Cancel culture has come to South Korean dramas not just on the behavior of actors and actresses in real life but on scenes, props, and narratives in the show itself. SBS premiered highly publicized zombie sageuk Joseon Exorcist this Monday and immediately the drama descended into controversy. I haven’t watched the show yet, planning to binge this weekend, but when I heard the so-called netizen rage issue I thought it was much ado about nothing. I was wrong as it’s completely blown up – King Taejong was seen brutally killing his own citizens and in episode 1 the Prince travels to the border of Joseon to a town close to China to bring back a Priest to help with the spreading disease and during the meal the food served included what looks like moon cakes and thousand year eggs, both Chinese food items. Netizens were furious at the distortion in history both with the King’s actions vis-a-vis historical records and that Chinese foods would be served in a Joseon table, despite the fact the production said they were taking creative liberties since this drama had fantasy elements.
Netizens have yeeted this drama to the dogpile after rejecting that explanation, demanding it be taken off air, pressuring advertisers to stop advertising on this drama, telling the screenwriter to quit the industry, etc. Within 2 days every single advertiser (over a dozen) have dropped its advertising and Joseon Exorcist is the first K-drama to be without a single advertiser. It’s only aired 2 episodes, people. The production has issued a HUGE apology, will not air new episodes next week in order to comb through the remaining drama and edit out any problematic elements or even re-film as needed, and will edit out the scenes in episode 1 for VOD streaming. Dang, the Mon-Tues sageuks are all in controversy hell though River Where the Moon Rises got through it and came out smelling like fresh roses. Ratings for JE in the first two episodes were 5.7%, 8.9% and 4.5%, 6.9%.
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And K-netz strike again. Not surprised the show will re-broadcast. This time the controversy is affecting the ratings. You'd think they would have learnt from the Mr. Queen brouhaha. But since they got away with it and the ratings went sky-high regardless, they thought it would happen here too. Knowing how K-audience is sensitive about Korean history, the producers should have made everything fictional in the first place. They shot themselves in the foot with this one.
They didn't just lose advertising they lost all their locations and hanbok suppliers. Where will they reshoot? How will they get new clothes? SBS is being stubborn by not cancelling the drama.
I didn't say anything about them reshooting. And after all the money, time and effort put into the project by all involved, why should they just cancel it? If a drama whose male lead got embroiled in a disgusting scandal could recover, why can't or shouldn't this one? They should first try however they can to save it before the last resort of cancelling it.
Aren't those 2 completely different controversy? This one has a national petition with over 14000 signatures demanding cancellation. How are you comparing the them? And if what OP said is true then they can't finish filming if they don't have any sets or clothes to film with. Without ad money the actors and staff won't get paid. It would make more sense to cancel the drama and cut back on losses.
Sorry its 140000 signatures demanding cancellation.
@nuovo Exactly! History professors who have PhDs are also demanding the drama get taken off air! SBS is also about to lose its terrestrial broadcasting license! They deserve the backlash!
@nuovo
as of last reading from Koreaboo, petition reached over 127k signatures and already reached the blue house.
And I also noticed the hanbok sponsor was also the same sponsor for RWTMR which last time made the c-netz angry because they deemed the hanbok is similar to their hanfu.
I like JDY and I’m planning to binge watch when drama ends, I hope the production will settle this matter appropriately.
@nuovo
I brought it up because Koala made the comparison in the post. And both incidents, whether similar or not, are still controversies. A lot of people were calling for River to get cancelled when that scandal came out fresh but thankfully they managed to bounce back. BR got a ton of cancellation petitions too. But we all saw how that went. Like I wrote in my first comment, the producers did this to themselves. My main concern now is for the cast and crew who worked hard on this.
@CDA
You seem really worked up about this. Are you Korean, by any chance? Asking out of curiosity.
i don't understand abt the naraesol hanbok.. they're the one that created the hanbok for je.. but they seemed want to run away from this mess. i think they also should held an account for this thing. or is there any new information from them that i don't know?
