What a fun ride! It’s shaping up to be a satisfying tale of rooting out corruption and serving justice, sparked by an earnest young cop and carried forth by our morally ambivalent protagonist and his vigilante conscience. If you’re a seasoned crime thriller viewer, it likely isn’t anything you haven’t seen before, but the execution makes it an entertaining and engaging watch. The drama injects humor well through offbeat comedic moments and small details, like the green duct tape holding Soo-yeol’s battered car together.
I’m a little sad we barely got to see Kyung-tae in this episode — his earnest sincerity and dogged pursuit of the truth makes his character a compelling one to root for. I hope he regains consciousness soon, since I’d love to see Soo-yeol and Jae-sun take him under their wing. Kyung-tae’s righteous idealism would serve as a good foil to Soo-yeol’s jaded pragmatism, and it’d be nice for Kyung-tae to have people backing him up so he doesn’t have to go running headfirst into danger alone.
Also, I’m quite impressed by how the drama has been tying its threads together. I’d initially written off Min-soo as a plot device to demonstrate Soo-yeol’s moral ambiguity and relative lack of scruples, so having his character tie back into the main plot this episode was a welcome surprise. I wonder what information Yoo-na was acquiring for him, and if that was what led to her death at the hands of Assemblyman Do. I’m looking forward to seeing what roles the supporting characters, such as feisty Hee-gyeom and loyal sidekick Jae-sun, will play in uncovering this conspiracy.
I’ve always preferred Lee Dong-wook in comedic roles over romantic ones, and I think his tendency to overact lends itself well to this role. The drama doesn’t take itself too seriously, so his over-the-top expressions add to the fun, comic-book-superhero feel.
And of course, Wie Ha-joon! We’ve barely seen much of him, but he’s already a hoot. He plays the unpredictable enigma K so convincingly, with the wildness in his eyes and the devilish mischief in his grin. In the hands of a lesser actor, K’s rampages could come off as campy and cringeworthy, but the K we’ve gotten is the epitome of chaotic good. I wonder when and how he started appearing to Soo-yeol.
Thus far, it seems that every time K takes over, Soo-yeol’s consciousness perceives K as a separate entity he’s interacting with. It’s not that Soo-yeol has no memory of the event entirely (apart from the car destruction in Episode 1), he just remembers it differently from how it actually played out. I wonder if this sheds light on Soo-yeol’s inner conflict — does he actually feel guilty, and is merely repressing it by projecting his conscience onto a separate persona? I think that’d be an interesting angle to explore, rather than a dissociative identity that he has no control over. Either way, though, I’m looking forward to more bickering, hijinks, and vigilante justice.
Well. That was… different. Brutal. A lot to get through. But I kinda liked it. Most of it, anyway. (Can I just wrap Kyung-tae in bubble wrap??)
It would appear the mysterious biker is some sort of manifestation of Soo-yeol’s conscience, letting him know he’s not doing the right thing. But what exactly does that mean? I’d love to know what the sauna clerk actually saw on the security cameras – was it Soo-yeol beating himself up, just like he vandalized his own car? Also, how much of these encounters are in his head? The sequence where he woke up in Yoo-na’s bathroom, for instance, didn’t appear as though he’d actually physically traveled there (since he woke up back in his chair), while at the end he clearly did go up the stairs to Kyung-tae’s apartment.
Obviously, this is just episode 1, and I’m sure we’ll get answers along the way. But for now, I do appreciate the point being made that knowing the right thing to do and then not doing it is just as bad as doing the wrong thing. If the biker is his conscience – if he’s literally beating himself up for his choices – then he must really hate himself for what he’s done (and not done), even if he’s buried that self-loathing really deep. Which helps me root for him juuuust a little bit, just enough to want him to make the right choices for once.
It also helps to pair him with someone like Jae-sun, who 1) is a good person, 2) clearly cares about Soo-yeol and has a good relationship with him, and 3) calls him out on his selfish behavior. Because if there’s any good influence that Soo-yeol might listen to, it’s probably his partner. And because I like Jae-sun, I want to see good in Soo-yeol like he does, and I don’t want to see him (even more) disappointed in someone he cares about.
