Actor Gong Seung-yeon appeared on You Quiz on the Block, and all mentions related to Perfect Crown were deleted, drawing attention.
On the 20th broadcast of tvN's You Quiz on the Block, Gong Seung-yeon, who recently gave a passionate performance as Grand Consort Yoon I-rang in MBC's Friday-Saturday drama Perfect Crown, appeared as a guest.
In a preview released last week, Yu Jae-seok introduced her as "Gong Seung-yeon, who has come into her prime after 15 years with Perfect Crown."
In response, Gong Seung-yeon laughed and said, "I bragged to my younger sibling. I'm going on You Quiz. TWICE still hasn't been on," and Yu Jae-seok mentioned the drama's fever, saying, "Perfect Crown is insane." Then Gong Seung-yeon explained her reason for appearing, saying, "I thought I should also board IU and Byeon Woo-seok's train."
However, in the actual broadcast that day, all content related to Perfect Crown was edited out. The caption only read "prime after 15 years," and regarding recent popularity, Gong Seung-yeon said, "I told my mother and bragged to my younger sibling. I'm going on You Quiz. (Jeongyeon) said, 'TWICE still hasn't been on.' She asked if she could bring herself, asking to go on together, but I said no," she said.
Later, TWICE's Jeongyeon, who is Gong Seung-yeon's biological younger sister, made a surprise appearance and said, "I'm so happy because my sister is so hot and doing so well these days. My sister and I spent so long as trainees that we went through a lot of twists and turns. Regardless, I'm so grateful that we are both now on the right path. Let's live well. I love you so much," expressing support and sincere affection for her sister, which moved the set to tears. Even so, there was no direct mention of Perfect Crown.
This is thought to be the aftermath of the recent controversy over "historical distortion." Earlier, Perfect Crown was embroiled in controversy over historical distortion as it neared its finale. From the early airing there were persistent complaints about historical inaccuracies, and in episode 11 during the enthronement scene of Prince Ian (played by Byeon Woo-seok), instead of shouting "manse," the characters shouted "cheonse," a term used when a vassal state is subordinated to an emperor state, and while the emperor (king) of a sovereign state wore a "ten-rank crown" with 12 strings of jewels, the character who was meant to represent a vassal wore a "nine-rank crown," which fueled the controversy. It even spread into suspicions of Northeast Project-like assertions as if Korea were portrayed as a vassal of China.
After the final episode aired, lead actors including IU and Byeon Woo-seok, as well as director Park Joon-hwa and writer Yoo Ji-won, posted apologies and bowed their heads. Despite consecutive apologies, public reaction remained cold. Writer Yoo Ji-won, who wrote the script, explained, "In applying Joseon-era etiquette to the modern era and portraying a fictional modern royal family, thorough research and verification were insufficient." The script book that had been scheduled for publication later revised the problematic statements, and the audio of the "cheonse" portion was deleted from VOD and other platforms.
However, the decisive reason Perfect Crown drew public outrage was not simply factual errors but the distortion of Korea's history. Because the work is distributed worldwide through global OTT platforms, it could implant incorrect historical awareness even among overseas fans. Moreover, critics noted that the royal family's portrayal in the drama resembled the imperial rules of Japan or Britain more than those of the Joseon court, and argued that if it were a sovereign state, the ruler should be an "emperor" rather than a king, making the very title "Grand Consort" problematic. Considering this, simply fixing some expressions would not be sufficient to resolve the issue.
In response, some netizens have called for the entire work to be withdrawn, citing the past case of SBS's drama Joseon Exorcist. As negative public opinion about Perfect Crown spread, tvN appears to have responded by erasing all traces of Perfect Crown from You Quiz on the Block.
Meanwhile, the Korea Media and Communications Commission said regarding complaints about recovering Perfect Crown production costs, "From the 23rd to the 28th of last month we held an investment briefing for works including Perfect Crown at the 9th Canneseries festival in Cannes, France. The amount the KMCC provided to Perfect Crown was actual expenses necessary to attend the investment briefing: airfare and accommodation (3.1 million won) for one person, and we did not support broadcasting production costs. As a one-time event participation support, trailers were screened and investment consultations were conducted on site, and because the funds were used appropriately for subsidy purposes and are not subject to return under the Act on the Management of Subsidies, we have no plan to recover the support funds," it said.
It added, "Going forward, the KMCC will strengthen support conditions for participating works to prevent problems such as significantly distorting objectively verifiable historical facts."
[photo] tvN
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