(continued from interview ③) Director Park Jun-hwa, who directed "Perfect Crown," denied allegations that the series was involved with China's Northeast Project and explained plans to correct setting errors.
Park Jun-hwa, who directed the MBC Friday-Saturday drama Perfect Crown (abbreviated Perfect Crown), held an interview on the morning of the 19th at a café in Samcheong-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul. At the meeting, he spoke with domestic reporters about the recently concluded drama "Perfect Crown".
Perfect Crown is a drama set in a 21st-century constitutional monarchy of Korea about a woman who has everything as a chaebol but whose legal status is only a commoner, leaving her frustrated, and a man who is the king's son but can't have anything, a sad man who forges his destiny in a class-breaking romance. Initially, the drama raised expectations with Byeon Woo-seok, who created a sensation with Lovely Runner, taking the male lead as Grand Prince Ian, and singer-actor IU, praised for When Life Gives You Tangerines, taking the female lead as Seong Hee-ju. In line with expectations, episode 12 (the final episode), broadcast on the 16th, ended with a personal best rating of 13.8% (Nielsen Korea nationwide households).
However, controversy over historical distortion erupted in episode 11, broadcast on the 15th as the finale approached. In the enthronement scene, Grand Prince Ian wore a gu-ryu-myeon-ryu-gwan, the ceremonial crown of a vassal state, and chanted "cheonse," which triggered the issue. The enthronement scene of Perfect Crown was appropriated as part of China's Northeast Project, which claims Joseon was its vassal state, sparking controversy over historical distortion.
Criticism related to the Northeast Project grew so strong that suspicions were raised that Perfect Crown had been influenced by Chinese capital. In response, Park Jun-hwa said, "The Joseon dynasty remained, and apart from that sad history, the fact that the country called Joseon existed for 600 years—within that form, the moment, why I started the story with the king's perspective, and despite all circumstances the parts that were nevertheless autonomous—I think my failure to reflect that between the lines was my ignorance about a historical moment. I feel sorry and regret it even now," he admitted.
In reality, the Joseon dynasty adopted a show of serving China in diplomatic rhetoric but was a sovereign nation, not simply a vassal state. Meanwhile, some Chinese internet users have been exploiting scenes from Perfect Crown under the pretext of the enthronement scene's etiquette. The fictional setting of a constitutional monarchy failed to sufficiently emphasize Korea as a sovereign nation, and that careless setting error has aroused backlash.
When asked whether historians were consulted about items such as the gu-ryu-myeon-ryu-gwan and "cheonse," Park Jun-hwa said, "There was someone who advised us. It's not an everyday matter, so I don't know why it happened. What we requested from the adviser was that because the drama begins with the Joseon dynasty remaining, we asked how we should portray certain aspects of the dynasty. The enthronement scene is the result. In some ways we seem trapped by the situation," he regretted.
He said, "In the lines it begins with 'jaesanho.' We weren't familiar with parts like 'cheonse' or those rituals, and we seem to have fallen into some kind of mire. Although it is fictional, there was a mindset that we had to depict the Joseon royal family. The adviser told us about the gu-ryu-myeon-ryu-gwan form used in Joseon enthronements, but that doesn't mean we intended to show a situation in which we were oppressed by China in the drama. So when I said 'ignorance,' I meant that beyond faithfully verifying what form the Joseon enthronement took, I regret not expressing the king's role as the sovereign of an independent country more fully."
Furthermore, Park Jun-hwa explained about Seong Hee-ju's setting rejecting Chinese-style tea ceremonies and hanbok, saying, "It's not Chinese-style tea ware but modern tea ware; we weren't following Chinese tea ceremonies but were simply pursuing the functional result of a teacup," and "It's not that Seong Hee-ju hated hanbok; she was meant to represent modern culture in contrast to the queen mother representing the royal family, and we were trying to express the character gap between those polarities."
He added, "I can't decide everything, but many people involved outside are discussing it," and "To viewers who loved and enjoyed many parts of this drama, and to those who criticized it, we will try, with deeper reflection and a more cautious attitude, to present a form of the drama that the actors can be happy with and that will be better for the audience. I am grateful to those who loved it and sorry as well. I hope there will be an opportunity to adjust moments that may have been uncomfortable for some."
[Photo] Provided by MBC.
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