However, despite little hints like Soo-yeol getting visibly angry at the way In-bum talked about Kyung-tae, it’s pretty hard to like Soo-yeol right now. Every time it almost seems like he’s feeling a smidge of empathy, he flips that switch off and turns back to his own agenda. And, to be totally honest, if he didn’t have Lee Dong-wook’s smile, it would be even harder to like him…
But here’s hoping that the guilt he might be feeling toward Kyung-tae (hence the biker forcing him to go apologize) will get harder to ignore and that he’ll start listening to his conscience again – whether it looks like an actual person or is just a little voice in his head.
Director Jo Hyun-tak, who previously made SKY Castle – teamed up again with writer Yoo Hyun-mi – has claimed that his show is a fictional story and does not have a political agenda. The fact it features spies, agents, politicians and protesters in a narrative set in 1987, one of the most sensitive years for political protests in Korea’s history, begs otherwise.
A generation was traumatized by the vicious government-sanctioned suppression of activists, many of them student protesters, during the 1980s.
Human rights and due process were ignored as many of these youths were tortured. One of them, Park Jong-cheol, died, which sparked an even larger wave of nationwide protests known as the June Democracy Movement, which forced dictator Chun Doo-hwan to step down and led to South Korea’s first democratic elections, ushering in a new era known as the Sixth Republic.
National security agents were able to commit these atrocities in the name of protecting the country from the influence of North Korean spies, who they falsely claimed were behind the protests.
Snowdrop portrays these national security agents in a negative light, but by featuring North Korean agents, one of whom is actively harboured by several ordinary South Korean citizens, it also legitimizes these false, propagandist claims, regardless of the intentions of the North Korean characters.
JTBC insists that this is all a misunderstanding and the issue will be cleared up when the rest of the story is revealed.
But the damage was already done when the show forced Korean viewers to stomach an idealized and romantic story set against a backdrop that insults the memory of those who struggled and died fighting for political freedom during South Korea’s darkest hour.
Why South Koreans are so angry about its portrayal in Snowdrop.
1. Basic background about the Democratic Movement and oppression
One thing for you to know going in is that many supporters of the democratic movement, including student supporters, were wrongly accused as North Korean spies. The NSA was not actually an organization meant to take down North Korean spies, but to simply eradicate any dissent and opposition against the governmental regime. This included supporters of the democratic movement. However, in order to have a “legitimate” reason to torture the democratic supporters, the NSA used the guise of catching North Korean spies.
2. Discrepancies with real life figures
Firstly, the female lead’s father is the head of the NSA. In the drama, Eun Chang Soo heads the NSA. This in itself might not have been an issue, if not for the fact that the writers decided to portray him in a more positive light. According to the character profile, he may be a strict dictator when it comes to work, but his love for literature makes him soft at heart and delicate.
In actual fact, the real head of the NSA back then was Jang Se Dong, who was the beloved right-hand man of then president, Chun Doo Hwan. Jang Se Dong covered up many brutal murders in order to scare the people into thinking that they were caused by North Korean spies. One such case was the case of Susie Kim, who was murdered by her husband. Her husband lied that she was a North Korean spy, something Jang Se Dong readily accepted without investigation. This was as if the South Korean citizens became more wary and paranoid of spies, they would be more likely to support the punishment of accused spies which were more often than not, simply supporters of the democratic movement.
South Koreans are angered at the fact that Snowdrop has rewritten such a diabolical and cruel man as a literature-loving softie.
3. The character of Lee Kang Moo and romanticization of the NSA
Lee Kang Moo is the second male lead of Snowdrop. A team leader at the NSA, he is dedicated to his work. His synopsis includes that he is a man “who only walked on one path to catch the bad guys.” His character motivations include the death of his father who was killed while chasing a spy, and his life mission which he abandoned his first love for.
South Koreans are angered at the apparent humanization of someone who was in charge of leading a team to hunt down democratic supporters. The NSA and its teams were famous for sending infiltrators to plant false evidence in student groups of democratic supporters to accuse them as spies.
