K-netizens are furious after seeing these scenes from “The King Of Tears, Lee Bang Won,” but they’re not the only ones, as The Korean Animal Welfare Association was also deeply concerned and is filing a complaint to KBS.
What happened with “The King Of Tears, Lee Bang Won”?
Recently, behind-the-scenes footage of “The King Of Tears, Lee Bang Won” circulated the web by the Korean Animal Welfare Association to help bring attention to this.
TW: ANIMAL ABUSE
The clips in question show a scene of the character Lee Bang Won’s father Lee Seong Gye falling dramatically as he rides a horse. The horse takes a head dive and lands on its side. The association says after they investigated the matter closely, they found out that the horse was tied up with action wire and tripped purposely by the crew several times in order for this scene to work. The horse falls to the ground in a manner that indicates he’s suffered physical injuries according to the association.
The association also points out that there are no professionals present to handle the horse and while they can’t confirm or deny he was injured from the scene, they’re beyond astonished to find out that KBS is utilizing what they label ‘backward filming methods.’ As a result, the association sent a letter to KBS demanding an explanation for the situation.
K-netizens were utterly furious after watching the clips and a petition was launched on KBS’s official site to demand an explanation.
Later, KBS issued a formal apology and its content is infuriating netizens even more as they revealed the horse has died a week after filming this scene. They wrote,
“We apologize. We feel deeply responsible for the accident that happened during the filming of The King Of Tears, Lee Bang Won and apologize.
The accident occurred on November 2 while filming Lee Seong Gye’s fall in the 7th episode of Taejong Lee Bang Won.
Filming the fall scene is a very difficult shoot. This is because the horse safety is fundamental, and the safety of the actor on the horse and the safety of the staff filming must be considered too. For this reason, the production team prepared carefully for the scene in order to prevent accidents from happening.
However, despite these efforts, there was an accident in which the actor fell far from the horse and the horse’s upper body hit the ground with great force. Immediately after the accident, the horse got up on its own and we confirmed that there was no external injury before we sent it back. However, due to growing concerns from viewers who are worried about the horse’s condition, the horse’s health condition was checked again, but unfortunately, it was confirmed that the horse died about a week after the filming.
We cannot help but taking deep responsibility for what happened. We repeatedly apologize to viewers for the failure to prevent such an accident and unfortunate event from happening.
KBS acknowledges that there was a problem with the method of filming the fall through this accident, so we will find other ways to shoot and express such scenes so that the incident does not reoccur. In addition, we will find ways to ensure the safety of animals at various filming sites through advice and cooperation from related organizations and experts.”
Despite their apology, k-netizens continued to express their rage over the incident and the fact that CGI wasn’t used here. Many have began demanding the show be canceled.
What do you think of this?
