KBS 1TV’s historical drama “The King of Tears, Lee Bang-won” hit a reef. Its filming was stopped after the horse abuse controversy.
It is unclear whether it will be able to resume broadcasting in a situation where public criticism continues.
According to a broadcast official today (Jan 24th), “The King of Tears, Lee Bang-won” stopped filming after the abuse controversy erupted at the end of last week. The amount of filming has been secured enough, but as the cast has not filmed scenes for over a week, they will have to wait for guidance from the production company.
An official told YTN Star, “I heard that the filming suddenly stopped after the controversy. We are waiting because we are in a situation where we have to apologize and handle bad things. We have not been shared in terms of how the broadcasting would be in the future.”
Meanwhile, “The King of Tears, Lee Bang-won” was embroiled in the controversy over animal abuse after tying wires to the legs of a horse and pulling it when filming Lee Sung-gye (Kim Young-chul)’s fall scene in episode 7. Since then, the horse has reportedly died, raising criticism among netizens, actors and industry officials.
As public criticism intensified, KBS did not release episodes 13 and 14 of “The King of Tears, Lee Bang-won” which were scheduled to air on Jan 22nd and 23rd. Episode 7, which contained the scene in question, was suspended from streaming on KBS’s website. Regarding the schedule for Jan 29th and 30th, the drama’s production team withheld an immediate answer, saying, “No decision has been made yet.”
