While it was off to a great start, “Mr. Queen” is creating buzz and controversy online and for various reasons.
The newly premiered tvN drama is about a man from modern times whose soul gets entrapped in the body of a queen from the Joseon Dynasty. After its premiere, netizens took issues with a lot of things which are the following:
Basing this work from a Chinese writer who has posted negative comments about Korea in another work. “Mr. Queen” is based on the original Chinese web drama “Go Princess Go” which was made by the same writer who made negative remarks about Kore. Netizens are criticizing the drama for dramatizing the work by such a writer.
Distortion of history, while fans think its understandable to some degree that the comedic situation would happen considering the genre, the show crosses the line since it’s based on real historical figures.
The third issue is surrounding a line in episode 2 of “Mr. Queen,” where the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty were referred to as “merely jirashi.” jirashi basically means tabloid unconfirmed rumors that are often malicious. In reality, those records are designated as the 151st national treasure of Korea and are listed on UNESCO’s Memory of the World registry.
As the issues gained traction, the production team behind “Mr. Queen” issued an apology and a statement addressing the situation.
They begin by explaining that the televising rights for the web drama was bought from the Chinese production company, what was purchased was the rights for the web drama not the original novel, they explained that they had no idea the writer had made negative remarks about Korea in another work.
They apologized stating,
“Despite that, we sincerely apologize to the viewers for failing to recognize this in advance. We plan to do our best in production to not cause you to feel uncomfortable while watching the drama…”
Regarding The Annals of the Joseon Dynasty, they stated that the narration that sparked controversy will be deleted; they recognize it was ‘inappropriate’ and had no intentions to represent such a crucial part of history negatively.
Regarding distortion of history, the production team explained that the drama is a “fusion historical fantasy comic” genre and is fictional in its nature, they ended their statement with an apology for causing any discomfort for the viewers and promised to pay closer attention to the details from now on.
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