He was a huge Korean TV star. Now he’s broke and lives in an amusement park

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YANGJU, South Korea — In the late 1970s, before he became a television star and a household name in South Korea , Im Chae-moo was working as an extra when he had an epiphany.

Im Chae-moo’s breakout role in a popular soap opera, “Love and Truth,” in 1984 led to a heady career as a national heartthrob. His lucrative career paved the way for his Doori Land amusement park, which bears a poster of Im.

(Courtesy of Im Chae-moo)

During one production, shot near a creek where families picnicked, he watched the same depressing scene play out day after day: The adults would drink, gamble, fight and fling empty soju bottles, while the children would catch minnows in the water, occasionally cutting their feet on the broken glass.

“That was when it just came to me,” Im recalled. “I told myself I’d become a successful actor and become rich so that I could create a place where families can come and enjoy themselves together.”

His breakout role in a popular soap opera titled “Love and Truth” in 1984 led to a heady career as a national heartthrob. At a time when an apartment in Seoul would sell for just a few thousand dollars, Im was making nearly $100,000 a month.

And so he made good on his other promise. In 1990, he opened a small children’s amusement park on a remote patch of land just north of Seoul. He called it Doori Land, which roughly translates to “the land of pairs” — his way of signaling that the park was meant to be visited with someone else.

At a time when amusement parks were a novel concept in South Korea, Doori Land attracted huge crowds. For years, admission and most of the rides were free. But a string of disasters and bad luck has since turned his dream into a legendary story of financial ruin.

With his acting career fading and most of his fortune gone, the 75-year-old has been fighting to stave off bankruptcy and keep the park open — including selling his two apartments and a yacht and moving into the park. His children have had to accept that they probably will receive no inheritance.

At a time when

amusement parks

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