Given the atrocities of the NSA as a whole, South Koreans are unhappy with the potential Snowdrop has to romanticize the organization and its members.
4. The Park Jong Cheol case
The Park Jong Cheol case was a famous one that eventually led to the downfall of the regime when the truth was exposed to the public. He was a student that supported democracy. The NSA took him in and tortured him relentlessly using all sorts of tactics, including waterboarding. This eventually led to his death. Doctors were brought in to try to revive him and when that failed, the NSA tried to falsify his reason of death. After the truth was brought to light, South Koreans grew enraged over the regime.
Although he has since passed on, Park Jong Cheol’s representatives have spoken up against the drama Snowdrop recently. After the first two episodes aired, his representatives claimed that the drama was causing a second round of harm to the victims of the aftermath of the NSA and its regime with the way it romanticizes the NSA and distorts history.
5. NSA’s involvement in Berlin
One of the set-ups of Snowdrop is Germany, more specifically, Berlin. The male lead, Soo Ho, has ties to Berlin. A North Korean spy that left for missions in Berlin, he masquerades as a graduate student from a university in Berlin and comes to South Korea to complete his thesis. However, his father was actually a genius musician residing in North Korea and Germany. This stirred up anger because the alleged inspiration for his father was based on a famous South Korean musician, Yun Isang, who was falsely accused of being a spy and forced to commute between North Korea and Germany before being kidnapped by the NSA.
Although Yoo Hyun Mi herself has not confirmed any inspirations based on real-life characters, viewers drew a connection between the male lead’s father and South Korean musician and genius composer, Yun Isang. In episode 2, it was explained that Im Soo Ho (the male lead)’s father was a famous, medal-winning musician in Berlin who faced oppression and was unable to return back to Korea. Soo Ho, who grew up in Germany, returned to South Korea on his own as an adult.
In real life, Yun Isang won the Goethe medal and multiple other music awards but was banned from re-entering South Korea. Due to the banning, Yun Isang had to travel back and forth between North Korea and Germany instead. Although he had settled with his family in Berlin, he was falsely accused of espionage and was kidnapped by the South Korean secret service in 1967. This was a period of time where many Korean-German students were falsely accused of being spies as well. Yun Isang was tortured and forced to confess and eventually imprisoned. Many artists signed a petition worldwide for his release. From 1973, he participated in the call for the democratization of South Korea.
Netizens claim the story of Yun Isang sounds a lot like an inspiration for the fictional character – Im Soo Ho’s father.
This isn’t the first time writer Yoo Hyun Mi was criticized for her choice of character set-up. Previously, she had already faced criticism for naming her female lead, Young Cho. Young Cho is by no means a common female name in South Korea, even in the era Snowdrop is set in. However, the name is well known for one historical figure during the era of the Democratic Movements in South Korea. Whether it was a coincidence or intentional, South Korean netizens did not take kindly to this because Young Cho was a real person who fought hard for the democratic movement. Young Cho’s husband was also a participant in the movement who was tortured to death under false accusations of being a spy. y in Snowdrop, Im Soo Ho is an actual spy and hides under the guise of being a student protestor who supports the democratic movement. Hence, South Korean netizens thought that it was “cruel and immoral” to have Snowdrop‘s characters be represented by Young Cho’s name. Eventually, the female lead’s name was changed to Young Ro.
Netizens are serving Yoo Hyun Mi with backlash for her choice in character set-up. They are calling the coincidences too uncanny and have accused the writer of specifically using real-life figures who were falsely tortured as spies for her drama which involves real spies masquerading as democratic party supporters.
South Koreans have also uncovered that the writer herself attended Ewha Women’s University and tenured in Gwangju as a professor. This was a disappointment to many as many student protests for the democratic movement took place on that very campus, as well as the only womens’ universities in South Korea back then. Many South Koreans brought up parallels between Hosu Women’s University in the drama and Ewha University as its inspiration. Similarly, Gwangju was where one of the most horrific massacres against democratic movement supporters took place. Yoo Hyun Mi’s links to both places were severely criticized as there was no way she would be aware of the depths of the incidents that took place.
