NEW TREND... FAKE FUNERALS

Imagine having a fake funeral where you write your own eulogy or a vending machine which pops out messages of hope. Behind South Korea’s high tech and K-Pop culture, the SBS Dateline program finds extreme and unexpected ways of fighting one of the world’s highest suicide rates.

The pressure to conform and succeed is everywhere in modern South Korea, and it’s a pressure that an increasing number are feeling too greatly.
​There’s said to be a suicide every 33 minutes in South Korea, and it’s an issue that the government is trying to tackle in a range of different ways…
“Koreans live in a fiercely competitive society,” insurance salesman Beon Song Hun tells Dean Cornish. “Everything is about money, so we are all worn out.”
He’s thought about taking his own life, but now hopes pretending to die and having a fake funeral will instead turn things around.
SBS Dateline follows Beon as part of a group spending $40 each for a four hour ceremony with all the tradition and sombreness of a real funeral.
But after half an hour lying in closed coffins, they believe they will emerge feeling reborn.
"It’s a beautiful day today, so it’s a perfect day to die,” palliative care expert Kim Ki Ho tells them, as they gather to say goodbye to their old lives.

​Read full story and transcript here: http://www.sbs.com.au/news/dateline/story/koreas-fake-funerals