'The Assassin' stirs political storm as cumulative audience nears 2 million

The political firestorm surrounding "The Assassin," a film based on the 1974 shooting of first lady Yuk Young-soo, shows no sign of dying down. After People Power Party figures called for the film's screenings to be halted and demanded that its director appear before a national audit, the debate widened further — a lawmaker's denial of former President Chun Doo-hwan's conviction for insurrection pushed the controversy beyond the film itself into questions of how modern history should be interpreted and where the limits of free expression lie.

According to the Korean Film Council's integrated ticketing system, "The Assassin" had drawn a cumulative audience of about 1.89 million as of Friday. The film, which opened Sept. 23, topped the box office for five consecutive days after its release and reclaimed the daily No. 1 spot Thursday, when about 55,018 people saw it. The cumulative audience stood at about 1.82 million as of Thursday. With the National Foundation Day holiday weekend underway, attention is focused on whether the film will cross the 2 million mark this weekend — and whether the political controversy will drive audiences up or down.

"The Assassin" is set against the Liberation Day ceremony of Aug. 15, 1974, when Yuk was shot. Investigators at the time concluded that Mun Se-gwang, a Korean resident of Japan, had received orders from North Korea through the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan and attempted to assassinate then-President Park Chung-hee, killing Yuk instead. Drawing on that backdrop, the film introduces fictional characters — police investigators and journalists — to reconstruct questions that were raised about the incident at the time.

The controversy accelerated after critics argued the film implies that the Korean Central Intelligence Agency or other state institutions may have been behind the attack. PPP figures called this "historical distortion," while the production team rebuffed the charge, saying the film does not presuppose any specific mastermind. Director Heo Jin-ho said in a recent interview that he did not make the film on the premise that former President Park was behind the shooting.

The political debate has drawn in comparisons to other former presidents. PPP floor leader Jang said Monday that touching President Roh Moo-hyun invites a wave of lawsuits, while insulting President Park Chung-hee is treated as free expression. Jang added that spreading false information about the May 18 pro-democracy movement is a criminal offense, whereas free expression is applied far too broadly to other historical events.

Former PPP supreme council member Kim Jong-hyeok asked rhetorically how people would react to a film implying that Roh's widow, Kwon Yang-suk, was behind his death, arguing that standards for depicting historical figures should not vary by political camp. PPP lawmaker Ju Jin-woo raised the same hypothetical and said "The Assassin" risked defaming the deceased, calling for legal consequences.

Demands escalated further. PPP supreme council member Shin Dong-wook called for an immediate halt to screenings, and voices within the party argued that Director Heo and others should be summoned to testify at a national audit. Lawmaker Na Kyung-won said laws punishing historical distortion related to Yuk's death and the Korean War should be enacted first — or, failing that, the existing law against distorting the May 18 movement should be repealed.

The dispute then spilled into an assessment of Chun Doo-hwan's criminal record. PPP lawmaker Kim Tae-gyu, appearing on a YouTube broadcast Wednesday, was asked whether Chun's actions constituted insurrection. "It is not insurrection. I do not think so," he said. Even after the host pointed out that the matter had been settled by a final court ruling, Kim said he found it difficult to agree categorically that it was insurrection and that further historical evaluation was needed.

The Supreme Court confirmed in 1997 that Chun was guilty of leading the Dec. 12 military mutiny and insurrection related to the May 18 uprising, sentencing him to life in prison. After Kim's remarks became public, the Democratic Party submitted a motion to censure him and a resolution calling for his expulsion to the National Assembly on Thursday. Groups representing May 18 victims also demanded an apology and his resignation, saying his comments undermined a final judicial ruling and established historical fact.

Kim issued a statement Friday saying he regretted giving cause for misunderstanding, even though that was not his intention, and pledged to choose his words more carefully. However, he maintained that historical facts should be left to public debate and that treating certain events differently from others was undesirable.

The off-screen controversy is having a direct impact on the film industry. At the production company's request, the "The Assassin" team canceled its planned appearance at the opening ceremony of the Busan International Film Festival and an outdoor fan event. As criticism targeting cast members and threats of protests have mounted, voices within the film community are calling for a clear distinction between critiquing a work and attacking the individuals who created it.