A Chinese Drama has landed itself in hot soup recently, when a scene of theirs went viral for the wrong reasons. The drama Justice in the Dark, aired a scene where two men look over a selection of girls available for sex work. The drama quickly drew the ire of K-Pop fans when they realized that BLACKPINK Rosé’s photo had been irresponsibly used in the selection menu.
Your browser does not support video.The problematic scene. | Weibo
Netizens began calling out the drama for being inappropriate. A Weibo post that criticized the show quickly went viral.
Ridiculous…her photo got photoshopped into a domestic drama as a “sex worker.” Is this appropriate??
— Weibo User
Rosé posted the original photo to her social media years ago. The photo had been photoshopped for usage in the drama, but is still largely recognizable as Rosé.
The original photo. | @rosesarerosie/Instagram
In the scene, the two discuss potentially hiring a sex worker. The scene’s lines are as follows.
“What’s the minimum spend for me to select the worker I want?” “Please take a look at the photos first.” “These photos are so photoshopped, not even their mother would be able to recognize them”
Naturally, netizens were incensed over the matter. The drama’s team also initially did not address the issue but simply deleted the scene instead.
“Can they apologize? The disrespect.” “Are they pretending nothing happened simply by deleting the scene? Are they not going to apologize and give an explanation?”
Why are they disrespecting women? Should they be able to just quietly delete the scene and get away with not apologizing? The production team needs to come out and apologize.
— Weibo User
The deep criticism sparked the drama’s art and design team to give a public apology. The apology was posted to Weibo on February 21, 2023.
Apology Notice
We’re the art and design team for drama Justice in the Dark.
Due to our team’s negligence, we carelessly used the photo of Miss Park Chaeyoung (Rosé) while creating an image for the drama’s use. This action has negatively impacted Miss Park Chaeyoung’s (Rose’s) image and reputation.
Our company earnestly apologizes to Miss Park Chaeyoung (Rosé), to those who like Miss Park Chaeyoung (Rosé), to the production company, broadcasting platforms, and viewers. After the incident, the production company and broadcasting platforms immediately deleted the related media.
We thank fans for pointing this out. In the future, we’ll perform our work more rigorously in order to prevent similar incidents. Right now, our company is actively reaching out to the agency of Miss Park Chaeyoung (Rosé) so that we can sincerely apologize to her. Lastly, we apologize once again to Miss Park Chaeyoung (Rosé), her fans, the production team, and broadcasting platforms.
— Art and design team for Justice in the Dark
Thankfully, most fans have expressed their forgiveness and have accepted the swift apology. Regardless, they still hope for future dramas to show more respect to women and female celebrities.
Source: Weibo 