Public interest in the Korean drama starring Jisoo of BLACKPINK is notorious. Even before its debut, scheduled for the 18th, “Snowdrop” became the center of popular debate, causing enormous controversy in South Korea. Even the government had to get involved.
The reason is that the drama touches on a sensitive theme for South Korean citizens: the period of military dictatorship. They even signed a petition asking the government to bar the program from being shown on TV. The petition had more than 220 thousand signatures.
The case delayed the premiere of “Snowdrop”, which was scheduled for the first semester. In contrast, the drama will now premiere on the JTBC channel as well as worldwide Disney+ streaming service. Based on an incomplete synopsis and character description, “Snowdrop” was accused of “distorting historical facts“.
The JTBC channel had to reveal specific information about the plot to clarify the situation. The plot takes place in 1987, the year South Korea made its transition to the Sixth Republic. It was this year that the population began to sympathize with the pro-democracy protesters after a Protestant student died during police interrogation.
According to Carol Pardini, from the In Korea Tem channel, the fear of the South Koreans was that “Snowdrop” would romanticize supporters of the military regime.
“How to tell the story without belittling the image of the pro-democracy movement and not end up glamorizing the spies and the work of the NSP, the National Security Planning Agency, which was fighting to maintain the dictatorship? That’s the question“, she explains.
Despite the social outcry, Blue House, South Korea’s presidential residence, decided not to interfere with “Snowdrop” and to preserve freedom of expression.
“In 1987, when tear gas exploded like fireworks, a bloodied man (Jung Hae-in) jumped into a dormitory and a student (Jisoo) treated him thinking he was an activist student fighting for the generation“, tells the synopsis.
why do people who watch kdramas care so much about acting?? i've never seen comments like this under any american…
idk but I still don't consider IU as a great actress even after hotel del luna. She's popular and pretty and she got casted in dramas but i still don't consider her as a great actress. she's only carried the show because the actors were splendid and the story line is good. I haven't seen that many kdramas like everyone else has but there are idols who really can't act. SOME idols are just so good I didn't even know they were idols. So it depends. You can really compare the veteran actor and the rookie idol actor. It just sucks how everyone is playing their part and there's that one person who has ONE LOOK for the entire season and it's kinda annoying.
People have the right to care about someone's acting. People want a good drama and good actors. There's nothing wrong with that.
I don't trust her after what she did. She's manipulative and not a good person. People only support her cause…
And he's a beta male and not a good person either using her as a scapegoat for his "anxiety" issues. If he's got an anxiety problem maybe don't work in the entertainment industry then? You've probably never been in a relationship so you don't know what a normal lovers' quarrel is. Also real men = manly men don't use their GF's as an excuse for their bad behavior on set. That's just so beta and spineless of him.
What a fun ride! It’s shaping up to be a satisfying tale of rooting out corruption and serving justice, sparked by an earnest young cop and carried forth by our morally ambivalent protagonist and his vigilante conscience. If you’re a seasoned crime thriller viewer, it likely isn’t anything you haven’t seen before, but the execution makes it an entertaining and engaging watch. The drama injects humor well through offbeat comedic moments and small details, like the green duct tape holding Soo-yeol’s battered car together.
I’m a little sad we barely got to see Kyung-tae in this episode — his earnest sincerity and dogged pursuit of the truth makes his character a compelling one to root for. I hope he regains consciousness soon, since I’d love to see Soo-yeol and Jae-sun take him under their wing. Kyung-tae’s righteous idealism would serve as a good foil to Soo-yeol’s jaded pragmatism, and it’d be nice for Kyung-tae to have people backing him up so he doesn’t have to go running headfirst into danger alone.
Also, I’m quite impressed by how the drama has been tying its threads together. I’d initially written off Min-soo as a plot device to demonstrate Soo-yeol’s moral ambiguity and relative lack of scruples, so having his character tie back into the main plot this episode was a welcome surprise. I wonder what information Yoo-na was acquiring for him, and if that was what led to her death at the hands of Assemblyman Do. I’m looking forward to seeing what roles the supporting characters, such as feisty Hee-gyeom and loyal sidekick Jae-sun, will play in uncovering this conspiracy.
