Shin Hye Sun, Ahn Bo Hyun’s See You In My 19th Life’s latest episode has a scene that caused many Iranian viewers to flood Netflix Korea’s Instagram posts.
In an earlier episode of See You In My 19th Life, there is a scene where Shin Hye Sun and Ahn Bo Hyun’s characters are discussing the number of languages the former understands. He comes to know that she can speak Arabic as well. While questioning that, Shin Hye Sun delves into her past as a 10th century Arab chemist in her 4th reincarnation. It seems she created ‘Arak’ which traveled across the world and became various alcoholic beverages like vodka and the Korean soju.
The reaction:
Seeing this, the Iranian viewers found it an insensitive and inaccurate description of events. According to the history of Iran, the first alcohol was created by the Iranian chemist Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī or Razi. According to historical evidence, he was also credited for discovering sulphuric acid and ethanol. Seeing the scene in the drama, many Iranian viewers went to Netflix Korea’s Instagram page to talk about how the makers have not done their basic research to confirm storylines like this. One said, “The discoverer of alcohol was Mohammad Zakaria Razi, he is Iranian, not Arab. Please do not distort our history or use someone else’s name.” While another said, “We Iranians have great respect for Korean television programs. But it is definitely not right to steal Iran’s history and make it appear in a different way. The discovery of alcohol has nothing to do with the country of Saudi Arabia!!!” The makers of Netflix Korea have not yet responded to the accusations of the Iranian viewers but each See You In My 19th Life posts on Netflix’s IG is flooded with comments similar to these.
See You In My 19th Life:
In 33 countries around the world, See You In My 19th Life ranked among the top 10 Netflix TV shows (including content in English and non-English). Additionally, Netflix placed sixth based on non-English television series in the official ranking it released on August 28. Korean crowd evaluations are additionally proceeding to increment. tvN’s ‘See You In My 19th Life’ began on June seventeenth with a normal of 4.9 percent and a limit of 6.0 percent for households in the metropolitan region, and a normal of 4.3 percent and a limit of 5.3 percent for families across the country.
