'The Assassin' controversy backfires: 'TV documentaries went further'

Amid controversy over whether "The Assassin" distorts history in its portrayal of the assassination of first lady Yuk Young-soo, many viewers are pointing out that the film is actually tamer than broadcast documentaries that covered the same event years earlier.

Since the controversy erupted, several older documentaries that raised questions about the assassination have resurfaced online. They include the 2005 MBC documentary series "Ije-neun Malhal Su Itda" ("Now We Can Talk"), a 2005 SBS documentary program and the 2021 SBS program "Kkori-e Kkori-reul Muneun Geunnal Iyagi," a storytelling variety show revisiting past events.

MBC's "PD Notebook" recently re-uploaded the 2005 "Now We Can Talk" episode to its YouTube channel under the title "Controversy over the film 'The Assassin'? Watch this documentary first." The video drew about 1.94 million views in roughly two weeks.

The documentary examined multiple unresolved questions surrounding the incident: that more gunshots were heard than the number of bullets the assailant Moon Se-gwang carried; that bullets collected by state agencies subsequently disappeared, making it impossible to determine whose shot killed Yuk; that the Central Intelligence Agency had been monitoring Moon before the event yet allowed him into the Liberation Day ceremony where the attack occurred; and that key figures in the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, suspected of being behind the plot, were never investigated. The program also raised the claim that the South Korean government derived diplomatic benefits from Yuk's death. Despite generating significant attention at the time, the documentary drew no apparent pushback from the then-ruling Hannara Party, led by former President Park Geun-hye, and accusations of "historical distortion" were virtually absent.

Viewers revisiting the video 21 years later left comments such as "This is more detailed than the film — the movie really held back," "This feels more like a movie than the actual movie," and "The film stayed faithful to the documentary."

An SBS documentary program also covered the assassination in 2005, similarly raising the possibility that the bullet that killed Yuk may not have been fired by Moon.

SBS re-uploaded an edited version of that episode to YouTube in 2020. Over the following six years, it attracted about 5.01 million views with virtually no "historical distortion" controversy.

Online commenters wrote: "This is more provocative than the film," "This is far more explicit than the movie — why can't the far right touch this one?" and "After watching this, I don't see what the film did wrong."

SBS revisited the same event in 2021 through another program, a celebrity-hosted show in which well-known figures retell past incidents through storytelling. That broadcast also aired without triggering any "historical distortion" backlash.

Viewers commented on that video: "There's barely any difference from the film — why did no one make a fuss when this aired?" "This is even more detailed than the movie," and "The film is actually the mild version."

Director Heo Jin-ho, who made the film, said in a media interview that "The Assassin" drew almost directly from questions already raised in those three broadcast programs. "Seeing the subject revisited repeatedly on public television made me take an interest in the unanswered questions," he said.