Supporters and haters of Roh Moo-hyun were locked in a furious online battle on Tuesday over a new movie inspired by the late former president.

The movie “Byeonhoin (Lawyer)” is a about a Busan-based human rights lawyer Song Wu-seok, played by actor Song Kang-ho. The character was inspired by Roh, who was also a Busan-based human rights lawyer before he entered politics.

“I was scared that I wouldn’t be able depict a part of his (Roh’s) life, so I turned down the part at first,” Song said during a promotional event for the movie held in Seoul on Tuesday. “But I couldn’t forget the scenario and the story. It captivated me.”

Song implied that he was deeply inspired by Roh, saying the former president’s passion and attitude toward life “resonated” even today.

The film, however, was welcomed by a mixture of avid supporters and ill-wishers online, well before its release on Dec. 19.

The movie review page on Naver, South Korea’s largest Web portal, was pelted with minimum and maximum score-based reviews submitted by haters and lovers of the deceased president. As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 12,000 reviewers had expressed their take on the film which is still mostly kept under wraps.

Both the aversion and the adulation of the film are derived from Roh himself, one of the central figures and a rallying point of supporters of the liberal bloc.

While Roh’s legacy remains a topic of dispute, his popularity among the liberal bloc has remained strong: A survey by cable channel jTBC last month found that Roh was the most admired person among supporters of the main opposition Democratic Party.

Another survey by job-seeking website Guijokalba showed that Roh was the third most respected political/business figure among college students, behind U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

Because of Roh’s popularity, which curiously soared after he left office in 2008, he has often been at the center of online ideological battles. The battles have frequently involved “Ilbe,” an online community well-known for its right-leaning viewpoints.

Such web-based fights appeared on the “Byeonhoin” page on Naver, which exploded with a series of negative reviews by self-proclaimed Ilbe users.

“(The page) is already taken by Ilbe users,” said one user on the review page. “Wow, look at the firepower,” said another. Firepower is a slang term used on Ilbe, which refers to the bombarding of far-right, anti-liberal opinions on a particular website.

Roh’s supporters responded with comments like, “Get lost, Ilbe-bugs!” and “I have to see this, because Ilbe-bugs hate it.” Ilbe-bugs is a term to belittle users of the controversial website.

By Yoon Min-sik
(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)