@aurora
btw in river, ppl signed petition to remove jisoo only, not to cancel the drama.
RWTMR never got cancellation requests only to remove the actor. Which they did so it was no issue. In fact knetz we're praying RWTMR doesn't get cancelled. The issue with JE has gone straight to the Blue House with multiple petitions. That's not the same thing remotely. They even want the drama removed from international streaming sites. This issue is a huge national issue.
@dawang
Kindly read what I wrote. I never said people signed petitions to have River cancelled. I said when the scandal first came out, a number of people were so outraged that they were online blowing fuse that the drama should be cancelled. I didn't say anyone signed petitions to have it cancelled. Having already expressed my thoughts about this particular Koala post (which has unfortunately turned into this long thread), I have no desire to keep going back and forth because of others' misunderstandings. All the best to you.
Can’t they just change the names, say the show is fictional cuz...hello zombies! And can knetizens take this energy and help people in need instead of waste their energy canceling tv shows. It’s embarrassing they can do so much in such little time and all they did was choose to get upset over a story about ZOMBiES. I’m afraid this will head towards a ton of censorship problems and will loose their freedom of expression and speech. It may seem justified, but censoring art is where it all begins. Freedom is when you get to choose on your own and that was taken Away from the viewer by 1/5th of the viewers upset. About.....zombies
Shite! They torpedoed the drama because of the inclusion of Chinese food? Yet they still watch K-adaptations of Chinese works which mostly turn out to be ratings hits. Smh. All upcoming sageuks better beware. (Especially that Golden Hairpin project.) Crap, I feel so bad for the cast and crew!
not just only the chinesse food, but the way they potrayed the real historical figure kim taejong is very veey very misleading. he massacred his own ppl. is it make sense? the writer should just use fictional name instead. this would be booming.
@dawang @Adal
That makes more sense then. Wish Koala had put that part in the post. Cos if it was just the Chinese food, it would be way too trivial to be blown out of proportion like this. When TKEM got into trouble with those Japanese naval ships and what-not they kept apologizing for, K-netz were pissed alright but I didn't see them calling for KES' head or advertisers boycotting the drama. The production should've been more cautious indeed. I hope the drama will be able to weather this storm though.
I understand the outrage this time. My daughter and I couldn’t get past the first 10 minutes of episode 1 that had King Taejong slaughter his own people due to hallucinations. I wonder how much of the netizens’ outrage is fueled by the scene with Chinese food and how much was caused when a well known historical figure reputed to care very much about the commoners was portrayed as a relentless murderer of the common folk within the first 10 minutes of the drama. Those scenes would annoy anyone. The popular sentiment is that the portrayal is so far off the mark from how history remembers him that it would have been preferable to use truly fictional characters from the start. It is true that Lee Bangwon had a lot of blood on his hands, but his killings have always been strategic - to win and keep his throne; and his ire focused on the nobles and not the poor folk. I’d like to see how the drama gets over this. And considering that k-netizens have been raising flak at the influence of Chinese money in recent kdramas, it would have been better if production had paid more attention to these details when they complained about other dramas earlier; they could have avoided this fiasco.
Kam Woo-sung and Jang hyuk make King Taejong the coolest king in Joseon history ?. Still King Sejong is my fave though
The Six Dragons with Yoo Ah In definitely made an image for King Taejong too as Lee Bang Won
@Hipployta
Agreed! To this day, I haven’t found a fusion saguek that can beat Six Flying Dragons. That’s one of my ultimate faves.
@Adal
Is the drama that good? From start to finish?
Indeed. Six Flying Dragons is one great sageuk. From beginning till the end.
@Aurora
I’d say Yes, Six Flying Dragons is that good. It’s 50 episodes, so be prepared for long viewing, but it never gets stale or boring. The pace remains fresh and exciting until the end of the drama. Another Saguek that I think doesn’t get enough credit is Tree With Deep Roots. I like it because the subject matter is interesting and it is kind of a Sequel to Six Flying Dragons, although it was made earlier.
