Despite JTBC’s strong denial of Snowdrop’s historical distortion controversy, staff from the production team recently shared that the drama depicts NSA (National Security Agency) as being “politically neutral.”
In an interview with Ilyosisa, a Mr. A (name changed) shared that Snowdrop was made keeping in mind that the NSA agents could be ordinary humans and not inherently bad people.
Making things worse, the staff member adds that the depiction of NSA, even in the second half of the drama, would hardly tilt towards being negative.
Snowdrop is the project we made bearing in mind NSA agents were ordinary people too. There are some scenes making a satire of the government at that time, but it’s not depicted as extremely bad people. In the latter part of the series, there are scenes related to the incident in 1998 without a strong negative depiction of NSA.
However, the statement from Mr. ‘A’ has led to an increased backlash. A major reason for the historical distortion controversy that has riled up entire South Korea is the show glorifying NSA agents’ violence by particularly choosing to lessen the atrocities they conducted in real life.
Mr. A further added that Snowdrop shows NSA agents as being “politically neutral” and that “misunderstandings will persist” if viewers choose to stay unhappy with this depiction.
The blog post on the South Korean online forum, theqoo, currently has 1600 comments full of criticism thrown at the insensitive words of the staff.
In a way, Mr. A, a part of Snowdrop’s team, has confirmed that people’s concerns over the glorification of the NSA are very much real.
The NSA, also known as Agency for National Security Planning (ANSP) and National Intelligence Security (AIS), was behind the many deaths, sexual assaults, and brutal tortures of student activists in the late 1980s.
Depicting NSA agents as “politically neutral,” non-negative, and “ordinary humans” is similar to saying Adolf Hitler was an ordinary person, too, read some of the comments.
Other comments include:
Meanwhile, JTBC aired three episodes consecutively on three days, but South Korean citizens still demand cancellation on the blatant historical distortion.
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+.
Source: Ilyosisa
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