Architect Min Seo-hong shares eyewitness account on SNS on the 2nd
Source: The Fact DB
[The Fact | Reporter Kim Myeong-ju] KBS2's new Wednesday-Thursday drama 'The First Night With the Duke' starring Seohyun and Ok Taecyeon is embroiled in suspicions that it desecrated Byeongsan Seowon, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Architect Min Seo-hong posted on his Facebook on the 2nd, "I am recording my eyewitness account of Byeongsan Seowon," claiming that he visited Byeongsan Seowon on December 30th of last year and witnessed the drama production crew's destruction of cultural heritage. He also released photos to support his claims.
The photos released by Min showed a bus with a sign that said, “The First Night With the Duke,” and people who appeared to be drama filming staff installing prop lights on top of the wooden pillars of cultural properties.
Min wrote, “As I approached the destination, I saw many staff members busily coming and going, and only after reaching the entrance did I realize that Byeongsan Seowon was the filming location. Byeongsan Seowon is Historic Site No. 260 and a precious cultural property listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, so I went inside with a slightly unpleasant feeling.”
He continued, “I witnessed an absurd situation. There were items that appeared to be drama props placed here and there inside the Seowon, and some staff members were hammering nails into the wooden pillars to hang lights. When I looked around, there were already quite a few lights hanging from the pillars of Mandeoru.” He added, “An elderly, middle-aged gentleman was protesting to the staff, and I couldn’t just sit by and watch, so I intervened, saying, ‘Can you really damage cultural properties like that?’”
Then, "the staff who were working on it started getting angry and said, 'We already got permission from Andong City,' and 'If you have any questions, why don't you just ask the city hall? How many times do we have to explain that we got permission?'" Min said, "I contacted the Cultural Heritage Division of Andong City Hall, and the civil servant in charge said, 'We did issue a permit for filming,'" and "I asked, 'The drama staff are hammering nails into the wooden pillars. Do you know about this? Did you give permission to damage cultural assets?' Only then did the flustered civil servant reply, 'I will issue an immediate demolition order.'" Finally, he wrote, "If you think about it simply, you might think, 'Is hammering a nail a big deal?' However, even in a Hanok house, you would hesitate quite a bit to hammer a nail, so I think we should be even more careful in the case of cultural properties. I wonder if it is right to allow cultural properties to be used as filming locations. Furthermore, it is regrettable that something like this happened during the filming of a KBS drama, a public broadcasting station."
KBS is reportedly looking into the matter.
The controversial 'The First Night With the Duke' is a new KBS2 Wednesday-Thursday drama that depicts a romance novel where a minor character with the soul of an ordinary female college student spends a night with the male protagonist of the novel. It is based on a webtoon of the same name and stars Seohyun and Ok Taecyeon. Filming is currently in progress.
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