Yoo Ah-in’s Drug Scandal Puts Films at Risk, but ‘The Match’ and ‘High Five’ Still Shine
Yoo Ah-in’s drug controversy had a significant impact on his recent films. He’s facing accusations of using four types of medical narcotics—propofol, midazolam, ketamine, and remimazolam—181 times from September 2020 to March 2022. Additionally, he’s accused of illegally obtaining over 1,100 sleeping pills 44 times under other people’s names from May 2021 to August 2023. On the 18th, the appellate court overturned his original one-year prison sentence, instead giving him a one-year prison term suspended for two years.
Despite the controversy, ‘The Match‘ managed to attract approximately 2.14 million viewers, becoming a box office hit. Even though Yoo Ah-in’s scenes remained unedited, audiences appreciated the film’s quality and the performances of the cast. To promote it, the team focused on lead actor Lee Byung-hun and Kim Kang-hoon, who played the younger version of Lee Chang-ho, completely excluding Yoo Ah-in from promotions.
Similarly, ‘High Five‘ (aka. Hi.5, Hi-Five) proceeded with its release, also excluding Yoo Ah-in from all pre-release promotions. The team worked hard to mitigate the ‘Yoo Ah-in risk’ by highlighting other cast members like Lee Jae-in, Ahn Jae-hong, Ra Mi-ran, Kim Hee-won, Oh Jung-se, and Park Jin-young, who played the villain. The film drew roughly 380,000 viewers in its opening weekend alone, surpassing Tom Cruise’s ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’ to claim the top spot at the weekend box office.
These successes indicate that, despite the ‘Yoo Ah-in risk,’ both films are performing well. It goes to show that if a film is good, audiences will choose to watch it regardless of controversies surrounding a lead actor.
