The Restaurant Said No to Cameras, Yet 'Jeon Hyun-moo Plan 4' Aired It With Permission

A restaurant that turned away the crew of MBN and Channel S's Jeon Hyun-moo Plan 4 had in fact agreed beforehand to let its earlier footage air. On the 5th, a restaurant representative said the production team did nothing wrong, rebutting weeks of online criticism that the show had exposed a business that said no to filming.

The backlash stems from the episode broadcast on October 23, in which Jeon Hyun-moo and Kwak Tube visited northern Gyeonggi Province with IVE members Gaeul and Liz. They went to a retro-style diner, introduced as a 1980s-90s throwback, but the owner declined to be filmed. "We don't film. We've never done it with anyone," the owner said. When Jeon Hyun-moo and Gaeul asked whether they could film only the eating, the owner explained that the restaurant is already so busy that appearing on TV would be too much. The owner added that at 74 they had stopped serving afternoons for that reason.

Jeon Hyun-moo accepted it, saying it couldn't be helped, and Kwak Tube said the team had shown up unannounced. Jeon Hyun-moo then asked the IVE members whether it looked real, and they agreed. Kwak Tube noted that he would usually try to persuade owners, but this one was so firm that there was no point.

Why viewers objected

After the broadcast, critics argued the show should not have revealed anything about a restaurant that had refused. The name was partly blurred, but unblurred characters, the surrounding scenery, the exterior and the interior still made it possible to guess which restaurant it was. The question was whether that was appropriate given the owner's age and stated workload concerns.

What the restaurant says

The restaurant's account differs from that assumption. A representative said the crew asked whether they could use the footage shot at the start, and the restaurant agreed. "They didn't use it without telling us," the representative said, adding that they felt worried because the crew was being criticized, and that since the restaurant had told them to use it, the exposure was not a problem.

The account suggests the dispute rested on an assumption: that a refusal to film also meant a refusal of any appearance. Here the two were separate, and the permission was given before airing. The restaurant's explanation is likely to settle the question of unauthorized exposure.

What Homeliz users said

Separately, a post on the community Homeliz about IVE's Liz drew a mixed reaction. The poster said they felt sorry for her, arguing that management in her early period, from Love Dive to I Am, cost her the chance to expand her fandom, and that she is left out of 4th-generation visual discussions despite ranking near the top. The post received 12 upvotes and 35 downvotes.

1. [+34, -12] She is pretty, but there's something greasy about her, her whole presence. It feels like she's pleading, "I'm pretty, right? I'm a femme fatale, right?"

2. [+23, -10] She lacks star power.

3. [+8, -8] She's pretty, but her forehead is huge.

4. [+7, -2] They should have pushed her purely as a talented vocalist. She's had so much plastic surgery that her face looks unnatural and off-putting, and she looks like an android every time I see her.

5. [+6, -2] Haha.