PD Jo Sung-hyun stated in a statement on the 20th, “When I think about the current situation I am in, it is very devastating,” and “However, I will continue to fight.”
Previously, Mapo Police Station in Seoul sent PD Cho to the Seoul Western District Prosecutors’ Office on charges of violating the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment, etc. of Sexual Crimes (Sexual Violence Punishment Act) for the fact that the bodies of female JMS believers appeared without mosaics in ‘I Am God’.
Regarding this, PD Cho said, “The scenes mentioned by Mapo Police Station have a high level of mosaic applied to the faces, as can be seen in the current production,” and “In order to maintain the public interest of exposing the abnormality of pseudo-religions and for the sake of realism, we did not apply mosaics to the bodies. ‘I Am God’, which was produced in this way, was released after undergoing a rating review and decision by the Film Rating Board.”
He continued, “JMS filed for an injunction to prevent the work from being released, but the court allowed the work to be released.” He continued, “As a result, the truth about JMS was revealed, public outrage was generated, and the dark truth was revealed to the world.”
PD Cho said, “Mapo Police Station, through their recommendation for indictment, is comparing the public interest gained by ‘I Am God’ to be minimal and the private interests of JMS zealous believers are greater by referring to the scenes that were aired with faces and voices altered.” He added, “Furthermore, they are branding me, the PD who shed light on the JMS case, a sex offender and ‘I Am God’ as pornography.”
He added, “Since the release of ‘I am God,’ half of all JMS believers have left the church, and Jeong Myeong-seok has been arrested so he can no longer commit additional sexual crimes.” He also said, “South Korean society has once again come to recognize the seriousness of the problem of pseudo-religions.”
Meanwhile, ‘I Am God’ is an 8-part Netflix documentary released on March 3rd of last year. It caused a huge social stir by dealing with pseudo-religions such as JMS, Odaeyang, Agadongsan, and Manmin Central Church. It became the first documentary to rank first in the Netflix Korean TV series category within 3 days of its release, and ranked 5th in the Netflix TV viewing time top 10 non-English language category in the second week of its release. PD Cho received the Presidential Citation at the 2023 Republic of Korea Content Awards for the documentary.
‘I am God’ was criticized for being provocative because it included sexual assault and nude footage of female believers in parts 1-3 of the JMS episode, and a video of a death scene in part 4 of the Odaeyang episode. JMS applied for an injunction to ban the screening, but the court dismissed it. Agadongsan also applied for an injunction to ban the screening, but it was ultimately dismissed.
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2024-08-21 05:11:05