History Distortion Fallout Forces Lee Min-ho Film to Cancel 6 Separate BIFF Events

The Assassin(s) has effectively gone dark on promotional activity. Producer HivemediaCorp announced on the 2nd that every scheduled public event tied to the film has been scrapped, the Busan International Film Festival opening ceremony, an outdoor audience greeting on the 7th, and a string of theater meet-and-greets across Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Busan planned for the 3rd through the 5th.

The studio's statement didn't dance around the reason. "The situation surrounding the film is placing an excessive burden on the cast and crew beyond their work," HivemediaCorp wrote on social media. "We made this decision out of deep concern for protecting those involved and for the safety of audiences and theater staff."

What Got Canceled

The scope of the pullback is total. Director Heo Jin-ho and stars Yoo Hae-jin, Park Hae-il, and Lee Min-ho had been scheduled to appear at the 31st BIFF opening ceremony on the 6th at the Busan Cinema Center, then greet audiences at an outdoor stage event the following day. That 20-minute audience interaction session is one of BIFF's signature events.

Lee Min-ho's solo appearance was already gone a day earlier. The festival had announced on the 1st that "Actors House: Lee Min-ho", a BIFF talk program where actors revisit their filmography and discuss their craft, was canceled "due to unavoidable circumstances." He had been scheduled to appear alongside Kim Go-eun, Kim Min-ha, Shin Min-a, Ryu Seung-ryong, and Ju Ji-hoon.

BIFF confirmed the full cancellation on the 2nd, stating it "respects the production company's decision made in consideration of audience and guest safety."

The Political Firestorm Behind It

The film opened on September 23rd and has been at the center of a political controversy ever since. The Assassin(s) is based on the 1974 assassination of Yuk Young-soo, wife of then-President Park Chung-hee, who was shot during a Liberation Day ceremony. The official investigation concluded that the shooter, Moon Se-gwang, was acting on orders from North Korea and the pro-Pyongyang organization Chongryon, and that his intended target was President Park.

The film pushes a different theory: that Yuk Young-soo may have been struck by a presidential bodyguard's bullet rather than the assassin's, and that President Park himself may have orchestrated his wife's killing to resolve a political crisis.

Conservative political figures and groups have come out hard against it. The People Power Party and allied voices have called the film a politically motivated distortion of history, with some using language like "historical treason" and "an immoral crime that devastates the family's grief." On the 2nd, PPP lawmaker Yoo Young-ha, a close ally of former President Park Geun-hye, held a press conference, publicly releasing a handwritten letter Park Chung-hee wrote to his daughter after Yuk's death, and demanding an apology from the filmmakers and an immediate halt to screenings.

Some conservative organizations announced plans to hold protests outside lead actor Yoo Hae-jin's home from the 3rd through the 30th.

The Blowback Reaches Advertisers

The pressure isn't staying inside the theater. Kiwoom Securities ended its advertising campaign featuring Yoo Hae-jin and disabled comments on its YouTube ads. Burger King, another brand he endorses, has also disabled YouTube comments on his videos amid protest comments, with some calling for a boycott of the chain. The Busan Film Commission separately canceled a public screening of the film that had been scheduled for the 5th.

A handful of supporting cast members, Ryu Hye-young, Jang Ryul, and Choi Yu-ri, had already dropped out of the theater meet-and-greet appearances before the full cancellation was announced.

Still No. 1

None of this has killed the box office. As of the 1st, The Assassin(s) had drawn a cumulative 1.82 million admissions and remains the top-grossing film in Korea. Production costs are reported at around 20 billion won. The film is selling tickets. Its cast just can't go anywhere to talk about it.