The rumours of historical negationism in Blackpink Jisoo's upcoming drama Snowdrop seem to be having its negative impact on the show. After a section of netizen demanded a call on banning the TV show, it has now reportedly lost a sponsorship.
Going by a report on KpopStarz website, Heungil Furniture had signed a deal with the makers of Snowdrop, but it has now backed out of the show following the controversy.
"Our company is just a simple and small company with no marketing team or management team. Thus, we did not receive detailed notice of the script at the time of the sponsorship request, and we did not have the manpower to review and proceed with it, so we agreed to sponsor the simple product without much review." the website quotes the company as stating in a press release.
The company has apologised to its customers for failing to pay attention to key details before signing the contract and assured to remove Snowdrop TV series from its sponsored drama list on its website.
What's the Controversy All About?
Going by the leaked synopsis, it is a love story between Im Soo Ho and Eun Young-Cho. Set in the backdrop of student protests in 1987, young man Im Soo-Ho covered in blood enters a female dorm at Hosoo Woman's University.
Cheerful and lovable girl Eun Young-Cho, a nursing student, hides him from authorities and gives him first aid as he was badly injured. Love sparks between them, but sooner or later she realises that he is a spy from the "motherland." He is then asked to kill the girl who saved him from the authorities.
It was an important year in South Korean history as the university student hit the streets demanding a fair democratic election.
Based on this synopsis, the netizens alleged that the names of the lead actors were taken from the real-life personalities involved in the student protests in 1987. They came to the conclusion, even before the show was aired or the trailer was released, that the drama was set to distort Korean history by failing to present the facts.
Agency's Clarification
JTBC has issued a statement to put an end to the controversy. Snowdrop is a black comedy that satirizes the 1980s presidential elections. It claims that the content of the drama is different from reality.
"In particular, accusations like "the drama will show a North Korean spy leading the pro-democracy movement" and "the drama made a real student activist into a character" and "the drama glamorizes the Agency of National Security Planning" are not only different from the drama's actual content but also far from the production staff's intention.
We firmly reiterate that the accusations going around about "Snowdrop" are unrelated to the drama's actual content or the production's staff's intentions. We ask that you refrain from reckless speculation about a drama that has not even been revealed," Soompi quotes the agency as saying in the press release.
