Netflix’s new Korean drama ‘King The Land‘ has landed in hot water, even before the series has made its streaming debut on the platform. The Korean series has received massive backlash from Middle-Eastern countries for insulting Arab princes and Arab people in general. Middle-Eastern viewers are angry at King The Lands disrespectful and problematic representation of Arabs.
The trouble started after the airing of King The Land Episode 7 this weekend. The series introduced a new character, an Arab prince named Prince Samir, played by Anupam Tripathi, of Squid Game fame. Prince Samir is portrayed as an alcohol-loving womanizer, who loves drinking, and enjoying with several women. He’s also called a playboy in the series.
Arab viewers of the series have been angered beyond measure, as soon as the episode was telecast. They have launched an aggressive social media campaign, calling for boycott of the series. They’ve been trending the hashtags #KDramaOffendsTheArabs and #JTBCApologise on Twitter. What’s more, some outraged digital viewers from the Middle East have even demanded a blanket boycott of all Korean series. They are irked at the disrespectful representation of Arabs, for showing them as alcoholics and womanisers. They are also angry at the fact that an Indian actor is portraying the Arab prince.
The backlash against ‘King The Land’ has been so intense and relentless, that Korean network JTBC has been forced to issue an apology on behalf of the producers of the show, for the inadvertent “cultural misrepresentation” on the show. JTBC posted the apology this afternoon, on its official Instagram account.
The apology, posted in both Korean and English, reads,
“An apology from the production company for ‘King the Land’. We would like to express our deep and sincere apology for causing unnecessary inconvenience to our viewers without full consideration of other valued cultures although we have no intention of caricaturing or distorting any particular country or culture in the process. It has been our sharp realization that there has been a lack of understanding, experience, and consideration for other cultures. We will do our best going forward to create content that can be enjoyed by anyone regardless of where they are from and what kind of culture they have. We will take a thorough look into the part of the video which was considered problematic, and do our best to make sure that the right measures are taken. We earnestly promise to our viewers that more care will be taken down the road so that there will be no inconvenience in viewing our content.”
Have a look at the apology posted by JTBC this afternoon –
https://www.instagram.com/p/CulwydgvYX0/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
The apology from JTBC comes on the heels of massive backlash from Arab social media users. ‘King The Land’ makers had refuted the charges a couple of days ago, by stating that “All characters, areas, and nominations that appear in the drama are works of fiction. We never specified the prince’s country of origin”. This careless response from the makers angered Arab users further, and they flooded Twitter with angry comments.
Have a look at some of the criticism targeted at ‘King The Land’ –
https://twitter.com/3hp_e/status/1678003435411570689?t=Kr1l0_IVR0upXxh6F3OZjw&s=19
I was enjoying watching an episode of King of the Land, but when this scene came, I got angry. This is not what the Arabs look like! First, the non-Arab actor, Is it that difficult to bring an Arab actor? #KdramaOffendsTheArabs @SBS8news @YTN24 @KBSnews @NetflixKR
(@jtbclove) pic.twitter.com/JujSLDqOEy
— رُبـىٰ/루바✨. (@forestella44) July 10, 2023
#KdramaOffendsTheArabs
When will this stop ?whether it's Hollywood or kdrama ,Arabs are often portrayed as the barbaric, womanizers disgusting dudes who knows nothing but to oppress women and treat them as an object
When will this stereotypes (that are so far from reality) end pic.twitter.com/Ndc7JeK0Y9— Assia bens (@bens_assia) July 9, 2023
https://twitter.com/Sunfyrre1/status/1677986805210046464?t=JPWkst0ijOkoUI_3i4YtnQ&s=19
They brought an Indian actor, put him in Arab traditional clothes, and make him act as if he’s uneducated and obsessed with alcohol and girls… this is extremely disrespectful and offensive. We need an apology.#JTBCAPOLOGIZE#KingTheLandEp7#KingTheLand
pic.twitter.com/TTbpnIBfcL— رين (@areayiein) July 9, 2023
‘King The Land’ premiered on the South Korean platform JTBC on 17th June, 2023, with new episodes streaming every Saturday and Sunday. The series stars popular Korean actors Lee Jun-ho and Im Yoon-ah in lead roles. ‘King The Land’ premieres on Netflix tomorrow, 13th July, but only in select regions, including in India.
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