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S.Korean mother 'reunites' with dead daughter in virtual reality show

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Agence France-Presse

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2020/tvpatrol/02/12/20200214-mother.jpg"/><figcaption>A mother tearfully &quot;reunites&quot; with her dead daughter via advanced virtual reality for a South Korean television show. Screengrab from Reuters video</figcaption></figure></div>SEOUL - A tearful reunion between a mother and her dead daughter via advanced virtual reality for a South Korean television has become an online hit, triggering fierce debate about voyeurism and exploitation.The footage began with the girl -- who died of leukaemia in 2016 -- emerging from behind a pile of wood in a park, as if playing hide-and-seek.&quot;Mum, where have you been?&quot; she asks. &quot;I&#x27;ve missed you a lot. Have you missed me?&quot;Tears streaming down her face, Jang Ji-sung reached out towards her, wracked with emotion.&quot;I have missed you Na-yeon,&quot; she told the computer-generated 6-year-old, her hands moving to stroke her hair.But in the real world, Jang was standing in front of a studio green screen, wearing a virtual reality headset and touch-sensitive gloves, her daughter&#x27;s ashes in a locket around her neck.At times the camera cut to Jang&#x27;s watching husband and their three surviving children, wiping away tears of their own.A 9-minute clip of the Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) documentary &quot;I met you&quot; has been watched more than 13 million times in a week on Youtube.Many viewers offered Jang their sympathy and support for the concept.&quot;My mother unexpectedly passed away two years ago and I wish I could meet her through virtual reality,&quot; said one.But media columnist Park Sang-hyun said the documentary amounted to exploitation of personal pain.&quot;It&#x27;s understandable a grief-stricken mother would wish to meet her late daughter. I would do the same,&quot; he told AFP.&quot;The problem lies in that the broadcaster has taken advantage of a vulnerable mother who lost a child for sake of the viewer ratings.&quot;&quot;If the mother had been counselled before the filming,&quot; he added, &quot;I wonder what kind of a psychiatrist would approve this.&quot;<div>&#x27;Happy birthday&#x27;</div>It took eight months of filming and programming to create the virtual Na-yeon, but the makers of the documentary insisted the broadcast was intended to &quot;console the family&quot; rather than promote virtual reality in ultra-wired South Korea.The technology presented a &quot;new way to keep loved ones in memory,&quot; one of the producers told reporters.Jang herself -- who has her daughter&#x27;s name and date of birth tattooed on her arm in memory -- hoped the program could &quot;console&quot; others who had lost loved ones.&quot;Even though it was very brief... I was really happy in the moment,&quot; she wrote on her blog, which she has since turned private.During the broadcast the two sat at a table to celebrate Na-yeon&#x27;s missing birthdays, singing &quot;happy birthday&quot; together.Before blowing out the candles, Na-yeon made a birthday wish: &quot;I want my mother to stop crying.&quot;

A tearful reunion between a mother and her dead daughter via advanced virtual reality for a South Korean television has become an online hit, triggering fierce debate about voyeurism and exploitation.

A tearful reunion between a mother and her dead daughter via advanced virtual reality for a South Korean television has become an online hit, triggering fierce debate about voyeurism and exploitation.