One of my favorite quotes by Winston Churchill about Success says, "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts." And I must say this really resonates with the entertainment industry at large and all over the world. I mean, with the way they get criticized and even forced to take down some content for various reasons, it can be discouraging, but they keep going, and some of them keep waxing stronger even in the face of these challenges.

The Korean entertainment industry is one of these exceptional industries that still stands strong, and I am sure you'll agree with me. However, they have their own “trying times” as well. Sometimes, K-dramas get criticized and even rejected in Korea.

Here are 5 K-dramas that either got heavily criticized or banned in Korea.

Mr Queen

Synopsis: The drama is about Queen Cheorin finding herself with the soul of a modern-day man inside her body, and King Cheoljong striving to be a king who helps his people.

‘Mr Queen’ is one K-drama I hesitated to watch several times. Although it was for a personal reason, another reason was the few comments I read heavily criticizing this series. This drama was accused of distorting history as it’s a drama that used real historical events as its base but digressed a bit from the historical facts.

Nevertheless

Synopsis: The intoxicating charm of a flirtatious art school classmate pulls a reluctant love cynic into a friends-with-benefits relationship.

If you’ve not watched this series, I think you should be able to guess the reason its first two episodes were banned. Straight to the point, the whole series was at the risk of getting banned because of its first two episodes that contained adult scenes, but the first two episodes were later banned and the rest were allowed to air.

King Eternal Monarch

Synopsis: The series tells the story of Emperor Lee Gon of the Kingdom of Corea, who discovers a portal to a parallel world and becomes embroiled in a battle to protect his kingdom and the woman he loves

I must confess that this series is not my absolute favorite because I have reservations about it. Nevertheless, it has absolutely nothing to do with the reason for the ban in Korea. By now, you must know about the strained relationship between Korea and Japan because of the Japanese colonial rule in Korea. Koreans will have nothing to do with a K-Drama complimenting Japan in their country so it's only normal for controversies to arise when this drama displayed a warship that used Japanese-like flags and also temples that looked like that of the Japanese, which subsequently led to the ban.

Joseon Exorcists

Synopsis: The series follows the story of King Taejong and his two sons, Prince Chungnyung and Prince Yangnyeong, and how they fight the evil spirits who come alive and must be exorcised to save Joseon. The founding rulers of Joseon have taken the help of the demons and the monsters to overthrow Goryeo.

Joseon exorcists is another historical drama that was canceled in Korea. If you are familiar with Korean culture, you will know how much they value their history and won’t have anyone tampering with it. I mean, not even themselves. This series was canceled just after two episodes because of its historical inaccuracies.

Snowdrop

Synopsis: Snowdrop is set in November and December 1987. Lim Soo-ho (Jung Hae-in) plays a graduate student who is found covered in blood by Eun Yeong-ro (Jisoo), a female university student who hides him from the government in her dorm room. However, it is revealed that Soo-ho is not who he appears to be.

This K-Drama was not banned. However, if you speak of high-rate controversies, then it's this series. It received both pre-release and post-release criticism, and even thousands of people signed a cancellation petition against it because they believed it was distorting history and also they were against the character profile of the main protagonist who was a North Korean spy. The appropriate authorities refused to ban this series after a critical review of broadcasting rights, and it even led to an undisclosed number of legal cases.

Everything has its good and bad, right? In the same way there are K-dramas that gain worldwide acceptance, love, and views, there are K-dramas that get none of those. However, the next time you watch a drama that satisfies you, remember it was the great effort of some people.

Let’s wrap it up by telling me in the comments about which of these K-dramas you think deserved to get banned or not and why you think so.