Letter to be sent next week under all lawmakers' names

Party also criticizes Naver over rating board manipulation allegations

Calls for state banks to pull investment in film's producer

A promotional display for "The Assassin" at a movie theater in Seoul [Yonhap]
A promotional display for "The Assassin" at a movie theater in Seoul [Yonhap]

The People Power Party has decided to send a letter to the Singapore International Film Festival demanding it withdraw "The Assassin" as its opening film, with the letter to be issued in the name of all PPP lawmakers.

The move escalated from an initial plan by Rep. Ju Jin-woo to send a personal protest letter to the festival, after a growing number of fellow lawmakers expressed their desire to join.

PPP Chief Spokesperson Choi Bo-yun told reporters at the National Assembly on Sunday that "many people have voluntarily come forward to speak out, so we decided to consolidate their views and proceed through the floor leadership."

Floor Chief Spokesperson Choe Eun-seok told Yonhap by phone that "a draft has been prepared and we should be able to send it to the festival sometime next week."

In a personal letter Ju had already made public, he wrote that the film "inverts the victim's family — turning them into suspects in the killing — and imposes on the real bereaved family the horrific framing that the father was involved in the mother's death," adding, "Do not lend the festival's authority to this immoral distortion of history that insults the victim and her family."

The PPP kept up its offensive against "The Assassin" even through the holiday period.

Five-term Rep. Na Kyung-won wrote on Facebook criticizing Naver, saying the portal had claimed its decision to change the film's rating board to a chronological display was due to "macro manipulation" and had referred the matter to police for investigation. "So they offer the feeble excuse that they changed it because of macros," she wrote.

She continued: "Does this mean that the recommendation system of South Korea's largest portal is so shoddy that a single macro can breach it without any defense? This is tantamount to an admission that a second 'Druking incident' is openly being left unaddressed inside Naver. The national audit must thoroughly examine whether Naver engaged in selective opinion control and additional manipulation of comment sentiment."

Rep. Ju held a press conference at the National Assembly on Sunday, saying Korea Development Bank had indirectly invested 14 billion won ($10.3 million) in the film's production company Hive MEDIAcorp, while Industrial Bank of Korea had indirectly invested 14.2 billion won. "In effect, this production company is being fattened with state bank money," he said, calling on authorities to immediately recover the investment and investigate the circumstances under which it was made.

PPP leader Jang Dong-hyeok announced he would hold a press conference Monday at the birthplace of former first lady Yuk Young-soo in Okcheon-gun, North Chungcheong Province.

Meanwhile, "The Assassin" has surpassed 2 million cumulative admissions despite the controversy. According to the Korean Film Council's integrated ticketing system, the film recorded about 2.04 million cumulative admissions through Saturday, becoming the ninth film released this year to cross the 2 million mark.


carrier@heraldcorp.com