As the backlash increased over the drama content, the south Korean network JTBC released a new statement on Tuesday. It read, “This is JTBC’s statement regarding controversy about the drama “Snowdrop.” Following the broadcast of “Snowdrop,” controversy is not dying down based on false information, so we are releasing a statement.”
It continued, “First of all, the background and motif for important incidents in “Snowdrop” are the time of military regime. With this background, it contains a fictional story of the party in power colluding with the North Korean government in order to maintain authority. “Snowdrop” is a creative work that shows the personal stories of individuals who were used and victimized by those in power.”
“There is no spy who leads the democratization movement in “Snowdrop.” The male and female leads were not shown as participating in or leading the democratization movement in episodes 1 and 2, and they do not do so in any part of the future script. Most of the misunderstandings regarding concerns of “history distortion” and “disparaging the democratization movement” criticized by many people will be settled through the progress of the drama’s plot. The drama includes the production team’s intent of hoping for no repetition of an abnormal era in which individual freedom and happiness are oppressed by unjust power.”
“Although we, unfortunately, cannot reveal much of the plot ahead of each episode, we ask that you watch over the future progress of the plot. In addition, in order to hear the valuable opinions regarding JTBC’s contents, we will listen to diverse voices by opening the portal site’s real-time chat window and the official viewers’ message board. The main values that JTBC aims for are the freedom of content creation and independence of production. Based on this, JTBC will continue to contribute full effort into showcasing great broadcasts” it ended.
Meanwhile, reportedly, one of the three largest sponsors of ‘Snowdrop’ cancelled its sponsorship after many took to social media to express their discomfort and anger, saying, “it is inappropriate to use such a significant song for a scene featuring the Agency for National Security Planning and a spy from history”.
A petition has been launched and signed by about 200,000 people thus far also stating that romanticizing and featuring the male lead as a spy being mistaken as a pro-democratic figure was a gross distortion of history. It stated that there were in fact many innocent people who were tortured by the government by being mistaken as the spy.
Apart from distortion of historical facts, the pilot episode that saw Jisoo’s character mistakenly saving a spy against the pro-democracy movement, and even playing a historically significant song used to symbolize the pro-democracy movement, has not gone down too well with viewers.
