'Snowdrop' starring Jisoo and Jung Hae In can continue to air, rules Seoul court

Snowdrop can continue airing as per schedule, a Seoul court ruled on December 29. The ruling came after a petition against the Jung Hae In and Jisoo starrer was filed in court by a civic group. The Seoul Western District Court ruled in favor of the show and said,

"Even if Snowdrop is based on a distortion of history, the probability that the public will blindly accept [those distortions as fact] is low.”

The Seoul Western District Court dismissed the Declaration of Global Citizens in Korea’s request for an injunction on December 29. The request for the injunction was originally filed by the group on December 22. The court further added,

"Unless the content of the drama directly involves [the civic group], it’s difficult to argue that it infringes on the rights of [the group].”

The latest JTBC drama titled Snowdrop has garnered attention from viewers for allegedly distorting history. Since then, there have been calls for the show's boycott. Some 300,000 people had signed a Blue House petition for the show's cancelation, and the sponsors of the show also went on to cancel their collaboration with Snowdrop.

So far, there has been no response from a Blue House official regarding the petition.

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JTBC changes broadcast schedule to clear misunderstanding regarding Snowdrop

In an attempt to clarify the misunderstanding that arose with the initial episodes of Snowdrop, the broadcast channel decided to make some changes. To ensure that Jung Hae In's role as Soo Ho was not misunderstood, the show's producers aired three episodes instead of the usual two in its second week of airing. However, none of the opposition that the show faced when it premiered died down.

Defending the show, an anonymous staff member spoke out against the criticism and said,

“Snowdrop is the project we made bearing in mind NSA agents were ordinary people too. There are some scenes making a satire of the government at that time but it's not depicted as extremely bad people. In the latter part of the series, there are scenes related to the incident in 1998 without a strong negative depiction of NSA.”

This employee also added,

“I feel like the history distortion controversy is a matter of perspective, how you view the 1987's era. 'Snowdrop' depicts NSA with a politically neutral view, but if there are many viewers who are unhappy with such viewpoints, the misunderstandings will persist.”

Fans were unhappy with the statement too, with many slamming the staff member on social networking sites.

The latest episode of the show saw Jisoo as Yeong Ro realize that Soo Ho (Jung Hae In) was not a student protestor as she had assumed. She also wonders if she made a mistake by helping him hide from the NSA officials in the beginning.

So far, every time someone asked Soo Ho if he was a North Korean spy, he remained mum. Is this to avoid being identified as a spy or is there more to his identity? Audiences will have to wait and see.