Descendants sue moviemakers for depicting their ancestor as a villain

Descendants sue moviemakers for depicting their ancestor as a villain. September. 16, 2014 06:16. .

The descendants of Admiral Bae Seol (1551-1599) who was depicted as a villain in the Korean movie “The Admiral: Roaring Currents ("The Battle of Myeongnyang" in Korean)” sued the movie makers to police because they described Bae as a bad guy without a historical fact check.

An emergency committee of the Bae family clan indicted three people – Kim Han-min, the producer and director of the Korean movie, Kim Ho-gyeong, a writer, and Jeon Cheol-hong, a screenwriter – for defamation charges.

In the movie, Admiral Bae had his man assassinate Admiral Yi Sun-shin and attempted to burn the admiral’s Geobukseon or turtle ship. A scene shows that he runs away alone on a boat and is eventually hit by an arrow shot by Geoje Governor Ahn Wee. Bae’s descendants claimed that the “movie makers added false information in the movie.”

The clan’s emergency committee said that Bae ran away after landing on a land with the permission of Admiral Yi to cure his illness, around 15 days before the Battle of Myeongnyang in 1597, according to the admiral’s “War Diary” and the "Records of King Seonjo." He was captured and beheaded by General Kwon-yul in Gumi, his hometown in 1599. In 1605, Bae recovered his fame as a deserving retainer for his contribution during the Japanese invasion in 1592 (Imjin Waran).

Bae Yun-ho, the emergency committee’s spokesman, said, “Although Admiral Bae did not participate in the Battle of Myeongnyang, the movie described him differently from the historical fact and his name was defamed and his descendants are suffering. We expected a heartfelt apology from the movie makers, but they did not make one at all. This is why we sued them.”

It is estimated that Bae’s descendants are numbered around 100,000. Some 70 households live in the clan village in Seongju County, North Gyeongsang Province.