The political row over "The Assassin(s)" may spill over to the upcoming Singapore International Film Festival or potentially other film festivals that are set to screen the South Korean political thriller flick.
The SGIFF previously announced plans to open the festival with what the South Korean right-wing opposition claims has distorted established historical facts that a North Korean agent in 1974 assassinated Yuk Young-soo, the wife of President Park Chung-hee.
The main opposition People Power Party has been working to submit a petition to the SGIFF to urge the festival not to open the festival with "The Assassin(s)."
Led by Rep. Joo Jin-woo, the opposition lawmakers are joining forces to collectively send a letter demanding the SGIFF reverse its decision to have the controversial film open the festival on Oct. 21.
"We are seeing almost all the (People Power Party) lawmakers joining except for just a few," a People Power Party lawmaker with knowledge of the matter said Monday on condition of anonymity.
The People Power Party has 109 lawmakers out of the 299 at the National Assembly.
This followed Joo's Facebook post Sunday saying that the letter would be sent in the name of "all People Power Party lawmakers" to "not allow a distorted film that covers up North Korea's atrocious acts of assassination to be screened in other countries."
Joo added the letter could also be sent to other countries hosting film festivals, such as Brazil.
It marks the latest offensive of conservatives targeting the film ― which had already drawn 2 million moviegoers during its 11-day run in South Korea through Saturday ― as well as its actors, the production team and investors.
The movie revolves around a mystery surrounding the assassination. Mun Se-gwang, a Korean resident of Japan, was caught at the scene of the assassination in August 1974. His ties with a leftist group were revealed and he was executed in December the same year. But a discrepancy between the shots that Mun actually fired and the number of gunshots heard has long been at the heart of speculations over what really happened.
Conservatives claim that the latest film implies that former President Park could have been behind his wife's assassination, which constitutes "an insult to Park" through the distortion of established fact.
People Power Party Chair Rep. Jang Dong-hyeok was scheduled to visit the assassinated first lady's birthplace in Okcheon-gun, North Chungcheong Province, later Monday. No specific details about his visit were disclosed as of press time.
consnow@heraldcorp.com
