‘Pachinko’ star Jin Ha apologizes for past Tumblr account featuring creep shots of older Korean women

March 28, 2022

Jin Ha, currently starring in the new Apple TV Plus series “Pachinko” as Solomon Baek, has apologized for his old Tumblr account filled with pictures of unconsenting elderly women in public paired with sexually inappropriate captions.

The Tumblr blog titled “Korean Flowers in Bloom” ran from 2010-2011. According to The Korea Herald, one post from the blog showed an image of an elderly woman lying on a chair, with the caption: “Working with such a provocative model, I found it hard to keep myself and my concupiscence under control.” A different post featuring a photo of an elderly woman taken from down below had the caption: “Now we have an excuse to stare directly at her right nipple.”

A statement posted on the actor’s website addressed the issue in both Korean and English, noting that Tumblr deleted the blog per his request.

Ha began the post by thanking readers for allowing him to address the matter before issuing an apology.

“Thank you for this opportunity to address a failing in my past that was long overdue,” he wrote. “My ‘Korean Flowers in Bloom’ Tumblr account from 2011 should not have been made at all. It was a breach of privacy for the elder women featured, and many of my captions were inappropriate.”

The apology continued: “I sincerely apologize to the senior women I photographed. I apologize, as well, to the viewers whom I offended with this Tumblr account. My lack of judgment in 2011 has been pointed out by readers wiser than I have proved to be, and for that I am grateful.”

Ha graduated from Columbia University in 2013, having studied East Asian languages and cultures. He holds an MFA from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and has starred in television series such as “Devs” and “Love Life,” as well as the Chicago stage production of “Hamilton.”

Ha stars in the latest Apple TV Plus series “Pachinko” alongside legends of South Korea’s entertainment industry, including Oscar-winning actress Youn Yuh-jung and Instagram’s most-followed South Korean actor Lee Min-ho.

“Pachinko” is a television adaptation of the novel by the same name from Minjin Lee about the multigenerational saga of a Korean family emigrating to Japan during Japan’s colonization of Korea.

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