A new petition demanding the cancellation of JTBC’s newest drama “Snowdrop” has been launched and its already garnered massive attention.
“Snowdrop” premiered on December 18 last night and k-netizens reactions to the drama have been very critical. Previously, there was massive controversy surrounding “Snowdrop.” The controversy surrounding the drama began a while back, with people taking issue with the drama for multiple reasons including fears of distorting history since it is set in a key year in South Korea’s popular democratic movement that led to the establishment of the present-day republic.
UPDATE: JTBC Finally Releases Statement To Address Controversy Over “Snowdrop” Alleged Historical Distortion, Here Is What Will Happen
At the time, a petition was launched and reached over 100k signatures, JTBC released a couple of statements addressing the concerns stating they will be proceeding with the drama, adding,
“In addition, we ask you to refrain from reckless criticism of a drama that has not even been revealed.”
K-netizens fears were confirmed after “Snowdrop” premiere last night. This includes fears of the beautifcation of the NSA agents becoming a reality through the premiere. The NSA (The Agency for National Security Planning) was part of the authoritarian regime at the time, and killed and tortured students who participated in the movement.
Added to that, one particular scene also gained massive backlash, the scene in question uses ‘dear pine, dear pine’ as background music as the NSA agent runs after the North Korean spy character. Many k-netizens found this to be especially problematic as this was the theme song used to sing about the suffering and ultimate victory of those who carried out the democratization movement in the 80s.
As a result of the premiere of “Snowdrop,” a netizen has uploaded a new petition to the Blue House website. The petition reads, ‘petition to stop airing the drama ‘Snowdrop.’
The description of the petition goes into details of how the drama undermines the value of the democratization movement, it also references the ‘dear pine, dear pine’ scene. The petitioner also argues that since the drama airs on another OTT platform,‘Disney+,’ it can instill a false view of the history of the democratization movement in many foreigners’ minds.
In a mere couple of hours, “Snowdrop” petition surpassed 100k signatures. As of this writing, the petition has surpassed 168k signatures. As a result, the Blue House must respond to the petition as per their regulations.
JTBC has not yet publicly addressed the mounting backlash against the drama.
What do you think of this?
I think that:
1. The drama surely was cleared by Korean tv broadcasting committee as “okay to watch”, so the drama is ok to watch by the general public;
2. There are always people who do not like this or that and if the artists and writers listened to them each time, we wouldn’t have any creativity left;
3. What these 168k are doing is also a censure to some extent, because they want the drama to be cancelled, so they are not allowing the remaining millions and millions of Koreans (plus the international audience) to watch the drama and judge by themselves, and make their own opinion. Do they know what “freedom of expression” means?
4. I have big doubts as for the ability of petitioners to judge the historical accuracy of the drama on behalf of all Korean people and especially after just 1 episode;
5. If they have some special complaints, e.g. – use of songs, etc – they of course can complain but to ask the drama to be cancelled is just too much. I agree with the response of JTBC, it’s just reckless and childish.
6. I am sure the Blue House have more important issues to deal with right now, especially with the current pandemic- the number of covid cases broke all times high in Korea last week.
Just my 2 cents…
I don’t understand much about Korea’s past specially the pilitics involved, but I have a question….Is Snowdrop showing a different version of what had actually happened? If not why would they let yhem show what had really happened?
With all due respect, I’m only asking out of curiosity.
Goodness. Did this drama even stand a chance? I want to be sensitive to the citizens’ concerns, but it just seems so, nitpicky?
The drama is unique because we rarely get a historic drama past the Joseon period, so I very much want to learn about this part of their history. Accurately, of course. But if it’s not accurate, then I’ll take a disclaimer. Filmmakers take liberties with history all of the time. It’s up to us to discern the truth.
I just hope this gets sorted out either way before I get invested. The network and government seem to be behind the drama which is curious. I’m just hoping the production’s efforts don’t go to waste, and the fact that Disney is involved means they won’t just let it go and will release it if it doesn’t finish airing.
Just my 2 cents :
Snowdrop is as stated in the opening is a drama….fictitious , etc…..
Personally it is for entertainment and if it is to really depict history then it would be a documentary ! ‘Real life’s Events or Stories’ are springboards for ideas for films, for example even war movies ! If every show is subject to such ‘scrutiny’ I could just name a few that would be declared as misleading or even propaganda!! Cancelling Snowdrop is rather overboard. For me I am more interested in the play of romance between the leads admist the challenge and excitement of unrest and looking forward to a ‘ happily ever after ‘. Pure entertainment pleasure!