Writer So Jae-won vows to cast only independence activist descendants after Ha Young's pro-Japanese ancestor controversy

Screenwriter So Jae-won will cast descendants of Korean independence activists in all her future works. She made the announcement in direct response to actor Ha Young's recent television appearance.

On the 7th, Ha Young appeared on KBS2's Oktapbang-ui Munje-a-deul and told viewers, "My family has been doctors for four generations starting from my great-great-grandfather." Ha Young's great-great-grandfather Ahn Sang-ho has records of pro-Japanese group activities and pro-Japanese statements during the Japanese colonial period.

So Jae-won responded sharply. "I have lived and lived, and now I even see pro-Japanese collaborator ancestors being boasted about," she wrote. She invoked Sorok Island: "At Sorok Island, medical practice was a means of survival" — reframing the boast as an erasure of painful history. The real issue, she argued, was structural. "It is because history failed to punish pro-Japanese acts."

Her response extended beyond criticism. So Jae-won said she had previously stayed out of casting decisions because it felt like taking away others' dreams. Now that changes. "To summarize simply, from now on my works will unconditionally feature descendants of independence activists," she said.

She also mentioned actor Choi Bul-am, son of independence activist Choi Cheol, who made his final drama appearance in one of her works. (Both a tribute and a statement of intent.)

"Proper respect and admiration for descendants of independence activists must necessarily be differentiated from descendants of pro-Japanese collaborators," So Jae-won wrote. She wants to "lead the way" as someone who holds a pen in making independence activism a legacy of prosperity and respect across generations.