I’ve always preferred Lee Dong-wook in comedic roles over romantic ones, and I think his tendency to overact lends itself well to this role. The drama doesn’t take itself too seriously, so his over-the-top expressions add to the fun, comic-book-superhero feel.
And of course, Wie Ha-joon! We’ve barely seen much of him, but he’s already a hoot. He plays the unpredictable enigma K so convincingly, with the wildness in his eyes and the devilish mischief in his grin. In the hands of a lesser actor, K’s rampages could come off as campy and cringeworthy, but the K we’ve gotten is the epitome of chaotic good. I wonder when and how he started appearing to Soo-yeol.
Thus far, it seems that every time K takes over, Soo-yeol’s consciousness perceives K as a separate entity he’s interacting with. It’s not that Soo-yeol has no memory of the event entirely (apart from the car destruction in Episode 1), he just remembers it differently from how it actually played out. I wonder if this sheds light on Soo-yeol’s inner conflict — does he actually feel guilty, and is merely repressing it by projecting his conscience onto a separate persona? I think that’d be an interesting angle to explore, rather than a dissociative identity that he has no control over. Either way, though, I’m looking forward to more bickering, hijinks, and vigilante justice.
Well. That was… different. Brutal. A lot to get through. But I kinda liked it. Most of it, anyway. (Can I just wrap Kyung-tae in bubble wrap??)
It would appear the mysterious biker is some sort of manifestation of Soo-yeol’s conscience, letting him know he’s not doing the right thing. But what exactly does that mean? I’d love to know what the sauna clerk actually saw on the security cameras – was it Soo-yeol beating himself up, just like he vandalized his own car? Also, how much of these encounters are in his head? The sequence where he woke up in Yoo-na’s bathroom, for instance, didn’t appear as though he’d actually physically traveled there (since he woke up back in his chair), while at the end he clearly did go up the stairs to Kyung-tae’s apartment.
Obviously, this is just episode 1, and I’m sure we’ll get answers along the way. But for now, I do appreciate the point being made that knowing the right thing to do and then not doing it is just as bad as doing the wrong thing. If the biker is his conscience – if he’s literally beating himself up for his choices – then he must really hate himself for what he’s done (and not done), even if he’s buried that self-loathing really deep. Which helps me root for him juuuust a little bit, just enough to want him to make the right choices for once.
It also helps to pair him with someone like Jae-sun, who 1) is a good person, 2) clearly cares about Soo-yeol and has a good relationship with him, and 3) calls him out on his selfish behavior. Because if there’s any good influence that Soo-yeol might listen to, it’s probably his partner. And because I like Jae-sun, I want to see good in Soo-yeol like he does, and I don’t want to see him (even more) disappointed in someone he cares about.
However, despite little hints like Soo-yeol getting visibly angry at the way In-bum talked about Kyung-tae, it’s pretty hard to like Soo-yeol right now. Every time it almost seems like he’s feeling a smidge of empathy, he flips that switch off and turns back to his own agenda. And, to be totally honest, if he didn’t have Lee Dong-wook’s smile, it would be even harder to like him…
But here’s hoping that the guilt he might be feeling toward Kyung-tae (hence the biker forcing him to go apologize) will get harder to ignore and that he’ll start listening to his conscience again – whether it looks like an actual person or is just a little voice in his head.
A generation was traumatized by the vicious government-sanctioned suppression of activists, many of them student protesters, during the 1980s.
Human rights and due process were ignored as many of these youths were tortured. One of them, Park Jong-cheol, died, which sparked an even larger wave of nationwide protests known as the June Democracy Movement, which forced dictator Chun Doo-hwan to step down and led to South Korea’s first democratic elections, ushering in a new era known as the Sixth Republic.
National security agents were able to commit these atrocities in the name of protecting the country from the influence of North Korean spies, who they falsely claimed were behind the protests.
