The production team of Boys racket apologized for a recent episode of the South Korean drama which Indonesian viewers called offensive and “disappointing”.
The sports-themed show, now in its first season and broadcast worldwide on Netflix, tells the story of a boys badminton team in Haenam, a small county in South Korea. In its fifth episode, which aired on June 14, the team of players traveled to the Indonesian capital of Jakarta for an international competition.
According to Coco Jakarta, viewers criticized the events of the episode for portraying Indonesians in a bad light, Boys racket The characters complain that their visit was compromised by the unprofessional behavior of Indonesian tournament officials, including the unfair treatment of the South Korean team.
The coach of the South Korean team even suspects the Indonesian team of conspiring against their star player, saying that the Indonesian team “wanted to win against her no matter what.”
Representation led Boys racket viewers and other Indonesian Internet users to share their observations and criticisms on social networks.
Since many tweets originally criticizing #RacketBoys are deleted / private: the focus is not on the fact that they won over the other teams, it is that they have hinted that “this is not the first time” Indonesia mistreats his guests, cheat during the competition and the fans have no manners. https://t.co/Pz7aUyj4YN pic.twitter.com/j7P4kz3tR8
– d.🌱💜 (@hannagyeongs) June 16, 2021
Snowshoe Boys eps 5 menggambarkan Indonesia:
✔ï¸Penginapannya jelek.
✔ï¸Mau menang dgn segala cara.
✔ï¸Menempatkan tim Korea latihan di GOR tua tanpa AC. Sedangkan tim Indonesia latihan di lokasi pertandingan.Yg paling ngeselin, di final, pemain Indonesia dibantai 9-21, 7-21.
– A. Ainur Rohman (@ainurohman) June 17, 2021
Am I the only one who notices that the way the Racket Boys describe their game in Indonesia is not welcome?
As the coach said
“The hall is a mess, they train in a good stadium while we have to train in a run down place without air conditioning”
The assistant coach said it was not the first time.– Tasa (@highness_sip) June 15, 2021
About the racketeering boys’ prejudices about Indonesia, I feel a little hurt. As an Indonesian who watches and supports badminton myself, I am now the very loud Indonesian badminton audience, but as far as I know we don’t do this to athletes from other countries ðŸ™
– May (@maysdramas) June 16, 2021
Fans have also since left comments of disapproval and outrage on the Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS) network’s social media accounts. Many expressed disappointment and some said they had “lost respect” for SBS.
“[The] The Indonesian badminton team is not fictional unlike all your dramatic plot lol, â€one commenter wrote on an SBS Instagram post recapping the episode.
They continued, “If you have anything against certain parties, please approach the issue with respect instead of putting their country’s name on your internationally renowned media. [sic] the purpose of the defamation, however subtle the allusion. It can be seen as racist knowing that this is NOT the first time that we have been wronged which is even more of why we are upset.
In the comments section of the same article, SBS issued a formal apology, written in Bahasa Indonesia, to fans of the show’s production team.
“We, from the production team of Boys racket would like to apologize for the match shown in episode five, we didn’t want to degrade any particular country, player or audience. Despite this, we apologize for a number of scenes that offended our Indonesian audiences. We will follow closely the next episodes â€, we read in the apology, translated by Coco Jakarta.
Produced by the company Panoramic entertainment, Racket Boys Premiere on SBS TV in South Korea and Netflix internationally on May 31. The show stars Kim Sang Kyung, Oh Na Ra, Tang Jun Sang and Son Sang Yeon.
