Over sixteen months of wait. Attracting controversies from the very beginning. JTBC’s Snowdrop premiered on December 18 amidst much uproar and it led to a volcanic eruption of South Koreans demanding a ban on the show.
Even big names attached to the show could do nothing about the controversies engulfing it. Before we look at the two opposing sides, let’s look at the context of why Snowdrop has been deemed controversial.
1. The 1980s Democratic Movement
The 386 generation – Koreans born in the 1960s who attended universities in the 1980s while being in their 30s – were a critical part of the political democratization of South Korea. It was triggered after President Chun Doo-hwan named Roh Tae-woo as the next president, deferring the revisions in indirect South Korean election law.
The movement was led mainly by student activists under the then-dictator government for a pro-democratic South Korea. Under President Chun Doo-hwan’s rules, the young activists were framed as North Korean spies, were arrested, brutally tortured and even killed.
2. Where does Snowdrop fit in the political movement of South Korea?
Snowdrop aims to tell a fictional love story between two youngsters during the 1980s political uproar. Set in the background of two warring countries and ever-emerging student activism, the show also aims to share stories of politics and other youth being nothing more than puppets of the government.
BLACKPINK’s Jisoo plays Eun Young-ro, a female university student and Jung Hae-in as Im Soo-ho, a North Korean spy disguising himself as a student.
3. The Controversy
Snowdrop’s portrayal of a North Korean spy as a student re-instigates the false agenda the then dictator government’s used to frame, torture and kill hundreds of young activists. Another character angle deemed controversial is the portrayal of the National Security Agency (NSA) member, Lee Kang-moo.
Lee’s character shows him as the righteous man who only wants to avenge his partner’s death. While in reality, NSA was an organization behind the arrest and torture of student activists.
4. Creative Freedom
Like any other show, Snowdrop too starts with a generic statement describing the events in the production as “fictional”. It is the word – fiction – that a chunk of people (mostly international BLACKPINK fans) choose to focus on.
Snowdrop is a work of fiction, and the characters are nothing but creative freedom of expression used by the writers and producers. There can be no ifs or buts when it comes to freedom of expression.
The responsibility of differentiating between fiction and reality rests on the audience. With limitless possible storylines, freedom of expression plays a large role in shaping society. How free or restricted a country is can be seen by how the government handles creative expression – criticism, feedback, debates, dissent – the key parts that make or break the society come under it.
Banning Snowdrop, this side believes, would be taking away the creative freedom of expression.
5. Historical Inaccuracy
The 1980s Democratic Movement was a tumultuous, terrifying experience that remains fresh in the minds of hundreds of student activists and their loved ones. Snowdrop contains multiple inaccuracies that distort and taint South Korean citizens’ traumatic history.
Before the premiere, Eun Young-ro was named Eun Young-cho. The latter is the name of a real student activist, Chun Young-cho, a surviving protestor who was tortured after being framed as a North Korean spy.
The similarities of showing a student disguising himself as a North Korean spy influences the same agenda the authoritarian government then used. It springs up the question of – “What if students were actually spies?” – which was only a false accusation used by the NSA. It plays on the sentiments of the families of the many activists whose lives were altered forever after being tortured and killed by them.
Showing NSA agent Lee Kang-moo as a “righteous” man searching only for the spy and not threatening other students, also stirs up a similar discussion. Real NSA agents would frame students as spies to torture them.
6. My take
No one knows their country’s history and trauma better than those living in it. Snowdrop chose a rather wounded, tumultuous road to base its love story on. A road that they could have easily avoided, just like Youth of May (set during the Gwangju Uprising).
TV or movies as a medium hold unfathomable power to change the perspective of a whole generation on any subject. It being a debut of sensational girl group members can subconsciously take away the nitty-gritty of the actual historical movement (which it does), creating prototypes for the impressionable, young global audience.
International fans starting petitions to see their idol perform on screen in this background is pitiful and shameless. They consciously choose to disrespect the student activists and their struggles.
The argument of “people can differentiate between fiction and reality” turns back on them because it only, if ever, works on a wise audience. Fans’ outright refusal to learn to see the blatant inaccuracies or respect the martyrs, shows how they are anything but wise.
If multiple South Korean right-wing political organizations claim Snowdrop is right – implying student activists were spies – while an entire international fandom chooses to say it’s just “fiction”, there’s clearly something wholly wrong about the drama (and the non-Koreans who choose to support it).
7. About Snowdrop
Snowdrop is an upcoming JTBC drama written by Yoon Hyun-mi and directed by Jo Hyun-tak, the famous duo behind the popular K-drama SKY Castle.
The show marks the debut of BLACKPINK’s Jisoo, alongside Jung Hae-in, Yoo In-na, Jang Seung-jo, Kim Hye-yoon, Yoon Se-ah and Jung Yoo-jin.
Snowdrop is set in the late 1980s, during the political unrest climate in South Korea. University student Eun Young-ro (BLACKPINK’s Jisoo) finds an injured and bloody Im Soo-ho (Jung Hae-in) after he participates in pro-democratic protests. Young-ro hides him from the government in her all-girls university dorm. As love starts brewing, secrets start spilling as Soo-ho’s identity reveals to be more than just a student.
The series will premiere on December 18, 2021 at 10:30 PM KST on JTBC and later on Disney+.
News Source: Snowdrop / Disney Plus
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