Oh Yeon Seo and Choi Jin Hyuk’s upcoming K-Drama Positively Yours is facing major backlash for dramatically changing the original webtoon’s storyline.
The original web novel centers on Jang Hee Won, a high school teacher who unexpectedly gets pregnant after a one-night stand with a school board chairman. The school setting and teacher’s struggles are core to the plot.
The drama, however, shifts to a corporate backdrop. Oh Yeon Seo’s character is now a career-driven woman who’s given up on marriage and kids to focus on work. She becomes pregnant after a one-night stand with the CEO of an affiliate company.
This major plot and character shift has fans furious on X (formerly Twitter), accusing the production of betraying the original story’s essence. Many call it thinly veiled propaganda pushing South Korea’s falling birth rate agenda.
“So what’s the point of adapting this webtoon then? Her being a teacher was central to the story, the pregnancy, the struggles, everything tied into that. Now they aged them up, changed the plot and personality….” — nedendedi
“This change is genuinely horrifying they’re really pushing a child onto a willfully childfree career oriented woman. in the current political context of sk this is….. concerning.” —
“i know a birth rate propaganda when i see it” — lia
“Why would they change it like that???? Her being a teacher is part of the webtoon’s charm to begin with but having a woman as a businesswoman give up her work to have a baby is INSANE, especially to spread that in SK considering how misogynistic it is there.. irresponsible” — kay?
The production is still in early stages, but the strong reactions show Positively Yours is already off on a rocky path. Monitoring the situation as fans keep calling out these big storyline changes.
