'Snowdrop' creators deny distorting facts as 300K South Koreans demand Jisoo-starrer be cancelled
We first had South Korean citizens petitioning the Blue House (South Korea’s presidential office) in March 2021 to cancel the upcoming K-drama ‘Snowdrop’ for romanticizing the life of activist Young-cho who would be played by Blackpink’s Jisoo. Production assured everyone that the plot would not distort history and changed the female lead’s name to Young-ro. However, on the airing of the first two episodes on December 18, the K-drama is once again under fire as more than 300,000 citizens have asked ‘Snowdrop’ to be canceled.
They claimed that ‘Snowdrop’ was glorifying the NSA that was a real terror during the '80s pro-democratic uprising in South Korea. It further justifies the violence by supposedly making the male lead Su-ho played by Jung Hae-in a North Korean spy. Dozens of huge brands that had sponsored the show due to the star-studded cast which included Blackpink’s Jisoo dropped out and asked their products to be censored or edited out. But on December 21, the production JTBC has released a statement saying that they have not distorted facts.
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The ‘Snowdrop’ production explained that there had been a misunderstanding and their motive was to explore the presidential political situation during the military regime when the rulers justified their violence by claiming that North Korea was behind the democratic uprising they had to quell. JTBC shared, “The K-drama tells a hypothetical story where those with vested interests engage with the North Korean regime in order to maintain their power. Snowdrop is a work that shows the personal narrative of people who were sacrificed and used by others in power.”
The K-drama had hoped to reveal its plot through suspense and twists. But JTBC decided to come clear by saying the red herring of Su-ho being a North Korean spy who leads the uprising was false and just the set-up for the lead characters of Blackpink's Jisoo and Jung Hae-in to meet and the actual revolt would not appear in the drama. They shared that the misunderstandings pointed out by viewers would be resolved in future episodes and that the show had no interest in glorifying the era of unjust power.
JTBC added, “The production team’s intentions [is] of not repeating the era where individual freedoms and happiness were suppressed by unjust power.” They hoped that viewers would give them a chance without them revealing too much of the plot to assure that there was no distorting of history.
Disney+ daily active users dropped by 45% after viewers decided to boycott the platform due to the alleged romanticizing of a brutal era of South Korea in ‘Snowdrop’. Netizens also discussed how the poor choice of the project would affect Jung Hae-in’s career as an already established actor and Blackpink’s Jisoo who is a rookie in the K-drama industry.