"When the Phone Rings" Faces Harsh Criticism for Biased Depiction of the Israel-Palestine Conflict

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MBC's hit K-Drama When The Phone Rings concluded its run with the final episode airing on January 4, KST. While fans around the globe eagerly awaited the finale, a specific scene from the episode has sparked intense backlash.

The scene in question featured the character Na Yu Ri (portrayed by Jang Gyu Ri) reporting on an incident in which the fictional country "Paltima" was depicted launching airstrikes on another fictional nation, "Izmael," while also taking Korean nationals hostage.

Although the names appeared fictional, netizens quickly deduced that they were allegories for Palestine and Israel. As the clip gained attention, viewers criticized the creators and the network for portraying such a contentious and insensitive depiction of the ongoing plight of Palestinians under Israeli actions.

For over a year, the Gaza Strip has faced relentless bombing by Israel, alongside other documented human rights violations, including the deliberate restriction of aid that has created unlivable conditions. International medical workers in Gaza have been raising alarms about violations of international humanitarian law by the Israeli military.

And with this, viewers have expressed outrage over the distorted portrayal of the situation. Firstl the apparent reversal of the roles in real-life airstrikes has led many fans to believe the show intentionally promoted Zionist propaganda. Additionally, using the genuine suffering of people in the Middle East as a mere plot device has has profoundly disturbed audiences.

Viewers have urged the show's director, Park Sang Woo, executive producer, Kwon Sung Chang, and screenwriter, Kim Ji Woon, to take responsibility for this controversy and issue an apology. Many have also demanded that MBC remove the scene from the show and formally apologize. 

No one from the drama or from MBC has responded to this yet. Stay tuned for updates.

I took a screenshot of the headline on the screen while Yuri was reporting. It was actually the other way around.

In a comment on MDL by 'bidulgi', he explained how the translation was not done right.

"korean can be a highly ambiguous and context based language and this is the case here too. keep in mind this issue is not making any headlines in korea itself because for koreans the intention was mostly clear. the dialogue by the anchor did in fact not state that "paltima" was the one doing the airstrikes, it's the other way around. but if you really look at it gramatically, it definitely /can/ be ambiguously interpreted and the netflix translation seems to have fumbled this.

μ†λ³΄μž…λ‹ˆλ‹€. νŒ”ν‹°λ§ˆ 곡슡이 이루어지고 μžˆλŠ” μ΄μ¦ˆλ§ˆμ—˜μ—μ„œ ν•œκ΅­μΈλ“€μ΄ 무μž₯ μ„Έλ ₯μ—κ²Œ λ‚©μΉ˜λ˜μ—ˆμŠ΅λ‹ˆλ‹€. = this is breaking news. koreans have been kidnapped by armed forces in izmael, where the paltima airstrike is taking place. (my translation)

곡슡 means airstrike or air raid and it being placed after νŒ”ν‹°λ§ˆ (paltima) can gramatically indicate both "airstrike on paltima" OR "paltima's airstrike" because of the omission of particles. this is common in korean because you will often know and figure out what is really meant by the context of the conversation alone.

however, the bottom text in the picture clearly states that it was "izmael" who is kidnapping korean citizens and the illustration behind the anchor (! really only requires knowledge of hangul to see this) shows an arrow pointing from izmael towards paltima - it's clear what they are implying here. with these three things - and korean as a contextual language - in mind, the assumption that the drama is indirectly trying to condemn the genocide would make more sense. unfortunately misunderstanding through mistranslations can be the crux of korean (and any other non-english) pop-culture reaching foreign audiences, and it looks like that's pretty much what happened here.

Regardless, in my opinion, I think it would be better to just leave out real-life conflicts, especially sensitive ones, out of fictional dramas, to prevent backlash like this. 

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