"King the Land", Criticized for Distorting Arab Culture - Updated

JTBC's drama "King the Land" has been criticized for distorting Arab culture.

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In the 7th and 8th episodes of "King the Land", which aired over the weekend, Arab prince Samir (Anupam Tripathi) was shown staying at the King Hotel where Cheon Sa-rang (Lim Yoona) works. In the drama, Samir is a world-class rich man, surrounded by women in a bar or flirting with Cheon Sa-rang.

"King the Land" is being released worldwide through Netflix. When the broadcast was released, Arab countries criticized it as a 'cultural distortion'. It is pointed out that there was a lack of understanding and respect for Arab culture that does not drink alcohol, and that an Indian actor played the role of an Arab prince.

A similar context of criticism was raised among domestic viewers in Korea. As Korean content is supplied and attracting attention around the world through global OTT such as Netflix, they had to respect the culture of overseas viewers.

In response, "King the Land" explained, "The characters, regions, and place names in the drama are all hypothetical settings", adding, "We did not describe them as princes of a specific country".

However, "Arab Prince" appears in Goo Il-hoon's (Son Byung-ho) lines in the drama, and a part that specifies "Arab Prince" is also found in the highlight video of the broadcast posted on the YouTube channel. Furthermore, the characters in the drama speak Arabic.

As the controversy intensified, a JTBC official explained again, "The characters, regions, and place names in the drama are virtual settings, and there was no intention of caricature or distorting certain cultures".

He added, "The production team respects various cultures and will produce them with more delicate attention so that there is no inconvenience in viewing them".

However, even with the production team's explanation, the controversy is not expected to subside easily. More than 700 critical reviews of the broadcast were poured out from the U.S. criticism site IMDB. Anupam, who plays the role of an Arab prince, is also receiving criticism comments such as "Don't represent Arabs".

Apology Message from JTBC

An apology from the production company for "King the Land"

We would like to express our deep and sincere apology for causing unnecessary inconvenience to our viewers without full consideration of other valued cultures although we have no intention of caricaturing or distorting any particular country or culture in the process. It has been our sharp realization that there has been a lack of understanding, experience, and consideration for other cultures. We will do our best going forward to create content that can be enjoyed by anyone regardless of where they are from and what kind of culture they have.

We will take a thorough look into the part of the video which was considered problematic, and do our best to make sure that right measures are taken. We earnestly promise to our viewers that more care will be taken down the road so that there will be no inconvenience in viewing our content.