(Next Entertainment World)

Gong Yoo’s interview from 11 years ago has resurfaced after the Joongang Ilbo, a local daily, reported the actor’s remark on former President Park Chung-hee.

In his 2005 interview with fashion magazine Vogue Girl, the actor picked his father, retired basketball player Michael Jordan and former President Park Chung-hee as the most respectable male figures.

The interview had left some local fans “disappointed,” along with arguments that he “advocated the dictator and lacked awareness in Korean history.”

Such controversy came amid arguments that the recent hit movie “Train to Busan,” which Gong starred in, tried to show incompetence of Korean political leaders and the government.

“We can see an analogy in ‘Train to Busan,’ which is seemingly a horror movie, but underneath is criticizing the dysfunctional government that misleads the public and fails to cope with national insecurity,” a progressive critic was quoted as saying in a Chosun Ilbo news report in July.

A column from Kyunghyang Shinmun Monday viewed disasters in “Train to Busan” as being “ubiquitous.”

The controversy drew mixed reactions among Korean online users. Some said Gong‘s political affiliation is his private matter, while some others said former President Park was “more than a dictator.”

Political clashes that involve movies are not new in Korea. Hong Joon-pyo, governor of South Gyeongsang Province affiliated to the ruling Saenuri Party, denounced film critics for giving low ratings to homegrown war movie “Operation Chromite” in his Facebook post in July, while the critics labeled the movie as nationalistic and an anachronistic piece.

By Son Ji-hyoung (json@heraldcorp.com)