You know Jean Yoon from Kim's Convenience, the fifth season of which recently premiered on Neftlix.
Earlier today, Yoon responded to an article about co-star Simu Liu's recent comments regarding the show's conclusion and spinoff by sharing her own "painful" experience of working on Kim's Convenience.
@MisterJohnDoyle Dear sir, as an Asian Canadian woman, a Korean-Canadian woman w more experience and knowledge of the world of my characters, the lack of Asian female, especially Korean writers in the writers room of Kims made my life VERY DIFFICULT & the experience of working on the show painful
"[A]s an Asian Canadian woman, a Korean Canadian woman [with] more experience and knowledge of the world of my characters," she wrote, "the lack of Asian female, especially Korean, writers in the writers room of Kim's made my life VERY DIFFICULT and the experience of working on the show painful."
Yoon also claimed that Kim's Convenience co-creator Kevin White "clearly set the parameters" of the show itself instead of co-creator Ins Choi — "a FACT," she stated, "that was concealed from us as a cast."
@MisterJohnDoyle Your attack on my cast mate @SimuLiu, in the defense of my fellow Korean artist Ins Choi is neither helpful nor merited. Mr. Choi wrote the play, I was in in. He created the TV show, but his co-creator Mr. Kevin White was the showrunner, and clearly set the parameters.
After a period of time that Yoon described as a "crisis," Choi "[resumed] control of the show" for its fifth and final season.
@MisterJohnDoyle @SimuLiu This is a FACT that was concealed from us as a cast. It was evident from Mr. Choi's diminished presence on set, or in response to script questions. Between S4 and S5, this FACT became a crisis, and in S5 we were told Mr. Choi was resuming control of the show.
Yoon went on to explain that, because of COVID-19, the Kim's Convenience cast received drafts of the entire season in advance — and they "discovered storylines that were OVERTLY RACIST, and so extremely culturally inaccurate that the cast came together and expressed concerns collectively."
@MisterJohnDoyle @SimuLiu The cast received drafts of all S5 scripts in advance of shooting BECAUSE of Covid, at which time we discovered storylines that were OVERTLY RACIST, and so extremely culturally inaccurate that the cast came together and expressed concerns collectively.
With Choi resuming control of the show, Yoon explained that "most [of the] offensive 'jokes' were removed," before giving an example of one of them from the original Season 5 drafts.
@MisterJohnDoyle @SimuLiu Under Mr. Choi's leadership, S5 restored many of the core values of the original show, and most offensive "jokes" were removed. To give you an idea of what we are talking about, here is one scene from the original S5 drafted under Mr. White's leadership.
The drafted scene involved Mrs. Kim wearing nude-colored shorts and having to be told she "looks naked from the waist down" by Mr. Kim.
@MisterJohnDoyle @SimuLiu Pastor Nina comes to the story to pick up Mrs. Kim for a Zumba class. Mrs. Kim is wearing NUDE shorts, and Pastor Nina is to embarrassed to tell her she looks naked from the waist down. Mr. Kim enters, and the joke is that if you're married you can say anything.
"No one, [especially] Mrs. Kim, would be unaware that a garment makes her look naked," Yoon explained while also pointing out that "[s]tripping someone naked is the first act before public humiliation or rape."
@MisterJohnDoyle @SimuLiu No one, esp. Mrs. Kim, would be unaware that a garment makes her look naked. Unless she is suddenly cognitively impaired. or STUPID. Stripping someone naked is the first act before public humiliation or rape. So what was so funny about that? At my request, Mr. Choi cut he scene.
Yoon claimed that Choi ultimately cut the scene at her request, and that if it was left into the episode it "would have aired hours after eight people, six Asian women, were shot in Atlanta, Georgia, in a hate crime spree that shocked the nation. THIS IS WHY IT MATTERS."
@MisterJohnDoyle @SimuLiu THAT scene would have aired hours after 8 people, 6 Asian women, were shot in Atlanta, GA in a hate crime spree that shocked the nation. THIS IS WHY IT MATTERS. If an Asian actor says, 'Hey this isn't cool,' then maybe should just fix it, and say THANK YOU.
"If an Asian actor says, 'Hey, this isn't cool,' then maybe [you] should just fix it and say THANK YOU."
Yoon also seemed to suggest that, when she raised issue with the accuracy of a plotline involving her character's multiple sclerosis diagnosis, the show's producers said, "Jean doesn't understand comedy."
@MisterJohnDoyle @SimuLiu And I'm sick of holding this back-Koreans hardly ever get MS: 0.1/100,000 or one in a million. You are 5x more likely to get a blood clot from the AZ vaccine than you are to get MS if you're Korean. The producers: "But why does it matter?"And "Jean doesn't understand comedy."
After describing the struggles and achievements of working on Kim's Convenience at large, Yoon referenced a scene in the final season to describe how she eventually felt about working on the show.
@MisterJohnDoyle @SimuLiu In the final bedroom scene in S5, Mrs. Kim weeps because she believes that God has abandoned her. The more she prays for something, the more certain it will get worse. That's what it felt like. The love died. 사랑 없으면 소용이 없고 아무것 도 안입니다.