So 2026 really will be a year where the South Korean public is exceedingly annoyed by created entertainment distorting or allegedly distorting real life history. Last week saw the premiere of big budget high profile movie The Assassin(s), which was an early shoe-in for next year’s awards thanks to the cast and production team. Starring Yoo Hae Jin, Park Hae Il, and Lee Min Ho, the movie covers the real life assassination attempt on then South Korean President Park Chun Hee on Liberation Day in 1974 and which ended up actually killing then First Lady Yuk Young Soo. The movie explores the assassination attempt that was supposedly ordered by North Korea, the aftermath, and investigation into the assassination and shows that the investigators were blocked and stymied in their investigation by the government. The controversy is that the movie does not stick with the official government findings behind the assassination and instead explores the conspiracy theory that she was killed by a bullet fired not by the assassin but by the President’s own security detail and that the assassination itself was self staged by President Park. Netizens are furious about this and even other top stars are being dragged in along with the three leads, with actresses like Lee Young Ae and Kim Go Eun facing criticism and calls for boycotts because they praised the movie and recommended it to viewers. Since the controversy erupted, the production has removed a VIP wall of handwritten notes by stars who watched the movie at the VIP premiere and recommended it. The netizens ire is a little over my paygrade to have an opinion but US viewers watched movies all the time that take real life events and posit an alternative theory.