Although the Korean entertainment industry is glamorous on the surface, it is the most chaotic and darkest entertainment industry in the whole world.

How messy is it? No one can say it clearly, not to mention all kinds of dirty transactions hidden in dark corners, but only to say the five "clear rules" that are put on the surface, you can get a glimpse of the leopard and make people's hairs stand on end.

One of the five rules of the Korean entertainment industry, being an artist is a trainee first, the management is harsh, and there is almost no freedom.

Most Korean artists are in elementary school or high school, that is, they are signed by the agency for training, called "trainees". The training cycle is generally two to three years, starting from the age of fourteen or fifteen to the age of sixteen or seventeen. The process of this training is very strict, from the sound, stage, body, appearance, including makeup and modeling must be learned, and there is a strict assessment, unqualified will be eliminated at any time. And it's normal to be punished or even beaten and scolded during training. Many trainees need to train for up to 20 hours at most. Such high-intensity training often leads to fracture incidents among trainees.

After a few years of trainee training, if you don't make your debut, you will be sent to accompany the wine, and the ending is far from the ideal. What's more, some brokerage companies ostensibly eat and lodging, but in fact they treat the dormitory as a guest house, and every time they let rich businessmen enter the "draft", unwitting trainees are taken by the company to a dance studio full of mirrors and lenses on the grounds of dance practice, and do some stretching movements that can show off their bodies for "inspection".

The second of the five "clear rules" in the Korean entertainment industry is to sign a "slave contract".

After a long wait and devilish training, some trainees were eventually selected by the agency for packaging. Signed a contract and debuted as an artist. But this is just the beginning, the life of Korean artists is not as glamorous as imagined. And the main reason why the director is "shady" in the Korean entertainment industry and the artists are overwhelmed is the "slave contract".

Everyone knows that an artist is a youth eater. Once the contract period exceeds 10 years, it is equivalent to the entire time of the singer's singing career, and there will be strict restrictions on the singer's personality subjectivity and economic activities.

S.M is one of the largest agencies in South Korea, and almost all of its first contracts with artists are 13 years. There are many artists in South Korea and many brokerage companies, while large brokerage companies only account for about 10% of the entire entertainment industry, and the rest are small and medium-sized companies. If S.M's contract is still like this, what will happen to the idol groups and trainees in those small companies that are not famous? A lot of people can't imagine it. For trainees of small and medium-sized brokerage firms. Signing a contract with the company is equivalent to pledging your entire life to a brokerage company.

In addition, in the contracts of all brokerage companies, it is clearly stipulated that there is "desire and disobedience." You should consult with the company in advance. and then subject to command and supervision". What's even more excessive: explain whether any family member is in debt. Whether there has ever been a scandal. Before falling in love, you need to file for the record. All personal issues cannot be hidden. Individuals who wish to leave the country must also be approved by a brokerage company.

In terms of income, not only small companies, but also large companies have a very high percentage of artists' income. Generally, it is 73 or 82, and even worse, there is 91 open. Many artists can't get money at all in the first few years of their debut, and some even struggle to maintain their basic life. Buying a car? Don't think about it, many artists don't even have the money to take the bus, in order to save that little bus fare to go to the city during the break, many artists have to save clothes and diet, and cut out the meal money allocated by the company.

With the fame of Lee Hyo-ri and Song Hye Kyo, before they became a shareholder and switched to ZX Group, they could only afford to drive a Hyundai sports car made in Korea, so you know how harsh the exploitation of Korean artists should be.

It is also said that in their contract, in terms of the distribution of album revenue, the initial contract stipulated that when a single album sells more than 500,000 copies, each member can get 10 million won, equivalent to more than 50,000 yuan, when the album is released. If the sales volume is less than 500,000 copies, you won't get a penny. Later, after TVXQ became famous, although this item was revised, the members' album sales distribution profit was still only between 0.4% and 1% per person based on sales, and all the rest was taken by S.M. Company.

People have desires, and artists are also people, and when they become famous, they will inevitably be dissatisfied with the company's contract, which will lead to incidents such as job-hopping. In order to prevent such incidents, brokerage companies have set ultra-high liquidated damages clauses for their artists. If an artist wants to change jobs, the liquidated damages will be so high that they can't pay it back. Not to mention other darker companies, just say that S.M Company, which is relatively "normal", has three times the total investment amount and twice the total income of its artists. With such a high liquidated damages, if there is no one behind the artist to support him, and no company is willing to pay in advance, who can get it? So if you want to change jobs, you can, just wait until the first 13-year contract expires.

Like Lee Hyo-ri, when she jumped to the ZX Group, the ZX Group paid DSP 2 billion won. This is because the DSP company knows the details of Xiahou Zhongying and does not dare to offend him. And Li Haoying also wanted to sell his personal favor at that time, so that they could meet in the future. Two billion won is certainly not a problem for the current Lee Hyo-ri, but for her before she met Xiahou Zhongying, let alone two billion, it is difficult to even take out 200 million.

The third rule of the Korean entertainment industry is to force artists to have plastic surgery, and the work intensity is high.

Plastic surgery is a compulsory course, not only for ordinary people in Korea, but also for artists.

In the trainee stage, everyone has to undergo a lens test regularly, that is, on the stage, let the camera shoot from all angles, before and after, left and right, and then the professional will give an evaluation, and the test result is the basis for judging whether the artist should undergo plastic surgery before debut, and they will receive partial plastic surgery depending on the specific situation, so that every aspect of the lens can be perfect.

No one can escape this rule, even Xiahou Zhongying, who is very indifferent to plastic surgery, is not exempt from vulgarity, although he is very critical of plastic surgery in South Korea, but he does not dare to let his company break away from this rule and become a pure natural and pollution-free green artist collective. There's no way, its artists aren't beautiful enough and handsome enough, they can't attract fans, so they can't compete with others. So for the sake of the money bag, let's make them genetically modified products.

In South Korea, there are not many TV stations, only a few, but there are as many as hundreds of variety shows, and the proportion is so high that it is staggering, it can be said that it is not an exaggeration to call South Korea the country of variety shows.

There are many artists in South Korea, the competition is very fierce, and the life cycle is very short.

For example, Xiahou Zhongying, since he was arrested and returned to China, except for the news that came to South Korea when he and Yu Yuerong were engaged, there has been no news. Now let him stand on the streets of Seoul, it is estimated that there will not be many people who can quickly recognize him.

In order not to be forgotten by the public, Korean artists have to accept the company's arrangements to participate in various programs in addition to completing normal tasks such as recording records and shooting film and television dramas. Even Lee Hyori is no exception, although she is the first sister in the Korean music industry, and the Asian diva, she often has to run shows to appear, creating various news and scandals to maintain her fame.

Most artists can only sleep three to four hours a day, and the rest of the time is either spent in the show or on the road. Some media have published a work schedule of the SJ group of S.M. Company, and their workload is almost close to 24 hours.

With such a high-intensity workload, not only the artists themselves can't stand it, but even the drivers who drive and run all over the ground can't stand it, so when there are traffic accidents among artists in South Korea, they are all caused by tiredness. (To be continued......)