@Adal @Clover
Coolio! I enjoy the beautiful traditional K-culture depicted in sageuks. So long as the story is interesting, I'm in, regardless of length. Would you happen to know any good sageuks set in the Three Kingdoms era? I hear those are more expensive to make so they're not as common. The ones on my list so far are Queen Seondeok and Jumong. If you know more, kindly share them. Many thanks!
I know KNetz have a reputation for being toxic people who complain about everything, but from what I've seen (and reading @Adal's comment above), the backlash is justified this time, a history professor even came out to criticize the historical inaccuracy.
Also, at the end of the day, I'm not korean and neither are the international fans who are dismissing the backlash as mere KNetz pettiness, so I'm not going to dictate how Koreans should feel regarding their own history.
Still, I feel so sorry for the cast and crew who all worked hard. I hope they find a way to overcome this. I'm a Jang Dong Yoon fan and even though I don't like gore, I've been planning to binge-watch this when it's already completed, so I wish the drama won't be completely cancelled.
The production should've been more careful considering the current tension between Korea and China.
This is really sad
JDY is getting heavy criticism too. They hate is going to be directed at the actors unless they back out.
Yes. Even Shin Hye Sun is starting to get delayed backlash for being a “sell-out” for appearing in Mr. Queen. Ridiculous.
Twitter is full of comments saying that knetz are hating for nothing, even insulting them...I think their anger is justified: Yes, the drama is fictional, but then don't use a real King if you're gonna modify his story. And be even more careful if the production money comes from China. Knetz are even bringing back Mr.Queen Backlash (by the same writer) in the drama it was said the Joseon Annals were mere tabloids. The Mr. Queen cast is also receiving their anger with past interviews praising the drama and Shin hyesun double the anger since she recently did a cf with a questionable line :( ...But I don't think the cast should be castigated...Do they receive the full information about the drama?
I completely understand their outrage on JE. But them bringing up Mr. Queen now and even attacking the cast is a bit silly since they basically ate up that drama and gave it stupid-high ratings. When MQ had that controversy, I expected the ratings to hit rock-bottom but imagine my surprise when it kept rising instead.
I don't know if this is even a viable option but if SBS somehow reworked the offensive parts, maybe they could sell the drama to say, Netflix, for exclusive airing and recoup costs that way?
SBS can't rework anything they've lost all their set and costume sponsorship. Which means the can't use any of the sets, locations and clothes in the drama that they have filmed till now. They'll have to start with new locations and costumes if they still want to shoot then they have to hire new sets and get new clothes made. The costs will double or triple and they have no sponsors.
The very definition of fiction is to create stories that are not real: they can do anything they want, even use historical characters in inaccurate ways...This has been done before many, many times.
People have the right to dislike it and not watch, of course. But I think, if watchers are going to be so thin-skinned about accuracy, then they are in the path of destroying historical fiction forever.
wow too bad. poor my JDY. but yeah the scriptwriter should have known better how the Knetz would react. Why using the well known character. Just create the character like Kingdom. It's hard to rise up from this..might as well cancel it
Add to that the episode was incredibly badly shot. It was so badly lit. It gave me nightmares of GOT season 8 episode 3. I couldn't see anything, I switched to tv from laptop which is 4K, still it looked bad. People really did mess up multiple things here.
It’s a zombie series, that in itself is a distortion of history. I honestly haven’t watch any Korean dramas lately. I don’t enjoy them as much as before, I feel like there’s a lot of stagnation happening and too much unreasonable restrictions and toxicity has polluted kdrama land. I wish knetizens have more relaxed views on their entertainment. Lots of popular drama lately hinges more on makjangs, I just can’t enjoy them. With this kind of environment, I’m afraid production quality and creativity has suffered a lot.
It's a actually an evil spirit but possessed people look like zombies and had taken a form of a zombie. They bite other people and they get possessed too. That's what I've seen in the trailer because I haven't check out the drama yet.
