Lee Eun-ju - Only When I Sleep

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As far as I know, the above is the only live performance of the late Korean actress Lee Eun-ju singing "Only When I Sleep," from the soundtrack to her last film, The Scarlet Letter. To me, her slight mispronunciation of some of the lyrics, makes the song (which was written and originally recorded by the Corrs in 1997), sound all the sexier when she sings it. This is from the Blue Dragon Film Awards in November of 2004, just three months before she took her own life 10 years ago, on this day in 2005.

Elisa Lam Mystery

The mysterious death of 21-year old Vancouver university student Elisa Lam was ruled an accidental drowning by the Los Angeles County coroner’s office, but it’s a case that will probably go down in history as one of the eeriest unsolved mysteries on the LAPD’s books. I can’t tell you anything about the details of Miss Lam’s death that hasn’t already been covered, speculated about, and theorized at hundreds of other blogs and websites around the net, but this is a refreshingly morbid piece for the Halloween season.

One of the photos released by the LAPD
that appeared on missing person flyers
before Elisa's body was found.

Above is the actual elevator surveillance footage from LA's somewhat infamous Cecil Hotel, where Miss Lam was staying at the time of her disappearance, just a short while before she was never seen alive again. Behaving strangely in this viral 4-minute video, she acts as if she’s hiding from and later interacting with, someone who isn’t there or, at least, wasn’t caught on camera. Also strange is the elevator doors staying open so long.

Miss Lam was reported missing on February 5th. Her body was found by hotel maintenance workers on February 19th, in one of the hotel’s rooftop water tanks, which supplies the rooms with potable water. Guest complaints of low water pressure was what prompted the maintenance workers to check the tanks.

Selected articles in chronological order:
Reported Missing
Body Found
Ruled Accidental Drowning
Cecil Guests File Lawsuit Against Hotel
Lam Family Files Lawsuit Against Hotel

March 15th, 2014 Addendum (and we knew this was coming):
Mysterious death of Elisa Lam inspires Sony film project (Los Angeles Times)

Japanese Female Celebs' Final Acts

There have been many comparisons made between Japanese and Korean cultures. One such comparison is the how changes, pressures, and social stigmas of modern life has effected the two, and who are more prone to commit suicide due to the aforementioned factors. In recent years, several top Korean entertainers have committed suicide when it seemed like they had everything to live for. Money, fame, family, friends. Yet, they still felt like they needed to end it all and checked out at young ages. I wrote this piece on that Korean "cultural phenomenon" back in October of 2008 and have updated it several times since, every time another Korean female celeb has taken her own life.

In the almost four years since I wrote that entry, I've been asked how the celebrity (more specifically female celebrity) suicide rate in Japan compares with that of Korea. I'm, in no way, going to present any analogies or official statistics of this, but since it's news whenever a famous person dies (by whatever means), all it took for me to find out how female celeb suicide rates compare between Korea and Japan, was some Internet research. In short, Korean female celebs have been more prone to take their own lives in recent years (the "trend" beginning in February, 2005 with actress Lee Eun-joo's death) but the suicides of Japanese female celebs started two decades earlier. Also, the Japanese ladies seem to be a bit more creative than their Korean counterparts when it comes to the method to end it all, sometimes employing the use of toxic chemicals while the Koreans overwhelmingly favor hanging as the preferred means.

In my initial search for Japanese female celeb suicides in recent decades, I came up with six names. However, I later found out that one lady, whose cause of death was reported by most sources as heart attack, was actually a suicide, so that made the count seven. Of those names, the suicide of the one who was best-known occurred 26 years ago and the ones since weren't all exactly household names in Japan (as Choi Jin-sil was in Korea). The most recent being gravure idol Miyu Uehara (above), who was found hanged in her apartment on May 12, 2011. She left no note but was apparently unhappy with her chosen career, despite becoming quite popular in her field, and with over 400 television appearances to her credit.

Korean Female Celebs' "Lasts"

As sort of a long belated follow-up to this piece, here are a selection of "lasts" from a few of the Korean female entertainers who took their own lives within the last several years. The above ad for Enprani cosmetics, was the late Lee Eun-ju's last ever TV commercial. Upon news of her suicide, the company immediately stopped running this and print ads featuring her. Enprani cited it was out of respect for her family, but I'm sure it was also because having an actress who committed suicide while she was still under contract with them, as the face of their company, would have been terrible for their public image. The following month, Enprani signed then-little-known actress Park Si-yeon as their new spokesmodel.

Dorothy Stratten on the Tonight Show

There have been several Playboy Playmates who've met with untimely deaths, but none such as Dorothy Stratten, who was the reigning Playmate of the Year when she was murdered by her estranged husband in August of 1980. Here she is on the Tonight Show in April of that year, just after being crowned the 1980 Playmate of the Year and her career showing signs of really taking off.

During her very brief acting career, after her whirlwind ride to fame as a Playmate, she appeared in several TV shows and movies. Her most notable film, Galaxina, in which she played the title character, has since become sort of a cult favorite, and Dorothy; sort of a cult figure, due to the timing and manner of her demise 29 years ago today. For those wanting to know the sordid (but interesting) details of her murder, the guys at FindaDeath.com, who do some great research on these matters, have this on it. Thanks to danaplatofan at Youtube.

Korean Celebs' Tragic Endings

As many US readers may not already know, early this month, top Korean actress Choi Jin-sil (above) committed suicide by hanging herself at her home in Seoul. She was 39. It was reported that she had suffered from depression since her 2002 separation, and messy divorce two years later, from her pro baseball player husband and was upset by recent rumors (she claimed were false) that she had loaned a large sum of money to an actor friend and was pressuring him to pay it back, which was a reason he committed suicide in early September. I suppose the alcohol she had to drink that evening also helped with her decision to take her own life.

Although Jin-sil's death shocked many, it wasn't the first time a high-profile female Korean entertainer has committed suicide in recent years.