'Marathon' Director: "Stop Making Ju Homin a Villain and the Annihilation Campaign"

"Need to Find the Real Villain in Structural Contradictions and the System"
"Consider Significantly Expanding Special Schools and Increasing Budget"

Webtoon artist Joo Ho-min has sparked controversy by suing a special education teacher who taught his son on charges of child abuse. In response, Jung Yoon-chul, the director of the film Marathon, stated, "We need to stop excessive villainization."

Movie Poster of "Marathon"

Director Jung wrote on his Facebook on the 31st of last month, "As the director of Marathon, I hope the media and public opinion will focus on stopping the excessive villainization of a certain webtoon artist to the level of myeolmunjihwa (a calamity that causes a family to disappear) and instead work towards significantly expanding special schools and increasing budgets so that many children with developmental disabilities, including his son, can attend school comfortably near their homes."

He added, "I also hope this will serve as an opportunity to reconsider the chronic NIMBY phenomenon where parents of children with disabilities are forced to kneel and beg as neighbors frantically oppose the establishment of special schools, fearing a drop in property values."

Webtoon artist Ju Homin. [Photo by Yonhap News]

He continued, "Otherwise, like the webtoon artist’s nickname 'Destroyer,' all the social efforts made to raise awareness about people with developmental disabilities will be in vain," expressing concern that "many Chos in this land (the protagonist’s name in the film Marathon) are at great risk of being stigmatized as potential criminals."

Finally, Director Jung said, "While the rights of teachers are important, I believe the media has a duty to always investigate the underlying structural contradictions and the real villains within the system," adding, "We have seen enough of the meaninglessness and tragedy of the struggle between the oppressed in the film Parasite."

Earlier, in September last year, Mr. Joo reported special education teacher A, who taught his son with developmental disabilities, on charges of child abuse. Mr. Joo raised concerns about inappropriate remarks made by teacher A during the process of separating his son from an integrated class (a class where general students and special needs students learn together) to a special class after his son exhibited sudden behaviors such as pulling down his pants in front of female students.

Mr. Joo placed a recorder in his son’s school bag to record conversations with the teacher and proceeded with the lawsuit, which eventually led to teacher A being suspended from duty. Following the controversy, the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education reinstated teacher A on the 1st of this month.

Movie still from "Marathon".

On the 2nd, Mr. Joo posted a statement on his YouTube channel, saying, "Our response was intended to hold the teacher accountable for actions related to my child, and was never directed against special education teachers who work diligently in the educational field alongside children with disabilities," adding, "I deeply regret not fully understanding the difficulties teachers face and will reflect on this pain throughout my life."

Meanwhile, the 2005 film Marathon depicts the story of Chowoen (played by Jo Seung-woo), a 20-year-old man with the intelligence of a 5-year-old, who challenges himself to run a marathon. At the time, Marathon was a box office success, attracting a cumulative audience of 4.19 million viewers.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.