According to South Korean media, controversy surrounding MBC's Friday-Saturday drama "Perfect crown" (starring IU and Byeon Woo Seok) continues to escalate, after a public petition sent to the South Korean National Assembly related to allegations of historical distortion officially met the conditions for consideration.
As of May 26, the petition titled "Request to suspend broadcasting and remove film content related to historical distortion from platforms" has exceeded 50,000 signatures after 4 days.
According to Korean law, petitions collected with at least 50,000 signatures within 30 days will be forwarded to the relevant National Assembly Committee for consideration.
The initiator of the petition argues that although the film is set in a fictional Korean setting, it "uses rampant costumes, rituals and Chinese-style terminology", and accuses the film of acting to appropriate culture and distort history.
The petition continued to state that the film "seriously harms public emotions and spreads distorted images of Korean cultural identity globally", and called for not only immediate suspension of broadcasting but also removal of the entire film from VOD platforms (video viewing on request) and OTT (OTT services).
The petitioner also urged legislators to build institutional mechanisms to prevent similar "culturally invading media content" in the future.
Therefore, issues including the temporary suspension of the film's broadcast and the possibility of removal from streaming services will be considered at the National Assembly, and may be submitted to the plenary session of the National Assembly or forwarded to the Government depending on the results.
The incident is now compared to "Joseon exorcist" - a Korean film that was cancelled in 2021 after similar accusations of historical distortion and abuse of Chinese culture.
At that time, a petition sent to the Blue House attracted about 70,000 signatures in just one day, causing many major advertisers to withdraw sponsorship before SBS finally had to cancel the film after only 2 episodes of broadcast.
Or the case of the movie "Mr. Queen" in 2020, which was also accused of mocking Joseon's history and faced a strong wave of opposition and criticism.
About 700 people at that time sent complaints about this issue to the Korea Communication Standards Commission. After that, tvN station had to apologize and edit the controversial film scene.
In the case of "Perfect crown", this petition specifically requires the complete removal of content from VOD and OTT services.
Therefore, discussions at the Korean National Assembly may extend to issues such as the responsibility to edit controversial content of television stations, the responsibility to revise international distribution versions, as well as the mandatory requirement to have historical advisors during film production.
