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Gong Yoo’s ‘Goblin’ Korean Drama Promotes Pedophilia? Some Netizens Say Kim Go Eun’s Character Too Young For Romance

By Patricia Grannum
Published on: 05:04 PST, Dec 17, 2016

Gong Yoo’s Goblin Korean drama could have a new scandal on its hands.

All Kpop reports that the very popular new k-drama is receiving some harsh criticism from viewers who are against the romantic relationship between Gong Yoo and Kim Go Eun’s characters.

In Goblin, Kim Go Eun plays a high school student who is 18-years-old (international age), which qualifies her as a minor in Korea. Gong Yoo’s character, who in a recent episode confessed his love for her, is much older.

According to All Kpop, some viewers have taken to the show’s website to call on the drama’s writer to rethink the love story between the characters.

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Goblin definitely isn’t the first Korean drama to feature a “questionable” relationship between an adult and a minor.

Angry Mom, a Korean drama which aired in 2015, featured one of these “May to December” romances, except that the older person, in this case, was a woman.

As Koreandrama.org notes, the drama was essentially about a mother Jo Bang Wool (Kim Hee Sun) who tries to defend her daughter from bullying. Oh Ah Ran (Kim Yoo Jung), her daughter, sticks up for a friend and ends up becoming a victim of the bullies at her school.

When the angry mom finds out that her daughter is being victimized, she decides to deal with the bullies in her own way. She goes to the high-school dressed in the daughter’s uniform in an effort to confront the bullies head on.

In the drama, the love interest, Bok Dong, is played by Ji Soo and his character is a high school student. He falls in love with the “angry mom” character.

Ji Soo actually discussed what it was like playing the love interest of someone so much older, Soompi reports. He said that it wasn’t difficult for him to get into character and convincing play a young man in love because Kim Hee Sun looks like she’s in her twenties.

“When she is wearing her school uniform, I really see her as Jo Bang Wool,” said Ji Soo at the time.

“Bok Dong can’t help but fall for her because [Kim Hee Sun] is so pretty and fits the [character of Jo Bang Wool].”

As for Goblin, fans on Twitter don’t seem too bothered by the huge age gap between Kim Go Eun and Gong Yoo’s characters. Some fans seem to think that it’s hypocritical to focus on this one Korean drama and not the others that portrayed similar relationships.

Goblin airs every Friday and Saturday on tvN or online on Viki or Drama Fever.

(UPDATE: A previous version of this article stated that Gong Yoo’s character in Goblin needed to marry Kim Go Eun’s character in order to become human, which is incorrect. That part of the article has been removed)

[Featured Image by tvN]

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