[ASKKPOP] Webtoon writer behind 'Hyde Jekyll, Me' calls out 'Kill Me, Heal Me' for plagiarism
'Hyde Jekyll, Me' and 'Kill Me, Heal Me' are not only airing in the same time slot on Wednesday and Thursday nights, but they also share the genre of romantic comedy with the common theme of a man suffering from a dissociative identity disorder.
Webtoon writer Lee Choong Ho tweeted on the 20th,"The 'romantic comedy about a man (Hyde) suffering from a dissociative identity disorder and a woman who fall in love with each other' was started by 'Dr. Jekyll is Hyde', which I wrote in 2011. Don't try to cover it up by saying it's a social phenomenon. It's a case of you stealing an idea,"along with the link to an article comparing the similarities between 'Hyde Jekyll, Me' and 'Kill Me, Heal Me'.
In response, a 'Kill Me, Heal Me' rep responded to the accusations on the 22nd, "Our drama plans were launched in January 2014, and only after hearing that the drama 'Hyde Jekyll, Me' will be coming out around last fall, we learned about the webtoon writer's existence."
'Kill Me, Heal Me's production companyPan Entertainmentrep also toldStar News, "We feel that webtoon writer Lee Choong Ho has no case to take legal action... The writer has never made a complaint or posed a problem. The writer has never directly confronted us with a complaint or protest. If there was an official plagiarism matter, he would've taken legal action. The company also does not plan on taking legal action for someone expressing their own thoughts on SNS."
The rep also added,"It doesn't make sense to say that we stole the idea... There is also a romance in the classic story, 'The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'... It's already been over a year since we announced that we were going to do 'Kill Me, Heal Me' via media outlets, and we made it clear that it would be a drama about a man with 7 personalities since the beginning... We're in our 3rd week of broadcast, and the fact that he posted that on SNS now goes against business ethics."
For those of you who haven't been keeping up with dramas, 'Kill Me, Heal Me' stars Ji Sung andHwang Jung Eum, and 'Hyde Jekyll, Me' starsHyun BinandHan Ji Min. The latter drama kicked off its premiere yesterday and will be airing its second episode tonight.
