Director Shin Hee-won apologizes for plagiarism in Girls’ Generation’s 'Forever 1' music video

Director Shin Hee-won of Girls’ Generation’s “Forever 1” music video admitted to accusations of plagiarism and apologized on Sunday.

Director Shin Hee-won of Girls’ Generation’s “Forever 1” music video, seen above, admitted to accusations of plagiarism and apologized. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Director Shin Hee-won of Girls’ Generation’s “Forever 1” music video admitted to accusations of plagiarism and apologized on Sunday.

“Forever 1” is the title track of Girls’ Generation’s seventh full-length album, which dropped on Aug. 5 in celebration of the girl group’s 15th anniversary. After the music video for “Forever 1” was released the same day, some Japanese fans criticized that a set from the music video features an emblem that resembles an emblem used at the Tokyo Disney sea theme park in Japan.

Japanese fans initially brought up the accusation that a set from the music video resembles an emblem used at the Tokyo Disney sea. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

“First, I am sorry for causing trouble for members of Girls’ Generation and SM Entertainment due to this controversy about plagiarizing a set design in the ‘Forever 1’ music video,” Shin wrote on his Instagram Sunday. The director is known for popular K-pop music videos like Exo’s “Lotto” (2016), Seventeen’s “Pretty U” (2016) and SHINee’s “Good Evening” (2018).

“After being commissioned for this music video, I was involved in not only the planning and directing process but also the selecting the smallest props,” he said. “Considering that, I am ashamed and sorry that I borrowed a design without permission."

Shin explained that he was looking up ideas online for the music video’s set design when he came across the original image: an emblem for the 15th anniversary of Tokyo DisneySea.

“I was looking up numerous designs for the girl group’s 15th-anniversary and found images that I thought would be suitable,” he wrote. “We referred to them for the set design without checking the original source of the image. We have now checked that it is the emblem design for Tokyo DisneySea’s 15th anniversary. I give my sincerest apologies for using the design without thorough research or confirmation.”

“We will make sure to research and check in various ways so that something like this never happens again,” the director added.

BY HALEY YANG [yang.hyunjoo@joongang.co.kr]