Amid Arab viewers’ criticism toward “King the Land”, K-dramas that caused regrets due to cultural controversies re-examined
From “Narco-Saints” to “Little Women” and now “King the Land”, several dramas are getting criticized by overseas viewers.
JTBC’s Sat-Sun drama “King the Land”, which is getting more popular every day and ranking 1st in Netflix’s non-English TOP 10, unexpectedly encountered controversy over Arab culture distortion.
The July 8th and 9th broadcasts of “King the Land” presented a story about Arab prince Samir (Anupam Tripathi), Gu Won (Lee Jun Ho)’s friend when he studied abroad. He visited King Hotel and fell in love with Cheon Sa Rang (Im Yoon Ah) as she welcomed him, creating a comical situation with Gu Won. The problem is that Samir was portrayed as a “playboy” who likes drinking alcohol with several women. In the drama, Samir was seen flirting with Cheon Sa Rang from their first meeting and enjoying the nightlife at a club.
Arab viewers who watched the drama through Netflix requested “King the Land” production team to delete the scenes and apologize, claiming to have felt disrespected because alcohol is banned in Arab culture. They poured criticism, saying the Arab prince character was created with no understanding of Arab culture and played by an Indian actor. However, the production team denied racism allegations and explained, “The character, region, and name depicted in the drama are all fictional settings. Samir was not described as a prince of any particular country”.
Even after “King the Land” team released an additional statement, saying “Everything in the drama is fictional and we had no intention to distort a specific culture. We respect diverse cultures and will be more careful to prevent causing discomfort to viewers”, Arab viewers are still angry.
This is not the first time that K-dramas’ settings and directing details raised conflicts with overseas viewers. Director Yoon Jong Bin’s first series “Narco-Saints” and tvN’s series “Little Women” also faced backlash.
Released in September last year, Netflix’s original series “Narco-Saints (Korean title: Surinam)” was criticized as its title and background story used Surinam, a South American country, as part of the plot. “Narco-Saints” became popular and was praised as a well-made drama in Korea, but on the other side of the globe, the Surinam government strongly protested against the drama because it negatively portrayed Surinam as a nation of drugs and corruption and even announced plans to take legal actions.
In fact, the cultural conflict was already predicted during the production stage so the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs interfered and the drama changed its English title to “Narco-Saints”. However, director Yoon Jong Bin said he did not feel the need to use another name because the plot was based on true stories. Neither Netflix nor the production company has explained more regarding this matter.
In the case of tvN’s “Little Women”, it was banned in Vietnam due to a controversy over history distortion. The Vietnam Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information sent an official letter requesting Netflix Vietnam to remove “Little Women” due to content distorting the Vietnam War.
Particularly, in the scenes where a character reveals their experience in Vietnam, descriptions such as, “Korean soldiers could kill 20 Viet Cong soldiers. Some killed up to 100”, “Korean soldiers are heroes of the Vietnam War”, etc., were made, resulting in viewers accusing the drama of historical distortion.
Regarding the issue, production company Studio Dragon said, “It is true that the drama broadcasting has been suspended at the request of Vietnamese authorities. We would like to apologize for causing controversies. We will pay more attention to social and cultural sensitivity in future content production.
As K-content is receiving huge love from numerous countries around the world, it is essential to show respect and consideration for global viewers. Therefore, more thorough reviews and consideration are necessary to understand the cultures and sentiments of the world and prevent issues, such as racial discrimination and cultural distortion.
Source: Naver
