Production Company Behind “River Where The Moon Rises” Wins Damage Lawsuit Against Ji Soo’s Previous Agency, To Pay About $1 Million In Damages
The production company Victory Contents for the KBS 2TV drama “River Where the Moon Rises” has won a partial victory in a damages lawsuit against KeyEast, the former agency of actor Ji Soo (real name Kim Ji Soo), who was removed from the show due to a school violence scandal.
Recently, the Seoul Central District Court’s Civil Agreement Division 31 (Presiding Judge Kim Sang-woo) ruled, “KeyEast must pay Victory Contents 1,421,470,000 won [over $1 million] and delayed interest,” partially ruling in favor of the plaintiff.
In 2021, during the airing of the sixth episode of “River Where the Moon Rises,” Ji Soo, who played the male lead On Dal, faced allegations of school violence. At that time, Ji Soo had completed filming up to episode 18 of the 20-episode series.
Ji Soo admitted to some of the accusations and apologized, saying, “I sincerely apologize to those who suffered because of me. I have no excuse for my past misdeeds.” Consequently, the production team decided to remove Ji Soo from the drama.
Victory Contents announced, “We decided to remove Ji Soo due to the severity of the situation. With over 95% of filming completed, we discussed the best course of action and decided to minimize his scenes in episodes 7 and 8 and reshoot the remaining episodes with a new actor.”
Actor Na In Woo replaced Ji Soo, starting from episode 7. After stabilizing the drama, the production team also re-shot episodes 1-6.
In April 2021, Victory Contents filed a 3 billion won lawsuit against KeyEast, stating that the actor’s replacement led to substantial additional costs, including staff fees, location and equipment rental fees, and cast payments. They also cited damages from decreased viewership and claims from international clients.
KeyEast argued that they had mutually agreed to terminate Ji Soo’s contract in May 2021, as he found it difficult to continue his activities and did not want to further harm the agency.
Afterward, Ji Soo chose to enlist in the military and was discharged last October. He revealed that he had resolved misunderstandings with those who initially accused him, and they now support each other.
Source: (A)
