Holy epic fail on the part of MBC with it’s latest Wed-Thurs offering The Man Who Dies to Live, a drama I wasn’t even planning on watching until the uproar over the first two episodes elevated interest. Now I still don’t want to watch it but for a different reason, the reason behind so much anger and offense taken by Muslim and/or viewers from the Middle East over how the drama depicts those cultures and practice of the Muslim faith.

In short, the drama has Choi Min Soo playing a South Korean man presumed dead for decades who in fact is living a wealthy comfy life in a fictional Middle Eastern kingdom until circumstances send him back to Korea where the rest of the drama is about his reconciliation with his now grown daughter. The first two episodes have understandably garnered the ire of some viewers for its offensive, incorrect, and/or stereotypical depictions of Middle Eastern life and certain practices of the Muslim faith.  Continue reading →