The most awaited drama The King: Eternal Monarch is making news with every episode for controversial reasons. Now, the director of the drama Baek Sang Hoon officially issued an apology after the battleship scene was aired on May 2.
The audience took to social media again to point out a historical mistake in the drama after episode 6 was aired, where The Kingdom of Corea (one of the parallel worlds) was in a war-like situation with Japan. While Lee Min Ho made hearts flutter with his Navy uniform, who was acting in the capacity of the commander-in-chief as the Emperor, the battleship representing Japan brought troubles again to the drama.
People claimed that the battleship of Japan had a historical resemblance to that of Korean battleship and showing the country's own ship as that of the enemy camp made Koreans angry. The drama was slammed for poor historical research.
The King: Eternal Monarch facing the backlash
Allkpop reported that following the backlash, director Baek Sang Hoon tendered an apology and tried to explain the situation on what led to the historical misrepresentation and said: "I absolutely did not mean to depict a Korean warship as if it belonged to Japan."
He went on to explain that the filming started in mid-January and as per original plans the complete scene (of the battleship) was to be done by open-sourcing reference materials. The crew planned to travel overseas for reference filming. But the plan had to be cancelled due to outbreak of COVID-19 and even necessary filming (filling scenes including that of a battleship) could not be carried out not only overseas, but also in Korea. Thus, it was decided that reference materials would be purchased for the 3D production.
In his apology, he said that it was his mistake that he could not differentiate between two warships as he was not a professional in the field (of defence). His statement said, "I am not a professional, so I was not able to differentiate between the particular warship designs of each country and felt that they were all rather similar at first glance; furthermore, I should have checked more specific details regarding our purchased reference material but I failed to do so."
Expressing his apology for carelessness he promised to edit the controversial scenes in question as soon as possible. "I will make sure that there will be no more discomfort in the drama's rerun episodes or VOD service content," he said.
Drama also landed in controversy as in episode 4
The King: Eternal Monarch is the most awaited drama as marks Lee Min Ho's comeback after more than three years to the small screen after Legend of the Blue Sea that was released in 2016. Earlier too The King: Eternal Monarch was in controversy after netizens complained that the pagoda used in the parallel world resembled that of Japanese architecture. The second controversy was about the seal used in the Kingdom of Corea, but the production house clarified that it was designed differently than that of Japanese seal.
Then the drama also landed in controversy as in episode 4, Emperor Lee Gon (Lee Min Ho) was shown wearing the royal robe that looked similar to that of Joseon period and the crown that resembled Silla dynasty crown. Audience claimed that it was a mix of historical references.
Despite all these controversies, The King: Eternal Moarch has seen an increase in its ratings and has reached double-digit with episode 6. With episode 7 to be aired tomorrow, May 8, fans of Lee Min Ho have commented expressing their hope that there will be no more controversies about the drama and believe that Lee Min Ho still can be the saving grace for the drama. Meanwhile the still of the seventh episode has received much love from the fans of Lee Min Ho.
