JTBC drama series Snowdrop has come under fire for alleged distortions of history after having aired just two episodes.
Snowdrop centres around the romance between a North Korean spy and South Korean university student during the 1987 presidential election.
An online petition was posted on Sunday (Dec 19) demanding a halt to the broadcasting of the drama.
“The broadcaster previously faced controversy after releasing the (drama) synopsis and character descriptions. It claimed that the drama does not centre around the pro-democracy movement and that there are no references about the main characters participating in the democratisation movement. However, the female lead character saves the life of a North Korean spy after mistaking him as an activist in the pro-democracy movement in the first episode,” the petition reads.
“Many activists were tortured and died after being falsely accused of being North Korean spies. I believe that the content of the drama defames the value and reputation of the democratisation movement.”
The petition garnered more than 300,000 signatures as of Tuesday (Dec 21), surpassing the minimum of 200,000 signatures required for the government to respond.
Due to the backlash, many sponsors have also announced their decisions to pull out from the drama.
On Tuesday, JTBC released a statement that starts with it saying that the controversy is based on false information
The statement reads: "First of all, the background and motif for important incidents in Snowdrop are the time of military regime.
"With this background, it contains a fictional story of the party in power colluding with the North Korean government in order to maintain authority. Snowdrop is a creative work that shows the personal stories of individuals who were used and victimised by those in power.
"There is no spy who leads the democratisation movement in Snowdrop. The male and female leads were not shown as participating in or leading the democratisation movement in episodes 1 and 2, and they do not do so in any part of the future script.
"Most of the misunderstandings regarding concerns of 'history distortion' and 'disparaging the democratisation movement” criticised by many people will be settled through the progress of the drama’s plot.
"The drama includes the production team’s intent of hoping for no repetition of an abnormal era in which individual freedom and happiness are oppressed by unjust power.
"Although we unfortunately cannot reveal much of the plot ahead of each episode, we ask that you watch over the future progress of the plot."
Concerns regarding historical distortion are neither new nor limited to Snowdrop.
In March, a JTBC romance-drama was criticised and asked to halt its production for “insulting the foundation of our country” in an online petition.
With an attempt to show that the everything in the series, except for its historical background, was fiction, the broadcaster changed the original name of Eun Young-cho, a character played by Blackpink’s Jisoo, to Eun Young-ro, intending to show that the name was not in reference to Chun Young-cho, a real-life pro-democracy activist.
Though director Jo Hyun-tak said during an online press conference last week (Dec 16) that Snowdrop is a story of individuals and is not about politics or ideology, criticism is not likely to cease any time soon as even the small details of the drama are being scrutinised and attacked with groundless assumptions.
It remains to be seen whether the 16-part series will meet a similar fate as SBS drama Joseon Exorcist, which earlier this year was cancelled midway after criticisms snowballed concerning historical inaccuracies and distortions in the first two episodes.
Snowdrop is available on the video streaming platform Disney+ Hotstar. – Agencies
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