Nope. Beg to differ. Production was top notch and CG impressive. But yes I feel its time korean producers start making up fictional kings and names and characters and stop using real ones since everyone is,so darn sensitive these days. But the biggest problem is this stinking cancel culture that is sinking creativity and heck even in the workplace you have to be careful on everything you say and best to avoid cracking jokes and sarcasm. Its gotten to the point of people amassing power to their aimless lives by starting cancel campaigns online and forcing narratives that are trivial by bringing in their own misery herd. Jung Ok Jung took liberties with the storyline years back as well and received flak and lower ratings but was not canceled as netizens then were less woke. These days the tiniest issues causes millions to be lost just because it does not suit the taste of a certain group who wins fights not by being rational but by simply being the loudest. If the authorities dun step up and mediate or put in legal boundaries, its just gonna get worse and everyone will just go with Netflix and produce Korean dramas for International market than a sensitive korean market where netizens can topple millions in investments merely with keyboards. My take on the drama so far? Taejong killing innocent citizens due to his hallucinations is a sensitive area (but he is known to be the most cruel of all the rulers in joseon history and I understand why of all the kings, writer took liberties using him specifically) and should have been avoided. The chinese food on display though is a joke. The setting was on the border between china and korea, thats where the people of joseon jok reside (korean-chinese). Of course the food served will have chinese elements to it. That is all on the netizens wokeness. In no way should the production people apologise for it. The costumes of the females in the show does look chinese. So thats on production as well. I will still watch this drama as I am a fan of this writers work. If people can't tell fantasy from non fiction then its a true wake up call for producers to realise what it takes to make a production for the woke audience of the world today. I will binge on old hollywood movies, silly politically incorrect british comedies, korean dramas that reminds me how blessed I am to be old. At least I spent a big part of my youth without this toxic internet culture and stored away many good memories as a result.. Those keyboard warriors can continue to stay woke and angry. This is our new normal. Pandemic + wokeism. Can't tell whats worse anymore.
?????????
Well said.
I would smash the like button too! I'm seeing images of JDY wearing a cast/sling on his arm on Twitter. Apparently, he got injured while filming the drama. And the woke brigade are trying to get it cancelled instead of demanding a revision. It's weird to see a few I-netz also pushing for the cancellation, even louder than the K-netz. Wonder what their agenda is. ?
If this comment section has like button. I'd tap it several times.
i read somewhere that there was a barbarian territory b/w china and korea so both kingdoms had minimum interactions and their interactions were through sea... so korean kingdom didnt share direct borders with china in the 14th century... they also showed one of the prince pouring drinks to the priest which is considered to be very deteriorating according to korean culture... someone of that status wont pour drinks to people lower than them... prince will be pouring drinks only to his elder relatives and fathers and not to a random stranger...
we are not koreans to feel offended by what they showed...we are not part of their history or their culture... we dont know to what extend the tension b/w china and korea have reached... so we dont get to say if koreans are overreacting or not... it has over 125k petitions against it...
the problems with mr.queen wasnt that big and the drama never saw any decrease in viewership... so its not like koreans are completely intolerant towards some small changes in history... even a lot of dramas with real historical figures have a fictional element in them and also managed to gain huge ratings in korea... empress ki had 20 or 30+% rating and it wasnt exactly historically accurate... according to history empress ki exactly wasnt very liked by koreans but the koreans audience loved the drama...
yeah, it's a freaking zombie/mystical drama. How can the character behave the same as the historically accurate non-zombie setting?
also it also the time when Korean realised that they were under the Chinese dynasty at one point so there will be similar custom if we keep having historical drama, they are freaking neighbor.
Almost all of the saeguk this year has a lot of controversies. It kinda feels weird.
Almost all the sageuks this year having controversies is weird indeed!
It makes me worry for the upcoming ones. Bossam (which is based on a real custom), Hong Chun Gi (which will air on the currently backlash-heavy SBS) and The Golden Hairpin (which is based on a Chinese novel). Oh boy.
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