SEOUL- Historic drama sequence The King Of Tears, Lee Bang-won has been taken off the air for 2 weeks, amid an outcry over animal abuse.
“As a result of ongoing controversy, the 2 episodes scheduled to air this Saturday and Sunday can be cancelled,” an official of South Korean broadcaster KBS stated final Friday (Jan 21). Particular episodes of the drama for the upcoming Korean New Yr vacation in February is not going to be aired both, The Korea Herald reported.
The controversy arose over a scene within the seventh episode aired on Jan 1, which depicted Yi Seong-gye, the founding father of the Joseon Kingdom, by accident falling from a horse. With a purpose to movie the scene, the horse was pulled to the bottom by a rope tied round its legs.
In a video launched final Wednesday by the Korean Animal Welfare Affiliation, the horse was seen falling exhausting to the bottom and struggling to rise up. The video, which went viral in South Korea, led to a public outcry over animal cruelty.
Final Thursday, KBS apologised for the accident and stated that it discovered a few week after the filming of the scene that the horse had died.
“We really feel deeply accountable and apologise for the accident that occurred throughout filming,” the broadcaster was quoted as saying by the Korea Herald. “Throughout filming, the actor fell removed from the horse and the horse’s higher physique hit the bottom exhausting.”
The apology did not dampen public outrage over the incident.
Two on-line petitions have been posted final week on the web site of Cheong Wa Dae, the South Korean presidential workplace, calling for a cease to the sequence and for measures on animal security in movie and broadcast productions. The petitions gathered greater than 63,000 and 137,000 signatures as of Monday morning respectively.
“I can not consider that the general public broadcaster KBS, run by viewers’ licence charges, didn’t have particular measures or insurance policies for the security of the animals,” stated one of many petitions, including that animals getting used as props was a difficulty that had been raised beforehand.
South Korean celebrities have additionally expressed shock and anger over the incident.
Taeyeon from woman group Ladies’ Era wrote on her Instagram account: “The video was extraordinarily painful to look at and introduced tears to my eyes. It makes me indignant. How can they movie like that this present day.”
The episode of the sequence containing the scene was now not obtainable on the sequence’ official web site, The Herald reported. Whereas the episode remains to be obtainable by way of streaming platform Wavve, the scene in query has been deleted.
