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| A poster for the ENA drama, "True to Love," also known as "Bo-ra! Deborah" / Courtesy of ENA |
By Kwak Yeon-soo
Two Korean dramas ― "True to Love" and "Doctor Cha" ― have drawn criticism in recent weeks for an inappropriate historical analogy and remarks about Crohn's disease.
The production company of ENA drama "True to Love," also known as "Bo-ra! Deborah," apologized, Thursday, after viewers overseas complained about a scene where the lead character compares the importance of taking care of one's appearance with prisoners of the Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp attempting to maintain their dignity.
In the ninth episode of "True to Love" that aired on May 10, Bo-ra (Yoo In-na) made the misguided analogy when stressing the importance of wearing make-up and dressing up.
"In the Auschwitz concentration camp, where people were living in deplorable conditions, some of them managed to take half a cup of water and used the remaining portion to wash their faces. They even used a piece of glass and the back of a tray as a mirror to shave. And they survived. Taking care of one's appearance and dressing up is a matter of survival," Bo-ra says in a scene from Episode 9 of "True to Love."
"We apologize for causing discomfort through certain dialogue from Episode 9. We should have spoken about it from a historically accurate perspective, but we did not think things through carefully," the production team of "True to Love" said in a statement.
"It was not our intention to use a historic tragedy lightly, and we sincerely apologize once again. We will be more careful during the production process in the future."
Bo-ra's dialogue sparked immediate controversy, with hundreds of social media posts criticizing the writer and the production team for airing the controversial scene.
"At the time, the reason victims at the camp washed using the water was not to look pretty or dress up. It was a way to keep their hopes for survival and protect their own dignity. This is just pure ignorance," one viewer commented. Amazon Prime Video removed the controversial scene after the outcry.
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| A scene from JTBC drama "Doctor Cha" / Screen captured from JTBC |
The seventh episode of "Doctor Cha" was met with fury and accusations after delivering distorted information about Crohn's disease, a type of inflammatory bowel ailment that causes swelling in the tissues of the digestive tract.
In the episode that aired on May 6, a patient's future in-laws made inaccurate comments about Crohn's disease, calling it a terrible disease and claiming that it is hereditary.
JTBC apologized for its medically inaccurate portrayal of Crohn's disease and hurting the sentiment of patients and families suffering from the disease.
"The scene was intended to deal with a specific case of a patient suffering from chronic complications among various symptoms of Crohn's disease. However, we admit that our explanation was insufficient in a way that could lead to discrimination toward those with this illness," it said in a statement.
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