Koreans. Park Si-hun’s fellow countrymen didn’t believe he deserved the medal, and they let him know. In the ensuing years, the athlete battled depression and suicidal thoughts, and never boxed again. Some things, it would appear, haven’t changed. We just have the Internet now.
There’s a negligible difference between the winner of Physical: 100 and every other contestant, especially the runner-up. Whether intended or not, the most profound takeaway from the show is that there is no one true measure of strength. Whatever glory afforded to the individual winner is only icing on the cake of having performed well, which a majority of the contestants had done. Woo Jin-young performed well, as did Hae-min. If hypothetically set against each other in the rope challenge again, it’s understood that either is the likely victor. The controversy only reinforces this, ironically compounding the show’s themes while apparently satisfying no one.
Kim Chun-ri vs. Park Hyung-geun
Unobscured by any tricky editing, the most uncomfortable moment in Physical: 100 was the Death Match between Kim Chun-ri and Park Hyung-guen. At first glance, the outcome seemed obvious: the bulky female bodybuilder Chun-ri could lift Hyung-geun into the air and spin him around like a chef making pizza. And she tries it, but MMA fighter Hyung-geun, who didn’t appear to be taking the match seriously, countered her moves and maneuvered her to the ground before kneeling on her chest. Chun-ri’s voice-over narration conveyed her shock. She couldn’t move. Meanwhile, the contestants watching the match registered their discontent with the tactic, prompting Hyung-geun to do a “zip your lips” gesture, which Jang Eun-sil described as “chilling.”
The Internet did not approve, either, and Park Hyung-geun became an easy target for hate. However, he went on to be an important part of Eun-sil’s underdog team, and one never knows what’s going on behind the scenes. On February 18, Hyung-geun uploaded a short skit to his Instagram account, recreating the scene with a cute reversal. He’s playing the role of the upset audience, while three of the female contestants — Eun-sil included — throw the “zip your lips” move back at him.
Chun-ri directly defended Hyung-geun in an Instagram post, saying, “I know that a lot of viewers may have felt discomfort from the mere fact of seeing his knee on my chest, but I didn’t enter this contest as a ‘woman,’ but as a competitor, so I have no regrets about the loss.” Writing for CNN, writer Jeff Yang also notes that, “As if to prove out [Chun-ri’s] point, petite Kim Da-young subsequently used speed and agility to defeat much larger male jiujitsu fighter Chae Wan-ki at the same game — deftly demonstrating that women could, indeed, win out against male opponents with the right skills and mindset.”
Ascendio Lawsuit
For one scandal that mercifully excludes our favorites from the show, one of Physical: 100’s production companies, Luyworks Media, is in legal trouble with entertainment company Ascendio, which filed a lawsuit over accreditation. In fact, eagle-eyed viewers may have noticed that Ascendio wasn’t included in the credits at all, if such a thing can be noticed, and Luyworks had characterized the show’s production as having proceeded without Ascendio’s involvement whatsoever.
In a local press release, a representative for Ascendio said, “In February last year, we signed a planning and development investment contract with Luyworks and paid the costs for production. Since then, we have not received any return on the investment, and the contract is still in full effect.” For its part, Luyworks maintains that the contract is not in full effect, and Ascendio had been properly notified of its cancelation. If Physical: 100 indeed required three production companies (including MBC), a scale-down to two might make future events even smaller in scale than “shuttle run.”
What is ‘Physical: 100’ Now?
While anything is possible, it would be surprising if any of these controversies impacted the future of Physical: 100, beyond lessons about game variables and background screening for contestants. And it would undoubtedly be a shame. The show is a salve for a notoriously competitive culture — a competition with multiple ways to “win” — which disrupted the battle of the sexes and showcased a variety of body shapes and sizes. Ultimately, Physical: 100 proved to be a troubled reflection of a troubled society — in a world bereft of untroubled societies, mind — and while it was nice to believe it was anomalous, it’s all the more important for being inextricable.
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