Petition to cancel K-drama Snowdrop gains 200,000 signatures in one day

Snowdrop stars Blackpink's Jisoo (left) and actor Jung Hae-in. PHOTO: DISNEY

SEOUL - Snowdrop, one of the year's most anticipated K-dramas, has come under fire after its first two episodes aired over the weekend (Dec 18 and 19), reported entertainment portals such as Allkpop and Koreaboo.

A petition to cancel the drama, set against the backdrop of South Korea's 1987 Democracy Movement, started on Sunday and rapidly gained 200,000 signatures in one day.

Starring girl group Blackpink's Jisoo and actor Jung Hae-in, the series has been criticised for the historical inaccuracies seen in the first two episodes.

Critics were especially incensed by Jung's character of a North Korean spy, as actual supporters had lost their lives when they were falsely accused of espionage.

The petition said that featuring and romanticising the male lead as a spy being mistaken as a pro-democracy figure could distort history, and that "a drama that presents such a narrative causes damage to the pro-democracy movement's historical value".

Viewers also objected to the show featuring a song which was used by the movement during a chase scene between Jung and an agent from the controversial Agency of National Security Planning.

Sponsors such as Heungil Furniture, fashion brand Ganisong and Hans Electronics have issued apologies and will be pulling out from subsequent episodes.

Earlier this year, even before the show started airing, a synopsis released by broadcaster JTBC had already triggered another petition signed by more than 226,000 people between March 26 and April 25. However, the calls for the production to be halted were rejected at the time.

Another period K-drama, Joseon Exorcist, was cancelled after just two episodes in March after severe backlash from viewers over its historical inaccuracies, with a petition gaining 127,000 signatures in a day.

Remote video URL

Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.