Snowdrop portrays these national security agents in a negative light, but by featuring North Korean agents, one of whom is actively harboured by several ordinary South Korean citizens, it also legitimizes these false, propagandist claims, regardless of the intentions of the North Korean characters.
JTBC insists that this is all a misunderstanding and the issue will be cleared up when the rest of the story is revealed.
But the damage was already done when the show forced Korean viewers to stomach an idealized and romantic story set against a backdrop that insults the memory of those who struggled and died fighting for political freedom during South Korea’s darkest hour.
1. Basic background about the Democratic Movement and oppression
One thing for you to know going in is that many supporters of the democratic movement, including student supporters, were wrongly accused as North Korean spies. The NSA was not actually an organization meant to take down North Korean spies, but to simply eradicate any dissent and opposition against the governmental regime. This included supporters of the democratic movement. However, in order to have a “legitimate” reason to torture the democratic supporters, the NSA used the guise of catching North Korean spies.
2. Discrepancies with real life figures
Firstly, the female lead’s father is the head of the NSA. In the drama, Eun Chang Soo heads the NSA. This in itself might not have been an issue, if not for the fact that the writers decided to portray him in a more positive light. According to the character profile, he may be a strict dictator when it comes to work, but his love for literature makes him soft at heart and delicate.
In actual fact, the real head of the NSA back then was Jang Se Dong, who was the beloved right-hand man of then president, Chun Doo Hwan. Jang Se Dong covered up many brutal murders in order to scare the people into thinking that they were caused by North Korean spies. One such case was the case of Susie Kim, who was murdered by her husband. Her husband lied that she was a North Korean spy, something Jang Se Dong readily accepted without investigation. This was as if the South Korean citizens became more wary and paranoid of spies, they would be more likely to support the punishment of accused spies which were more often than not, simply supporters of the democratic movement.
South Koreans are angered at the fact that Snowdrop has rewritten such a diabolical and cruel man as a literature-loving softie.
3. The character of Lee Kang Moo and romanticization of the NSA
Lee Kang Moo is the second male lead of Snowdrop. A team leader at the NSA, he is dedicated to his work. His synopsis includes that he is a man “who only walked on one path to catch the bad guys.” His character motivations include the death of his father who was killed while chasing a spy, and his life mission which he abandoned his first love for.
South Koreans are angered at the apparent humanization of someone who was in charge of leading a team to hunt down democratic supporters. The NSA and its teams were famous for sending infiltrators to plant false evidence in student groups of democratic supporters to accuse them as spies.
Given the atrocities of the NSA as a whole, South Koreans are unhappy with the potential Snowdrop has to romanticize the organization and its members.
4. The Park Jong Cheol case
The Park Jong Cheol case was a famous one that eventually led to the downfall of the regime when the truth was exposed to the public. He was a student that supported democracy. The NSA took him in and tortured him relentlessly using all sorts of tactics, including waterboarding. This eventually led to his death. Doctors were brought in to try to revive him and when that failed, the NSA tried to falsify his reason of death. After the truth was brought to light, South Koreans grew enraged over the regime.
Although he has since passed on, Park Jong Cheol’s representatives have spoken up against the drama Snowdrop recently. After the first two episodes aired, his representatives claimed that the drama was causing a second round of harm to the victims of the aftermath of the NSA and its regime with the way it romanticizes the NSA and distorts history.
5. NSA’s involvement in Berlin
One of the set-ups of Snowdrop is Germany, more specifically, Berlin. The male lead, Soo Ho, has ties to Berlin. A North Korean spy that left for missions in Berlin, he masquerades as a graduate student from a university in Berlin and comes to South Korea to complete his thesis. However, his father was actually a genius musician residing in North Korea and Germany. This stirred up anger because the alleged inspiration for his father was based on a famous South Korean musician, Yun Isang, who was falsely accused of being a spy and forced to commute between North Korea and Germany before being kidnapped by the NSA.
