A new petition calling for the cancellation of the much-anticipated drama series “Snowdrop” (설강화) has recently been launched, and it’s already garnering tons of attention from the public.
In case you missed it, “Snowdrop” – starring Jung Hae In and BLACKPINK’s Jisoo (among others) – premiered over the weekend on Saturday night (18th December) after a long wait. Despite its early run, the drama was met with negative reactions from the viewers.
Previously, the drama sparked controversy over allegations of distortion of historical facts. As per Jazmine Media’s report, the story is set “in a key year in South Korea’s popular democratic movement that led to the establishment of the present-day republic”.
According to this new Blue House petition, the pilot episode featured the female lead (Jisoo) accidentally saving a spy (Hae In) from the pro-democracy movement. Additionally, during the scene where the supporting actor from the Agency for National Security Planning was chasing down the spy, the drama played a historically significant song that had symbolised the pro-democracy movement.
Netizens later took to online platforms and expressed their discomfort upon watching the aforementioned scenes. Some of them said, “It is inappropriate to use such a significant song for a scene featuring the Agency for National Security Planning and a spy” from history.
The petition also stated that romanticising and featuring the male lead as a spy being mistaken as a pro-democratic figure leads to distortion of history, as there were in fact many innocent people who were tortured by the government for being mistaken as the spy. To quote the viewers, “A drama that presents such a narrative causes damage to the pro-democracy movement’s historical value.”
Currently, the petition has gained more than 200,000 signatures and will close on 18th January 2022.
Update (Tuesday, 21st December):
Korean news outlets have released some updates on the controversy surrounding the new K-Drama “Snowdrop”. Apparently, Disney+ is apparently investigating the issue after receiving tons complaints from netizens online.
In addition, it was also reported that the streaming platform hasn’t been seeing noticeable growth since branching into the Korean market in November 2021. According to reports, the daily active users has already seen a 45% drop from 590K on the day of the launch of Disney+, to 310K daily active users as of 12th December.
Disney+ is hoping to attract more users by debuting more K-drama series. However, this controversy will need to be addressed as offended viewers aren’t backing down.
Sources: AllKpop, Jazmine Media.