Although Yoo Hyun Mi herself has not confirmed any inspirations based on real-life characters, viewers drew a connection between the male lead’s father and South Korean musician and genius composer, Yun Isang. In episode 2, it was explained that Im Soo Ho (the male lead)’s father was a famous, medal-winning musician in Berlin who faced oppression and was unable to return back to Korea. Soo Ho, who grew up in Germany, returned to South Korea on his own as an adult.
In real life, Yun Isang won the Goethe medal and multiple other music awards but was banned from re-entering South Korea. Due to the banning, Yun Isang had to travel back and forth between North Korea and Germany instead. Although he had settled with his family in Berlin, he was falsely accused of espionage and was kidnapped by the South Korean secret service in 1967. This was a period of time where many Korean-German students were falsely accused of being spies as well. Yun Isang was tortured and forced to confess and eventually imprisoned. Many artists signed a petition worldwide for his release. From 1973, he participated in the call for the democratization of South Korea.
Netizens claim the story of Yun Isang sounds a lot like an inspiration for the fictional character – Im Soo Ho’s father.
This isn’t the first time writer Yoo Hyun Mi was criticized for her choice of character set-up. Previously, she had already faced criticism for naming her female lead, Young Cho. Young Cho is by no means a common female name in South Korea, even in the era Snowdrop is set in. However, the name is well known for one historical figure during the era of the Democratic Movements in South Korea. Whether it was a coincidence or intentional, South Korean netizens did not take kindly to this because Young Cho was a real person who fought hard for the democratic movement. Young Cho’s husband was also a participant in the movement who was tortured to death under false accusations of being a spy. y in Snowdrop, Im Soo Ho is an actual spy and hides under the guise of being a student protestor who supports the democratic movement. Hence, South Korean netizens thought that it was “cruel and immoral” to have Snowdrop‘s characters be represented by Young Cho’s name. Eventually, the female lead’s name was changed to Young Ro.
Netizens are serving Yoo Hyun Mi with backlash for her choice in character set-up. They are calling the coincidences too uncanny and have accused the writer of specifically using real-life figures who were falsely tortured as spies for her drama which involves real spies masquerading as democratic party supporters.
South Koreans have also uncovered that the writer herself attended Ewha Women’s University and tenured in Gwangju as a professor. This was a disappointment to many as many student protests for the democratic movement took place on that very campus, as well as the only womens’ universities in South Korea back then. Many South Koreans brought up parallels between Hosu Women’s University in the drama and Ewha University as its inspiration. Similarly, Gwangju was where one of the most horrific massacres against democratic movement supporters took place. Yoo Hyun Mi’s links to both places were severely criticized as there was no way she would be aware of the depths of the incidents that took place.
The reason is that the drama touches on a sensitive theme for South Korean citizens: the period of military dictatorship. They even signed a petition asking the government to bar the program from being shown on TV. The petition had more than 220 thousand signatures.
The case delayed the premiere of “Snowdrop”, which was scheduled for the first semester. In contrast, the drama will now premiere on the JTBC channel as well as worldwide Disney+ streaming service. Based on an incomplete synopsis and character description, “Snowdrop” was accused of “distorting historical facts“.
The JTBC channel had to reveal specific information about the plot to clarify the situation. The plot takes place in 1987, the year South Korea made its transition to the Sixth Republic. It was this year that the population began to sympathize with the pro-democracy protesters after a Protestant student died during police interrogation.
According to Carol Pardini, from the In Korea Tem channel, the fear of the South Koreans was that “Snowdrop” would romanticize supporters of the military regime.
“How to tell the story without belittling the image of the pro-democracy movement and not end up glamorizing the spies and the work of the NSP, the National Security Planning Agency, which was fighting to maintain the dictatorship? That’s the question“, she explains.
Despite the social outcry, Blue House, South Korea’s presidential residence, decided not to interfere with “Snowdrop” and to preserve freedom of expression.
“In 1987, when tear gas exploded like fireworks, a bloodied man (Jung Hae-in) jumped into a dormitory and a student (Jisoo) treated him thinking he was an activist student fighting for the generation“, tells the synopsis.
People have the right to care about someone's acting. People want a good drama and good actors. There's nothing wrong with that.
The Crowned Clown
These are much better!